A recent Dell survey of IT professionals revealed that 47 percent of those responding viewed the cloud as “an extension of long-term trends toward remote networks and virtualization”, and while 37 percent stated that the cloud was in fact a new way to think about technology, these IT administrators were quite sure that their upper-level managers would feel quite differently.
Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed said that their senior leaders would perceive the cloud as having “immense potential”, while at the same time indicated that management executives were more likely to view the cloud as a passing fad.
What the survey showed, in part, is that there is still a great deal of confusion over not just the potential of the cloud, but what it means to both It professionals and those in senior management. For some, the cloud is the culmination of technologies that have been on the horizon for years, while for others cloud-based systems are more than the sum of their parts.
IT professionals, according to the Dell survey, tend to be more grounded when it comes to the cloud than they believe mangers are, and as a result are taking much cloud functionality in stride as a natural extension of their own work.
Still, concerns exist, with over 50 percent of respondents stating that data security was a barrier to cloud adoption, and 32 percent stating compliance would also be an issue. IT professional felt these numbers would be mirrored in higher management as well.
For companies like Dell, who are investing heavily in the cloud, it is worth knowing that not only technical barriers exist, but that there is also a potential disconnect between those who use the technology and those who fund it.
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