The CDW 2011 Cloud Computing Tracking Poll

CDW’s first Cloud Computing Tracking Poll surveyed 1,200 IT professionals in U.S. organizations* to determine:

• Where organizations are with cloud adoption
• What benefits are driving adoption
• What challenges still hinder progress
• Recommendations for how organizations can successfully implement cloud computing

In the survey, we defined cloud computing as a “model for enabling convenient, on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned.”

Throughout the report, we refer to “cloud users” as those organizations that identified themselves as implementing or maintaining cloud computing.

Key Findings

• While many organizations are using cloud-based applications, few have a formal adoption strategy for cloud computing
• Organizations’ assessment of cloud ROI shifts as they implement
• Security of data in the cloud is a top concern, but not addressed consistently
• IT managers anticipate spending no more than one-third of their IT budget on cloud computing within five years