Gartner says cloud hype reaching highest level yet

Gartner has said the hype around cloud has reached its highest levels to date this year.

The analyst firm claimed cloud computing is among the emerging technologies that have moved into the "Peak of Inflated Expectations" stage of the cycle of acceptance and adoption that it charts using a proprietary methodology.

The 2011 Gartner Hype Cycle Report, which highlights the common pattern of overenthusiasm, disillusionment and eventual realism that accompanies each new technology and innovation, found particularly high levels of hype still surrounded private cloud computing technologies.

Jackie Fenn, vice president and Gartner fellow, said computing remained among those technology areas attracting ongoing interest and activity, alongside social media and mobile.

"Private cloud computing has taken over from more-general cloud computing at the top of the peak, while cloud/web platforms have fallen toward the Trough of Disillusionment' since 2010," she said.

Along with private cloud, Near-Field Communications (NFC) based payments, Internet TV and wireless power were the technologies Gartner characterised as being surrounded by a frenzy of publicity that typically generates over-enthusiasm and unrealistic expectations.

In the case of these technologies, Gartner said there may be some successful applications of a technology at this stage of the Hype Cycle, but that there are also typically more failures.

It did, however, also predict that cloud computing would prove to a transformational technologies that will hit the mainstream in less than five years.

One of Gartner's top analysts recently warned to avoid getting carried away by the hype and focus on whether cloud services actually provide value for their businesses.

Media tablets, in-memory database management systems and big data were some of the other technologies the analyst firm said would have a similarly transformative effect.