CIOs' vision clouded by 'fake' service providers

More than 80 per cent of IT directors have found their efforts to move to the cloud frustrated by fake clouds' and a lack of product availability in the channel, research suggests.

A survey of 200 CIOs from a cross section of businesses demonstrated a problem of cloud' being used as a marketing term for services that are merely conventional hosting, infrastructure-as-a-service provider Elastic Hosts, who commissioned the research, claimed. 67 per cent of respondents has been offered fixed term cloud services, while 40 per cent had been offered services that were neither elastic, nor scalable. A further 32 per cent had found many products were not self-service, all of which are the key attributes of NIST's definition of cloud computing.

Richard Davies, CEO of ElasticHosts, told IT Pro sister site Cloud Pro his company commissioned the research as it had increasingly been hearing complaints around fake cloud' from its customers.

"We wanted to really get out and prove this is a problem among buyers and then try to ... clarify to end users what they should be looking for and what they shouldn't be looking for," Davies said.

"What we have seen more recently is the word cloud computing' has become so powerful and so much of a buzzword that large numbers of other vendors that, frankly, can't provide these capabilities have rushed in to rebadge their products as cloud," he added.

Davies believes buyers will not get the benefits they expect from cloud unless they understand what it is supposed to be, allowing them to identify true' cloud providers.

"[If] they can ask the right questions when they are buying, they will end up with a genuine cloud provider ... which means they will have a good experience," Davies said.

The research also revealed disappointment with the channel. 86 per cent said they would buy cloud products through the channel if it provided the services they need, however the majority have found it does not.

"It is clear that there is a growing appetite for cloud services and a good opportunity for the channel to make profits [however, it is] missing opportunities and driving business away," Davies concluded.