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NEW YORK & RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–An international study on cloud computing infrastructure announced today by NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), the global cloud services provider and wholly owned subsidiary of NTT, revealed a high level of interest in cloud computing services that include a virtual network. The results of the study will be presented by IDG Enterprise jointly with NTT America tomorrow at the 2012 CIO 100 Symposium & Awards Ceremony at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. NTT Communications is a corporate sponsor of the event, which draws hundreds of CIOs and senior IT executives from around the globe to share their IT strategies for driving business growth, as well as honor the top 100 innovative IT organizations.
The Global Market Pulse: Cloud Computing Infrastructure Study, commissioned by NTT Communications and conducted by IDG Research Services, confirmed that today’s enterprises continue to be enthusiastic about cloud computing services and report high levels of satisfaction with the effectiveness of their cloud investments in enabling flexibility and improved scalability. However, among the most critical network performance issues around cloud adoption, the study found capacity limitations, possible downtime when changing network configurations and lead-time to change network configurations topped the list, with more than 70% of IT decision makers citing these as areas of concern. NTT Communications’ OpenFlow-based virtualized network services provide remedies for these issues, and further expedite cloud adoption among enterprise users. Cloud services that include a virtualized network don’t require physical location-based network configuration changes as they expand capacity, freeing enterprises from costly IT procurement for that purpose. By leveraging open protocols such as OpenFlow, virtualized networks enable enterprises to expand network bandwidth on demand, allowing them to pay for only what they need at any given moment. Changes to capacity and routing over virtual networks are made via software command, negating the need for physical changes at the location of the routers.
Taking a closer look at cloud services that include a virtualized network, the study shows forty percent (40%) of respondents worldwide report a high level of familiarity with virtualized network services, and that most respondents (91%) are interested in learning more after seeing a description of virtualized network services (53% extremely or very interested and 38% somewhat interested). According to the study, common drivers for using cloud services – performance, reliability, cost efficiency, flexibility – remain high on IT decision makers’ list of deliverables by a cloud service embedded with a virtualized network; however relatively lower expectations for network-related deliverables – such as better bandwidth utilization and simplified network management – indicate IT decision makers are still thinking about virtualization primarily as a technology for servers, not networks. The same trend is seen in terms of satisfaction with cloud investments. The study found that simplified network management is largely unrecognized as a cloud benefit, suggesting relatively low maturity of the technology. Given the gap between benefits of simplified network management and the low expectations / satisfaction levels for the technology, the research findings support NTT Com’s assertion that there is huge potential for businesses to realize simplified network management as the real benefit of cloud services that include a virtualized network service.
NTT Communications provides the world’s first commercial inter-datacenters and intra-datacenters virtualized network service. This virtual or software-defined network (SDN) allows for optimal flexibility in capacity control, and immediate changes of network configurations using switching software such as OpenFlow for simplified network management. Clients can leverage this new cloud infrastructure via a customer portal, a simple one-stop user interface that visualizes IT resource management for the cloud. NTT Communications’ seamless cloud services worldwide are supported by more than 120 datacenter locations and network coverage of 159 countries and regions. NTT Communications is one of the seven board members of Open Networking Foundation (ONF), a non-profit consortium dedicated to the transformation of networking through the development and standardization of SDN. For more information on the NTT Communications Global Cloud Vision please visit: http://www.ntt.com/global-ict.
Global Market Pulse: Cloud Computing Infrastructure Study Overview and Methodology

• The Global Market Pulse: Cloud Computing Infrastructure Study was commissioned by NTT Communications and conducted by IDG Research Services.
• The results are based on an online survey of IT decision-makers at enterprise companies (500 or more employees) that have adopted or are planning to adopt cloud computing services. Respondents were required to be involved in implementing IT services at their companies.
• The U.S. survey was completed among qualified members of the CIO audience. Non-U.S. surveys were completed among an international panel of IT decision-makers.
• Of the 17 primary industries represented, banking and financial services; technology; manufacturing, automotive, industrial; business or professional services; and hardware, software, networking, were among the top five industries represented among respondents.
• The survey was conducted between March 14, 2012 and March 23, 2012. A total of 300 surveys were completed. 100 surveys were completed in the United States, 100 were completed in the United Kingdom (UK) representing EMEA, and 100 were completed in Asia Pacific, Australia and China (APAC), split evenly between Hong Kong and Singapore.
• The margin of error for a sample of 300 is +/- 5.7 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
• The complete presentation is available at:http://www.nttcom.tv/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/NTT-Communications-CIO-Magazine-Survey-Results.pdf

Global Market Pulse: Cloud Computing Infrastructure Study Key Findings
Adoption of Cloud Computing: Game On!

• 61% implementing or testing cloud
• More than one-third (38%) of respondents worldwide have implemented cloud in one or more locations, and another 23% are pilot testing cloud projects.
  • U.S. respondents are significantly more likely than those in other regions to have already implemented cloud in one or more locations.

Third-Party Server Provisioning for Cloud Computing Services: Not Too Fast!

• A majority of respondents (53%) today are using, evaluating or planning to implement cloud services using company owned and third-party servers combined. However, currently one third of respondents (31%) are still using, evaluating, or planning to implement cloud services using company-owned servers only, with just 16% of respondents using, evaluating or planning to implement cloud services using third-party provisioned servers only.

Security Still Top Cloud Concern

• Security concerns and adequate in-house infrastructure are the top reasons for relying on company-owned servers to some extent. Fifty-eight (58%) of respondents cited security as their primary reason for not provisioning their cloud services using only third-party servers.

Common Inhibition: Shared Infrastructure

• An increasing percentage of companies (72%) are looking to use both third-party provisioned and company-owned computing infrastructure to support cloud computing services in the future.

Cloud Satisfaction — Flexible, Scalable

• Respondents report high levels of satisfaction with the effectiveness of their cloud investments in enabling flexibility (73%) and improved scalability (71%), but not in simplified network management (51%).

Network Performance Issues: Capacity Limitations, Down-time, Lead-time to Change

• Respondents identify capacity limitations (75%), possible down-time when changing network configurations (73%) and lead-time to change network configurations (70%) as the most critical network performance issues when evaluating, planning or implementing cloud services.

Cloud Services that Include a Virtualized Network Service: If They Know it, They Want it and Here’s Why…

• There is a high level of interest in cloud computing services that include a virtualized network service.
  • Forty percent (40%) of respondents worldwide report a high level of familiarity with virtualized network services.
  • Most respondents are interested in learning more after seeing a description of virtualized network services (53% extremely/very interested and 38% somewhat interested).
  • Among respondents interested in a cloud service that includes a virtualized network service, expectations are highest around performance level (57%), reliability (54%), cost efficiency (51%) and flexibility (50%) gains as a result of implementation.
  • Among respondents interested in a cloud service that includes a virtualized network service, expectations are lowest around better bandwidth utilization (31%) and simplified network management (24%) as a result of implementation.

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