Survey: Enterprise IT Eager for ‘Hybrid’ Cloud Options 
A just-released Evans Data Corp. survey finds cloud computing set to rumble to reality in 2010. Evans’ Cloud Development Survey found 61% of developers expect to move ‘at least some’ IT resources to the cloud, and prefer a ‘hybrid cloud’ option that combines public and private cloud models.
A just-released survey of enterprise developers from Evans Data Corp. finds nearly two-thirds (61%) expect to move ‘at least some’ IT resources to a public cloud this year. But, few devs will go hog wild into the cloud, as Evans’ also found a whopping 87 percent say they’ll move “half or less than half” of their resources to the cloud.
Because of this mix of developer curiosity and caution, Evans’ survey finds the ‘hybrid cloud’ model is “set to dominate the coming IT landscape,” at least for this year. The survey found 60% of devs favoring a hybrid cloud, which combines multiple public and private clouds from both on-premise and outside a firewall.“
The Evans Cloud Development Survey polled more than 400 enterprise developers and was conducted November – December 2009.
Evans’ survey defines the ‘hybrid cloud’ as: An implementation which “mixes the use of an internal or virtualized company-specific private cloud with use of a ‘public’ cloud
“The ‘hybrid cloud’ presents a very reasonable model, which is easy to assimilate and provides a gateway to Cloud computing without the need to commit all resources or surrender all control and security to an outside vendor, "said Evans’ CEO Janel Garvin in a statement.
So, looking forward, what are some of the areas cloud vendors should be working on to get devs to go more than half-way into the cloud? "Security and government compliance are primary obstacles to public cloud adoption,” Garvin said. “Notably she added, using a hybrid model “allows for selective implementation so these barriers can be avoided."
What Developers Want, Expect from Cloud Adoption
IDN interviewed Garvin for a bit more insight into the survey and the types of developers Evans interviewed, and found that early cloud adopters want their move to cloud to be as hassle-free and seamless with their existing skills as possible. 
“The developers in our survey are typical developers who use standard programming languages like C++, C# and Java and currently target leading platforms. Most said they would prefer to use their existing tools and skillsets to develop for or in the Cloud and learning new skills is a significant barrier to cloud adoption,” Evans CEO Janel Garvin told Integration Developer News.
“We expect that vendors will recognize this and create extensions to existing tools that optimize for Cloud development and that this will promote cloud development amongst all types of developers,” Garvin added.
So, what are developers most interested in using the cloud for? Garvin shared some interesting Cloud Development Survey data:
“When asked what types of applications they would first move to the cloud, the largest plurality (31%) said client/server apps followed by databases and then collaboration/groupware,” Garvin told IDN. “Basically these are the same types of applications that developers work on in a non-cloud environment.”
Other survey highlights:
- More than half (55%) of devs say MySQL is the most popular database for public cloud projects.
- Nearly two-thirds (64%) of devs expect the cloud will extend to mobile devices
- Top vendors so far include: VMWare Microsoft and IBM.
The survey also explores these topics:
- Which languages will thrive in the cloud?
- Which programming models will dominate?
- What are the biggest barriers to adoption?
- What are the timelines for public and private cloud adoption,
- What are the real market drivers?
More information on Evans Cloud Development Survey, including full table of contents
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