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CFOs hesitant to invest in cloud: strategist

Development hindered by security concerns

Investment in cloud computing may be hindered by CFOs who are hesitant to allocate funding to SaaS projects, says a technology strategist.

Paul Kangro, applied technology strategist at Novell, said security concerns coupled with the view that cloud could be a waste of money has resulted in CFOs being sceptical of what the cloud can achieve.

“We’re given even more flexibility to do things but we’re regulated more than ever. The GFC didn’t help and now we’re finding people are asking more questions than ever,” he said.

Kangro said many CFOs are hesitant to invest large sums of money into cloud due to past investment failures.

“The CFO still remembers Y2K and what a rip off that was and now, we’re going to change toys by moving into cloud. As a result, they may see this as a waste time and money,” he said.

Kangro spoke at the IDC cloud computing conference in Sydney where he addressed a group of IT professionals on why management is important to the future of cloud.

“I need to have an end to end view of the system because the management is going to become more and more complicated," he said.

“Whether or not you believe the numbers, in 2010 we’re doing one thing in the cloud to get their feet wet. In five years time, most of this is going to be virtualised. To actually regroup and reshape, we need to start right now to make sure we can do virtual, private and public cloud."

As well as planning for cloud development, Kangro said it is important to have a long term view when developing cloud strategies, but was hesitant to agree with the Commonwealth Bank's cloud computing strategy.

“It really is going to take a while for cloud computing to do everything. I know the Commonwealth Bank think they are going to use cloud for everything, but I think that’s a long way off.

“What you’re going to need to do in the future is different from what you’re doing now. You need to worry about the security aspects of cloud,” he said.

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More about: Commonwealth Bank, IDC, Novell
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Tags: CFOs, cloud computing, cloud security, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, IDC Cloud Computing Conference 2010, novell, SaaS & Cloud computing
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