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3.7.3. Trends
More than half (54 percent) of the IT infrastructure
components in the SME segment
in Germany have already been moved into
the “cloud”. According to one study, this
translates to somewhere in the middle range
of this sector when compared with all of
Europe. Number one is Russia with 79 percent,
followed closely by Spain with 77 percent
and France with 63 percent. The Dutch
are currently still the most reluctant in this
area, with 40 percent.
Over 1,600 decision makers throughout
Europe from businesses with up to 250 employees
were asked about their use of virtualization
and cloud computing for a study
by the market research institute Dynamic Markets, commissioned by VMware. In addition to 204 mid-sized companies
from Germany, companies from France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Spain
also participated in the survey carried out from the end of January to the middle of February of 2011.
The cloud service used most often by midsized
companies in Germany is memory
outsourcing (68 percent). Applications used
in the cloud include e-mail services (55
percent) and office applications for processing
files, tables and spreadsheets (53
percent).
According to the study, the company
management in over a third of the
companies surveyed supports the cloud
strategy. This is a sign that German midsized
companies do not judge cloud
computing to be a topic that is purely ITrelated.
The management of those companies surveyed see cloud computing’s greatest advantages in not only lower
costs for IT maintenance (42 percent), hardware equipment (38 percent), as well as in reduced power costs (31
percent), but also in improved productivity and cooperation from IT personnel themselves. All in all, 76 percent of
German SMEs stated they achieved lasting benefits through cloud computing. Accordingly, about a third of the
companies surveyed are also planning to extend their cloud activities in the next twelve months.
Virtualization as a Prerequisite for Cloud Computing
A key technical prerequisite for providing IT services quickly and flexibly is virtualization. This was the opinion of
82 percent of the SMEs in Germany. Already 75 percent of the German mid-sized companies that were surveyed
have virtualized. This number is thus greater than the average for all of Europe (73 percent). Russia is again a
step ahead in this area with 96 percent.
"The technological basis for setting up a cloud environment is a high level of virtualization, ideally 100 percent",
according to Martin Drissner of the systems and consulting company Fritz & Macziol. “That’s the only way you can
guarantee that resources can be distributed and used flexibly.” According to Drissner, the cloud is not a revolution,
but the next logical step in IT development. Cloud Computing would simplify and speed up processes and also
lower costs. It is recommended that a private cloud, i.e. a solution internal to the company, be set up as a first step
to entering the world of Cloud Computing.
Reasons for Virtualization
Cost-related arguments for virtualization are moving into the background more and more. Where previously points
like reduction in costs for hardware (35 percent), maintenance (36 percent) and power (28 percent) were often the
main drivers for virtualization in the data center, criteria like higher application availability (31 percent), greater
agility (30 percent) and better disaster recovery (28 percent) are becoming more and more important, according to
the survey. In addition, the aspect of gaining more time and resources is becoming an increasingly higher priority
for those surveyed (27 percent), showing a desire to devote more time to projects that are more innovative than
just focusing attention on purely IT operations.
Page 94 of 156 © 08/2011 Reichle & De-Massari AG R&M Data Center Handbook V2.0