June 18th, 2009
Your Thoughts: How mature are cloud computing services?
Enterprise IT infrastructure & operations professionals have many cloud computing technologies to choose from today, and new solutions seem to appear all the time. What are all these technologies? How do you categorize them? Which are mature and which need a lot of work?
Forrester is kicking off a TechRadar on the topic and wants your input. A Forrester TechRadar attempts to provide clarity about the types of technologies in a given category and plot their maturity today and the pace at which it is improving, as well as the level of business value this type of technology will bring to enterprise IT.
Forrester defines cloud computing as: a standardized IT capability (services, software, or infrastructure) delivered via the Internet in a pay-per-use and self-service way. As a starting point, we have excluded Software as a Service (as Liz Herbert did a great TechRadar on SaaS already) and have carved up the rest of the cloud services into the technology categories below. Do we have them right? Are we missing any? If you have experience with any of the products in these categories (or others we didn’t mention) we want to hear your thoughts about them. How ready do you think these services are for enterprise consumption? Are they maturing quickly or is this area a wait and see?
Drop us a comment below or contact me directly at jstaten@forrester.com or on Twitter at Staten7. And thanks for your contributions to Forrester research.
Cloud computing technologies to be included in this report are:
| Technology category | Subcategory | Examples (not exhaustive) |
| 1. Infrastructure-as-a-Service platforms | Amazon Web Services EC2, The Rackspace Cloud, GoGrid | |
| 2. Software Platform-as-a-Service | Windows Azure, Google App Engine, Force.com | |
| 3. Cloud Infrastructure Services | Infrastructure IT services delivered from the cloud | |
| 3a. Storage-as-a-Service | Nirvanix, Amazon S3 | |
| 3b. Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service | SunGard Virtual Server Replication | |
| 3c. Backup-as-a-Service | Iron Mountain LiveVault, i365 Evault, IBM Business Continuity and Resiliency Services | |
| 4. Cloud Application Services | Application services delivered from the cloud | |
| 4a. Database-as-a-Service | Google BigTable, Amazon SimpleDB, MS SQL Data Services | |
| 4b. Cloud billing services | Google Payment, Amazon DevPay, Zuora Zcommerce | |
| 4c. Integration-as-a-Service | Amazon Simple Queuing Service, Boomi, CastIron, Informatica, Linxster, Online MQ, OpSource Connect, Pervasive |
|
| 4d. Business Process Management-as-a-Service | Appian Anywhere, Intensil, Skemma | |
| 5. Cloud Management Software | Appistry, CloudSwitch, Elastra, RightScale | |
| 6. Cloud Labs | Citrix C3 Lab, Electric Cloud, SkyTap, Surgient Cloud | |
| 7. Desktop-as-a-Service | Desktone, MokaFive, Simtone |
James Staten is a Principal Analyst serving IT Infrastructure & Operations professionals. He is a leading expert on x86 servers and server infrastructure, data center and server futures, cloud computing, and application-specific infrastructure trends and technologies. Forrester Research, Inc. is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 19 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, consumer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 25 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.
