Security has long been a point of contention for companies exploring their cloud infrastructure options, but there may be a new set of concerns that providers will need to address. One of the prominent issues that emerged in a recent Compuware Corporation survey is end-user experience, with researchers finding that 64 percent of the 468 chief information officers polled cited frustrations in this area due to performance bottlenecks.
"With cloud adoption topping the list of priorities for CIOs, companies are clearly seeing a benefit to the agility, flexibility and time-to-value that cloud services can deliver," said Bernd Greifeneder, CTO of Compuware's APM business unit. "But CIOs are right to carefully consider the impact cloud and third-party services can have on end-user experience."
Particularly given the fact that cloud hardware is becoming responsible for more mission-critical applications, providers will need to ensure their services are able to meet high expectations for workloads and performance. Compuware suggested that part of the issue may be a lack of monitoring tools to track software performance, which limits the ability of IT personnel to make informed choices about the resources they need to provision.
Commenting on the research, IT Business Edge contributor Arthur Cole warned that it is time for businesses to evaluate their cloud management strategies more closely. Just as with the traditional enterprise data center, it's critical for IT departments to keep track of storage and networking resources that are used.
Cole also proposed that cloud providers may be able to add value to their offerings by incorporating application performance management solutions into their portfolios. However, the question will ultimately be whether organizations find traditional or cloud-based monitoring software easier to implement and use.
