Recently, a number of provocative articles have turned up, questioning the enterprise utility of private clouds (Why You Really, Truly Don’t Want a Private Cloud, Zap Think) and public clouds (Why the Public Cloud is a Big Fat Enterprise #Fail, CA blog). While it is not possible to review the arguments and counter-arguments in this brief space, suffice it to say that both arguments have merits, but turn on matters of definition rather than upon issues of usage. Private Clouds, it is said, do not provide the elasticity available in the public cloud and also require a large investment in infrastructure, so they are not really useful for meeting enterprise goals of cost savings and availability. Public clouds are said to lack management capabilities, security, and other controls, and so are not adequate for the enterprise, are often blacklisted, and will not figure in the future of enterprise IT.

The problem with both of these arguments is that they are demonstrably false. Private clouds are indeed being used successfully, in a variety of formats which resolve the scaling issue and, therefore, the infrastructure cost issue. Public clouds are indeed being used by the enterprise for a variety of purposes, and our research demonstrates an increasing interest in this technology, particularly within the large enterprise. So, why do we continue to see suchissues raised other than to spark discussion?