Indian firms not ready for cloud yet: Symantec

Indian organisations are not adequately prepared to adopt cloud computing yet mainly because of lack of skilled IT staff, according to a survey by Symantec, the maker of Norton security products and a cloud services provider.

"Despite a great deal of consideration, many organisations claimed that they are not ready to adopt the cloud," Symantec's 2011 State of Cloud Survey said.

While 70% of the respondents said their IT staff is not ready to move to the cloud yet, 16-24% rated their staff as extremely prepared for the transition to cloud.

"The findings of the survey are based on responses from 300 companies in India. Globally, 5,300 companies participated in the survey," Symantec Managing Director (Indian and SAARC) Ajay Goel said.

One of the main reasons for shortfall in readiness is lack of experience, as just one-third companies have cloud experience, he added.

"This gives a direction that people should concentrate on training of IT staff, before moving on to the cloud big time," Goel added.

Interest in cloud is high with over 80% companies discussing all forms of cloud, while 82% have adopted or are adopting some sort of cloud service.

However, only less than 20% organisations have finished implementation of some form of cloud services.

The top cloud services companies are adopting include email services, web and IM security, and virtual desktop.

Security is the priority for companies wanting to shift to the cloud. It, however, is also the primary reason preventing the companies from making the move to the cloud, Goel said.

"They are interested in what the cloud has to offer yet, when it comes to implementation, they are hesitant, primarily due to concerns over security of their information," he added.

Also, the organisations, which have implemented cloud technologies are not seeing the results they had anticipated.

"Eighty-five per cent expected cloud to improve their IT agility, which is their ability to launch services very quickly. But only 57% said that it actually did," he said.

Sounding positive on the growth of cloud in India, he said, "India is in an infrastructure building mode. Cloud will see huge adoption, mainly form SMEs, as it will eliminate the need for the companies to build infrastructure and reduce their costs."