Cloud computing is getting so pervasive throughout the enterprise that Gartner Inc. is predicting so-called “no-cloud” policies will become as rare as “no-Internet” stances in the near future.

Gartner’s report, Market Insight: Cloud Computing’s Drive to Digital Business Creates Opportunities for Providers, also revealed that more than 30 percent of the world’s largest 100 vendors are expected to shift their software investments from a “cloud-only” to “cloud-first” policy by 2019.

When an enterprise adopts a “cloud-first” policy, it means they’ll always consider the cloud option first when implementing a new application or software deployment. Gartner said this shift applies to both private and hybrid clouds.

The report added that hybrid clouds are set to become the most common use of cloud technology in the future. However, it notes that public cloud will inevitably become a part of this overall strategy.

“More leading-edge IT capabilities will be available only in the cloud, forcing reluctant organizations closer to cloud adoption,” said Yefim V. Natis, vice president and Gartner Fellow, in a statement. “While some applications and data will remain locked in older technologies, more new solutions will be cloud-based, thus further increasing demand for integration infrastructure”.

Gartner notes in its report that a significant number of enterprises still remain skeptical of the cloud, and therefore maintain a “no-cloud” policy. This is largely due to concerns around data security, privacy protection and compliance, Gartner said. However, the perception that the cloud is somehow less safe than on-premises data centers will eventually change, the analyst firm said.

“Many organizations with a no-cloud policy actually have some under-the-radar or unavoidable cloud usage,” revealed Jeffrey Mann, research vice president at Gartner.

Gartner goes on to say that by 2020, such policies will be “extremely rare” among enterprises – as rare as “no-Internet” policies are now. According to Mann, maintaining a “no-cloud” policy position will become “increasingly untenable” as time goes by. Already, some 88 percent of enterprises have already adopted a “cloud-first” strategy by the end of 2015.

Gartner listed three considerations for CIOs when it comes to creating cloud policies:

• Revisit your company’s assumption that its customers will continue to avoid the cloud, as cloud deployments become more widespread.
• Assume enterprises will increasingly accept cloud usage, so adapt your product and service strategies to this assumption.
• Work with customers to engage them with a cloud-first orientation and promote cloud services for the new capabilities that it could potentially offer.

“Cloud will increasingly be the default option for software deployment,” Mann said. “The same is true for custom software, which increasingly is designed for some variation of public or private cloud”.

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