134
and will lead them to demand for more technical compatibility and
interoperability, as well as for well‐defined technical standards.
5.
Lock‐in policy of larger vendors
From inception the IT business market has been trying to fight against
vendor lock‐in. The rise of Cloud Computing services seems to put the issue
back on the table. The presence of lock‐in policies is closely related to the
absence of a neutral marketplace, since large vendors are interested and
even invest in creating a certain customer “dependency” on their product
environment, which leads to a closed market monopoly. This is opposite to
the interoperability and compatibility Cloud principles
6.
Fears regarding Data protection and legal frameworks
Cloud adoption implies data interaction between customers and Cloud
service providers. These functional and operational characteristics of Cloud
services put data protection and security issues as one of the priorities to be
analysed when considering Cloud adoption. Even though sources such as
Network World state that “security issues have dropped in importance”
55
comparing the market situation to a few years ago (an evidence of the
positive evolution of customers' confidence in Cloud services advantages),
data protection and security issues are still one of the most important
concerns preventing some customers from moving to the Cloud, and it is a
subject matter.
7.
Inability to test Cloud services before buying
For customers, being able to test products for themselves before buying is
an important requirement. It is especially important for customers to
perform security testing on Cloud services, since Clouds might be a sensible
target for hackers. However, conditions and conventions are still unavailable
for customers to test Cloud services for themselves before moving to the
Cloud.
Vendors rely on third‐party and independent testing entities to verify the
well‐functioning and packaging of their products. On the other hand,
Gartner points out that Clouds are “providers' most valuable property”
which makes them reluctant to allow access to potential customers only for
testing purposes. These circumstances present further evidence for the slow
take‐off of the Cloud computing market.
55
Network World, Inc.
Private cloud vs. public cloud vs. hybrid cloud. Nancy Gohring.
November, 2011.
‐
public‐hybrid‐cloud‐252337.html?page=1
.
Consulted on: 1st June 2012.
