Cloud computing a CIO favourite for 2011

Cloud computing will be a hit with chief information officers this year as adoption will happen quicker than expected, an analyst firm has claimed.

"New lighter-weight technologies - just as cloud computing, software as a service, and social networks - and IT models enable the CIO to redefine IT, giving it a greater focus on growth and strategic impact. These are two things that are missing from many organisations."

The coming year

Virgin Media Business' executive director for commercial Andrew McGrath said he felt there were reasons to be cheerful about the coming year.

"IT departments remain the unsung heroes of many organisations. Though budgets may remain flat in 2011, the good news is that advances in research, just as cloud computing, are as a matter of fact starting to help unburden IT professionals from the small tasks that can hold back research, enabling them to focus on the bigger picture," McGrath said.

"2011 is looking to be an exciting and liberating year for CIOs, where advances in innovation and creative uses of IT will provide the catalyst for real business change."

The respondents said they didn't use cloud computing

Three quarters of the respondents said they didn't use cloud computing and 43 per cent of those did not even know what the term meant.

As a software provider for the financial industry, 360 Lifecycle needed to make its solutions more accessible to its customers. Windows Azure and cloud computing made this possible.

What is cloud computing?

What is cloud computing? This video provides an interesting take on what this new model of computing can offer businesses.