Cloud computing: The next wave in IT

This is according to a Frost & Sullivan survey, commissioned by F5 Networks, that looked at enterprise views towards application delivery and cloud computing.

The survey found that CIOs and senior IT decision makers in Asia Pacific (APAC) recognize the importance of web applications in driving their businesses, and that their strong recognition of the seriousness of web-based attacks makes security a top concern. 

However, the survey also exposed a need for more awareness about the differences between traditional network-based vulnerabilities versus web application attacks as there appeared to be some confusion among respondents about the capabilities of network-based firewalls versus web application firewalls.

Also, the findings revealed a preference for utilizing more bandwidth to overcome web application performance issues. Since adding bandwidth does not overcome latency issues caused by physical distances between source and destination, this potentially means that the prevalent issue of application latency remains unresolved for many enterprises.

Song Tang Yih, VP, APAC, F5 Networks, said in Mumbai on Thursday: "Applications are the lifeblood of enterprises today, and it is essential that decision makers take the right approach that includes creating strategic points of control that give complete visibility. Whether application protection, high availability, or performance, the business objective can only be achieved when the solutions are part of an overall application delivery networking strategy that ensures full visibility and control of end-to-end traffic between users and application servers."

Survey Highlights
Interest in unifying application delivery capabilities on a single platform is high.

Seventy-three percent of CIOs and senior decision makers want two or more integrated features on a single platform. Top of their list are Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) and security.

Mismatch between the perceived enterprise needs and the corresponding technologies deployed

Bandwidth dependence and fallacies still exist. Forty-four percent believed that simply utilizing more bandwidth is the best way to boost application performance levels.

Application security is still not well understood.

Sixty-one percent believed that network firewalls can prevent web attacks, and twenty-three percent indicated that their existing IDS/IPS deployments are forms of protection against web attacks.

Cloud computing is viewed as the next generation application delivery channel.

Enterprises believe that cloud computing will increase their agility and scalability in a cost-effective manner. However, more than half cited security issues as a key barrier to adoption of cloud computing.

Topics of interest
Unifying application delivery on a single platform: India, China, Korea, and Singapore.

Bandwidth dependence ranked highest in India, China, and Singapore.

Security is the top application delivery issue in Singapore, India, and Australia.

Having a powerful network firewall is sufficient to make up for a lack of web application firewall according to respondents in China, India, Korea, and Singapore.

China, Korea, and Australia rank as the top three counties which consider security a key barrier to cloud adoption.

Cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS) are perceived as being the same thing in China, Korea, and India.