Computerworld - May 23, 2011

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RESEARCH RECAP

Survey: Big Firms Shunning Public Cloud Storage

FOTOLIA / GINO SANTA MARIA

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Analytics Can Focus Safety Programs

THE COMBINATION of data mining and predictive modeling can help companies reduce injuries on the job and save money, according to a report by Deloitte Consulting that was released last month.

Deloitte dubbed the technology “safety analytics” and said it can help a company focus its safety programs on the biggest hazards and the people who are most at risk.

The concept goes well beyond just looking at injury reports. Predictive modeling “can help identify potential accident sites and victims before incidents occur, allowing companies to put strategies in place that focus on prevention,” the report said.

For example, the report cited a national
waste management company that improved
its safety record after pulling together and
analyzing years of data on employees, com-
pensation claims and risk characteristics for
its industry.

Only 10% of large corporations are considering the public cloud as a place to store even their lowest tier of data for archive purposes, according to a survey by TheInfoPro, a market research firm.

The survey of 247 Fortune 1000 corporations was released last month. Asked about storage-as-a-service, 87% of the respondents indicated that they had no plans to use the public cloud, 10% said that they would use it, and 3% indicated that they weren’t sure.

Large corporations are worried about turning their data over to an external service; they’re also concerned about performance, said Marco Coulter, an analyst at TheInfoPro. “We’re seeing infrastructure in the cloud. We’re seeing applications in the cloud, email in the cloud, HR and CRM in the cloud, but [storage] is the piece that doesn’t make sense for them,” he said.

Coulter added that, given the survey results, it isn’t surprising that cloud storage vendors such as Iron Mountain, Cirtas and EMC have recently pulled back from the market.

Private cloud adoption was a dif-
ferent story, however, with most re-
spondents saying
they face virtually
no obstacles or
challenges when it
comes to deploying private clouds.