More enterprises consider cloud computing a viable technology, with nearly 60 percent saying they view it as a business enabler versus less than 40 percent who say the technology will take years to mature, if it ever does. That’s a big change from 2009, when just 37 percent saw it as an enabler and 63 percent were taking a wait-and-see attitude or considering the cloud more marketing hype than reality.

A new report, “2010 FastView Survey: Cloud Computing Grows Up,” based on Yankee Group’s Anywhere Enterprise: 2010 U.S. Cloud Computing FastView Survey uncovers this and other enterprise cloud adoption trends, including:

• Private clouds win: Due to security and privacy issues, most enterprises (67 percent) prefer private/internal clouds to public cloud infrastructures.
• Google/Amazon envy: Enterprises want to make their IT cloud infrastructure like Amazon’s or Google’s, but just 17 percent say they view either vendor as a trusted cloud partner. Instead, 29 percent turn to systems integrators like Accenture, IBM and HP’s EDS, while 23 percent look to infrastructure vendors like Cisco and VMware.

“Cloud computing is on the cusp of broad enterprise adoption,” said Sheryl Kingstone, research director at Yankee Group and co-author of the report. “Because our survey breaks down the state of adoption and plans for platform-, infrastructure and software-as-a-service, it delivers great insights into the marketplace.”