SaaS’ younger sibling just got an ego boost. According to Yankee Group, 24 percent of large enterprises with cloud experience are already using IaaS, and an additional 37 percent expect to adopt IaaS during the next 24 months. While adoption is still much slower than that of SaaS solutions, the market is gaining traction.

“Is IaaS Moving Beyond Just Cloud Fluff?,” a new report based on Yankee Group’s Anywhere Enterprise: 2010 U.S. Cloud Computing FastView Survey, uncovers adoption trends for this pay-as-you-go infrastructure solution, including:

• Expedited adoption. Sixty percent of enterprises considering IaaS in the next 24 months are actually planning to implement it in the next 12 months.
• Barriers to IaaS. The No. 1 barrier for enterprises considering IaaS adoption is virtualization security, but those that have already deployed IaaS rank regulatory compliance, data migration, reliability, employee use and quantitative benefits higher.
• Preferred partners. Though the majority of all cloud adopters view systems integrators as their most trusted partners for cloud computing (29 percent), IaaS early adopters say telecom companies are best positioned for cloud services (33 percent).

“The desire to adopt is there, but IaaS solutions and providers still have some barriers to address,” said Sandra Palumbo, Yankee Group research fellow and author of the report. “As adoption plans begin to mount, the time is now for service providers, systems integrators and others to solidify their solutions and address the lingering concerns around the cloud.”