Prague, May 2, 2012 – In a recent IDC survey of government organizations in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE, in this case referring to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Russia), more than half of the respondents listed security concerns as the primary inhibitor of cloud adoption at government bodies. At the same time, the survey also suggests that IT professionals in government regard their security policies and practices as more than sufficient for handling cloud. This apparent contradiction points to the still incipient nature of cloud computing in the government sector in CEE, where more than 60% of respondents have no resources specifically assigned to cloud computing.

"IDC expects this to change in the next few years," says Jan Petruj, Government Insights research analyst at IDC CEMA. "PR and supplier promotions have done their job at the highest conceptual level, where the benefits of cloud computing are seen as pretty straightforward. The next step is addressing the myriad aspects that government bodies must simultaneously handle – data protection, legal requirements, cost, migration from legacy systems, budget cycles, election cycles, and so on – before the final decision to move to cloud is made".

The survey also reveals that:

• Data backup/archiving ranked as the function most suitable for private and hybrid cloud and the second most suitable for public cloud.
• Approximately 40% of respondents think cloud solutions could reduce data loss by reducing the amount of data stored on desktops and notebooks.
• IT management is currently the solution most frequently run from a cloud environment.
• Server capacity and collaboration applications top the list of planned cloud deployments within the next 12 months.

"It is important to bear in mind that the hype is much bigger than the reality for cloud in governments in CEE, as it is in Western Europe and Asia," says Petruj. "So while we expect that cloud's benefits will eventually win out and make it an important part of the IT ecosystem, it will take at least two or three years to establish a firm foothold in the region's public sector."

IDC's Business Strategy: Cloud Computing for Government: A View from Central and Eastern Europe, 2012 (IDC #CEMA18415) is based on a recent dedicated cloud computing survey intended to improve understanding of current cloud environments and cloud deployment models (private, public, and hybrid). The study focuses on government organizations in CEE and presents the major findings of the survey. It also examines the preferences of government IT executives regarding workloads and applications suitable for cloud, looks at cloud deployment models, and discuses future cloud investment plans.

To purchase the study or to learn more about IDC's research into vertical markets, please contact Tatiana Hinova at thinova@idc.com or +420 221 423 140.

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