Informatica Targets Hybrid Cloud Integration

The arrival of the cloud in the last couple of years has seen particularly strong uptake within the small to medium (SMB) sector, but now many large enterprises are recognising the benefits that the Cloud can offer and are actively seeking to incorporate it into their IT architecture.

This is according to Juan Carlos Soto, senior VP, Data Integration Product Division, at Informatica.

Informatica has traditionally made its name as a data integration specialist, but the company has also been offering its own cloud integration solution for a number of years now.

“Our cloud service has seen very fast growth since 2007,” explained Soto. “But now we are announcing a major new release of our Cloud integration service, known as ‘Informatica Cloud Summer 2011‘.”

Enterprise Cloud Adoption

“What Informatica Cloud Summer 2011 does is enhance our abilities in several new areas, but most importantly it is now an enterprise grade service,” said Soto. “The early adoption of the cloud was done by small companies renting infrastructure from service providers. This was sensible as it allowed them to gain access to powerful systems without the need for a hefty capex outlay.”

“But those same benefits (i.e. no need for hefty upfront investments) also apply to big enterprise class companies as well,” said Soto. “However they need more enterprise grade capabilities, so we have added features to make our cloud service more attractive to large enterprises.”

Informatica’s Soto also went on to admit that enterprise adoption of the Cloud is increasing rapidly.

“We are observing more and more enterprises adopting the Cloud,” said Soto. “Indeed we recently commissioned a study in Europe, where we asked European enterprises (including 1,500 enterprise organisations within the UK) how significant the Cloud is, as part of their overall IT strategy?”

“84 percent of enterprise respondents said the Cloud was a very significant part of their strategy going forward,” said Soto. “Enterprises are now acknowledging the Cloud, and that is a very big shift. Indeed, even the US Government now has a has a ‘Cloud first policy’.

The US government currently spends approximately $80 billion (£50 billion) on IT, but that $20 billion (£12 billion) of that spend could qualify for the cloud. He reckons that the US government could save between $6 and $7 billion (£3.7bn to £4.2bn ) by moving to the Cloud. “These savings provide big opportunities ahead for us.”

And Soto should know: he is one of the group of experts advising the Obama administration on the move to the Cloud.

Hybrid Cloud

But Soto also pointed out that for many enterprise organisation, what they are investigating is not a purely cloud-based model, but rather a hybrid approach.

“Even the most bullish companies adopting the cloud recognise it is going to be a hybrid world,” said Soto. “Most companies do not have the luxury of ripping out and replacing their existing IT system. So in reality it is going to be a hybrid world, where companies utilise their on premise systems with some cloud-based services.”

“The essential part of Informatica’s strategy going forward is to ensure we are a leading player for the hybrid approach with its mixture of technology. We believe we are the leading hybrid platform, as we present an unique offering on the ‘on-premise’ side, but can also offer the migration of assets between on-premise and the cloud.”

But what about enterprise concernsover cloud security, coupled with the recent outage at Amazon EC2 service? Surely that has dented enterprise enthusiasm for the Cloud?

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