CIF lambasts Gartner over Hype Cycle

Market research company, Gartner, has received a public dressing down from the UK-based Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), and in particular its chairman, Andy Burton.

Underpinning Burton’s complaint against Gartner is the company placing of cloud computing, as a single entity, in its own well-hyped `Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies’, as now having passed through the so-called ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’, and now firmly established in the next stage of the Hype Cycle model, the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’. This, according to the Garner model, is characterised by widespread public disillusionment with what a technology is actually able to deliver.

CIF’s view is that Gartner’s inclusion of cloud computing in its annual Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies risks confusing the market and fundamentally misrepresents the state of the cloud industry today.

Responding to the report, Burton said that Gartner’s clumsy placement of ‘cloud computing’ on the model gives little accurate indication of market maturity and the growing acceptance of cloud here in the UK market.

“In the latest report, Gartner at least concedes that, `one dot on a Hype Cycle cannot adequately represent all that is cloud computing’,” Burton said, “so one has to question the logic of including it as a singular entity when in reality it is adopted in many and various forms. The seemingly arbitrary placement of the generic ‘cloud computing’ on a one-dimensional line risks over-simplifying both the technology and its impact on IT delivery, as well as masking the complexity in the supply chain and confusing the market.

“Although their Hype Cycle for Cloud Computing encounters the same issues, it at least gives a better indication of the varying states of maturity of the different deployment and service models available.”

He stated that saying cloud is in a trough of disillusionment is certainly false here in the UK. And if most industry opinion is to be believed, it is even less the case in the USA, which is one of the largest markets for cloud utilisation.

“Cloud services are now largely proven as offering viable IT deployment models regardless of organisational size, vertical or application area and as such will continue to improve in both capability and adoption,” he said. “Our latest research, which we will publish in September, shows that all signs in the UK are immensely positive; adoption rates stand at an all-time high and are set to increase further still, and satisfaction rates are going strong.

“A challenge that we face as an industry is one of a common definitions and consistent market education; misinformation is the biggest issue that surrounds cloud-based IT at this time. The liberal application of the term ‘cloud’ only serves to dilute its meaning and confuse the market, which in turn can inhibit the performance of legitimate and credible CSPs. To tackle this, CIF has been campaigning for the introduction of independent industry-wide standardised definitions of cloud services to provide end users with much needed clarity and to encourage adoption of best practice among providers offering cloud services,” he concluded.

It is the view of Cloud Services World that Gartner, like quite a few analyst businesses, is demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of cloud computing by viewing as a technological issue. In practice, cloud decouples the service functions – the raison d’etre for cloud existing - from any technology used to provide those functions.

If one looks at cloud in its wider context, the vast majority of users are already happily using cloud computing with their smartphones and tablets – using cloud delivered apps and services without too much sign of disillusionment. And these are fast becoming the user client of choice, regardless of where or how the services are delivered and consumed.

It seems reasonable to assume, therefore, that the Trough of Disillusionment, if it is present, is mainly to be found amongst established, major enterprises with extensive legacy infrastructures and well embedded legacy applications. For them then yes, cloud is largely hype. But for such businesses, trying to accommodate any new development – even an update to an existing mission critical application – is fraught with disillusionment.

The Hype Cycle model does fit well when a subject is considered from the technology standpoint. Most technologies start out with huge amounts of promise and, generally speaking, a rather poor capability of fulfilling it. Potential users start out excited and inevitably end up disappointed.

In the end it is often the case that the product finds a slightly different niche to the one originally projected for it, and can often end up successful.

With technology being secondary with cloud computing, the customer drive is now starting to come from a growing appreciation that they can target the service functions they require. Not only that, a technology capable of providing not only exists somewhere, but there is also a growing chance that tools now exist that can mash those services together to form richer, more targeted services.

What is more, those users are learning to understand and exploit the potential at the about the same rate as the technology and service providers are learning what can be delivered – they are in practice maturing together.

That is not a place for disillusionment amongst users: fear and doubt that their current service ideas might not work right, yes; surprise and insight as new possibilities emerge, quite possibly; but disillusionment is out of place.