The adoption and use of Cloud technology by organisations has been slow, particularly for large enterprises. There are a number of good reasons for this. The Cloud solutions currently available to organisations are not acceptable to most – a disparity exists between the potential benefits for Cloud and the present reality. Cloud services should be accessible when and wherever you need, and should be cost-effective, flexible and secure. Cloud solutions must deliver high performance, availability and security.

The major issues preventing the adoption of Cloud technology are due to the unreliability of the public Internet and legacy Cloud access solutions. The options for Cloud access today cannot deliver on enterprise requirements of data security and privacy – creating a clear disparity between the promise of the Cloud and the reality.

For Cloud to deliver on its promise, and enterprises to successfully transition to Cloud, enterprises need a network that is Cloud-ready. The network must deliver on requirements for seamless interoperability between different IT environments, whether private Cloud, on-premise, data centres or third party Cloud providers. The network should also ensure the secure data mobility between those environments, and deliver on the flexibility & scalability that Cloud services require in order to be truly enterprise-class.

Without this, the Cloud cannot deliver on its promise. The promise of Cloud centres on the very thing that makes it possible: the network. After all, your Cloud is only as good as your network.