Canonical ran its sixth annual Ubuntu Server and Cloud Survey at the end of 2014. The survey aims to provide an overview of the enterprise cloud market, including emerging and changing trends, current challenges and technology preferences. It also tracks the adoption of OpenStack and Ubuntu as well as public cloud usage. This year, the survey was completed by over 3000 CIOs, managers, software developers, engineers and others from a wide range of organisations in different sectors. The respondents were mostly Ubuntu server and cloud users, who represent a majority of public cloud users, and are the largest group of OpenStack users. In the survey they revealed what their infrastructure looks like, how it’s being managed and what it’s being used for. Here is a summary of the findings.

1. Ubuntu Server and Cloud Survey
January 2015

2. All Things Cloud
Gartner says cloud
computing, the Internet of
Things and software defined
infrastructure are among
the top 10 trends of 2015
* Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2014

3. The cloud is growing, but how exactly is it being used,
where is it growing fastest, and what are the challenges
to even greater adoption?
We surveyed 3,100 Ubuntu Server and Cloud users globally, asking them what
their infrastructure looks like, how it’s managed and what it’s being used for.
Among many interesting findings, several themes emerged:
o Cloud adoption remains heavily weighted to private models, but hybrid
deployments are steadily on the rise
o OpenStack is climbing to the top as a cloud management platform
o The cloud is now being used for more mission critical functions
o Data growth and the software defined data center are two primary
drivers of cloud adoption

4. Cloud Infrastructure
Cloud models are changing as adoption grows

5. What type of cloud infrastructure are you using?
22.8%
35.5%
20.0%
21.7%
Public
Private
Hybrid
None

6. What type of cloud infrastructure do you
expect to build in the next 12 months?
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
Public Private Hybrid None
31.3%
51.9%
40.0%
13.4%

7. Which, if any, public cloud
providers do you use?
21.1%
4.2%
2.3%
6.6%
30.0%
0.4%
1.9%
33.6%
Amazon EC2
Rackspace
HP Cloud
Azure
Google Cloud
GoGrid
IBM SmartCloud
Other (please
specify)

8. Google Cloud tops
the public cloud
provider options
Hybrid cloud is now
almost as popular as
public cloud
Open and
Hybrid are
key words
for cloud

9. Over the next 12 months, do you
expect to see a significant growth
in the use of cloud services within
your organisation?
55.7%
15.4%
28.9% Yes
No
Undecided

10. Which of the following will be the biggest hurdle
for your organisation’s further adoption of use
of the cloud in the next 12 months?
34.5%
26.1%
22.4%
2.9% 9.2%
4.9%
Security/Data privacy
Cost
Complexity
Compliance
Interoperability between cloud
platforms/providers
Other (please specify)

11. Despite cloud
growth,
challenges
remain
Security, privacy,
cost and
complexity are the
biggest hurdles to
cloud adoption

12. If you have built a private cloud, what
infrastructure did you use?
25.3%
1.1%
1.3%
2.3%
17.9%27.5%
17.5%
7.0%
Openstack
Eucalyptus
Piston
Cloudstack
VMWare vCloud
Have not built a private cloud
No plans to build a private cloud in the next 12 months
Other (please specify)

13. Cloud Functionality
The cloud is not just for dev and testing anymore,
but for mission-critical functions

14. Please rate the importance of the
following functionalities in a cloud
environment:
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Hybrid cloud (aka 'cloud
bursting')
Configuration Management Image Lifecycle Management Power Management
Not important Somewhat important Important Very important

15. Do you consider OpenStack ready
for mission-critical workloads?
64.5%
35.5%
Yes
No

16. Have you or do you plan to deploy
workloads of any type to a cloud
environment?
72.1%
27.9%
Yes
No

17. Do you consider Ubuntu a viable
platform for cloud based deployments?
72.6%
3.4%
24.0%
Yes
No
Undecided

18. More than 70% are
deploying workloads
to a cloud
environment
The volume
of workloads
in the cloud
is rising

19. What types of workloads have you
deployed on the cloud?
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
29.8%
16.0%
17.5%
52.1%
21.5%
41.5%
12.3%
27.7%
37.2%
10.2%

20. What types of applications/workloads
have you deployed with Docker?
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
40.0%
45.0%
50.0%
25.9%
19.8%
22.2%
49.4%
28.4%
44.4%
22.2%
16.0%
24.7%
2.5%

21. Docker is currently
being used largely
for databases and
dev and testing

22. Which of the following do you believe will be the biggest
driver of your organisation’s further adoption of the cloud
in the next 12 months?
31.9%
26.1%
26.4%
15.5%
Growth surrounding the Internet of Things/Marchine-to-Machine
(IoT/M2M)
Hyperscale computing
Software Defined Networking

23. The Internet of Things (IoT) movement is predicted
to increase the number of connected devices in the
world to more than 25 billion by the end of this decade.
Which of the following about the cloud do you believe
must change the most to support such growth?
43.1%
48.6%
42.0%
60.6%
7.2%
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
Interoperability between
public clouds
Ability to rapidly configure
new devices and services
in the cloud
Wireless network
bandwidth
Security & Data privacy
assurances/controls
Other (please specify)

24. However, more than
half think cloud
privacy and security
must be improved to
allow for IoT
The Internet of
Things is the
single biggest
driver of future
cloud adoption.
Hyperscale
Computing and
Software Defined
Networking are
close behind

25. For more information on the survey
Visit: http://insights.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-server-and-cloud-survey-reveals-
hybrid-cloud-sdn-and-iot-on-the-rise
Infographic: http://ubunt.eu/Survey