The IT Process Institute (ITPI) today announced the results of a research study that identifies the greatest predictors of success for private and hybrid IaaS cloud projects.

More than $40 billion will be spent on cloud services in 2012, accounting for about a third of IT budgets, according to IDC, yet 37 percent of IT projects fail. ITPI’s independent, vendor-neutral study, Private and Hybrid Cloud IAAS Project Success Factors, helps IT decision makers learn from the success of more than 143 participating enterprise organizations that deployed a private cloud. In the study, ITPI cross-correlated factors that impact cloud project success.

“IT departments are racing to get in front of their users’ demand for quick, easy and low cost provisioning through cloud services,” said Kurt Milne, Managing Director of the ITPI. “The study reports on success factors that are unique to top performers. We were surprised to find that top performers don’t focus on cost reduction or operational efficiency, but on higher level concerns like agility and scalability.”

The study found that including users before, during and after deployment was a strong predictor of success. IT departments need to solicit and build solutions around user requirements. Secondly, while IT departments want to leverage existing on-premise data centers, top performers were more likely to deploy a hybrid approach and start workloads externally and then bring them on premise for production. The “external first” strategy is an effective compromise between the need for business agility and the need for cloud security.

“IT departments aren’t accustomed to building products that compete with user-oriented services, such as Azure or Amazon Web Services,” said Milne. “The more successful cloud deployments build cloud services specific to user needs, even bringing in a product manager to help drive the effort.”

The report focuses on six attributes of cloud deployments including how enterprises typically measure the success of their cloud projects, the top challenges and where organizations should focus their proof of concept efforts.

Pricing and availability

The report explains what is working at top-performing IT organizations and how IT organizations can improve their cloud project success. A free white paper, “Private Cloud Secrets of Success,“ that summarizes key findings of the report, is available for download at http://www.itpi.org/white-papers/.

The full research report is available for $395 at www.itpi.org.

About the IT Process Institute

The IT Process Institute is an independent research organization that provides information for IT decision makers that seek the highest levels of organizational performance. Its mission is to advance IT management science through independent research, benchmarking, and the development of prescriptive guidance. ITPI enables data driven decision making which is grounded in the study of top performers and the practices that make them different. The firm’s shared research model is a cost effective addition to best practice frameworks and analyst services.