CIF blasts Gartner over 'clumsy' cloud analysis

Industry body disputes Gartner's claims that cloud has entered the 'Trough of Disillusionment'

The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has lashed out at Gartner after it placed cloud in the 'Trough of Disillusionment' on its annual Hype Cycle.

The analyst measures the progress of new technology as part of its Hype Cycle analysis, and said cloud computing was well and truly past the 'Peak of Inflated Expectations' - a stage which comes after the 'Innovation Trigger'. Gartner said that in two years' time, cloud will have reached the 'Plateau of Productivity', along with virtual assistant and gesture-control technology.

Despite predicting that cloud will become an industry mainstay in a relatively short space of time, CIF chief Andy Burton (pictured) said Gartner's analysis of the industry was clumsy.

"To say that cloud is deep in a trough of disillusionment is plainly false here in the UK," he argued.

"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."

Burton added that soon-to-be-released CIF research shows cloud "adoption rates at an all-time high" in the UK, with high customer satisfaction rates to boot. He also questioned the validity of considering cloud as a single entity, "when in reality it is adopted in many 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," explained Burton.

Elsewhere on the Hype Cycle, Gartner pointed to big data, the internet of things and 3D printing as technologies at the peak of inflated expectations, and claimed speech-to-speech translation tech and 3D scanners are passing through the innovation trigger stage.