By Dan Berthiaume

Although cloud computing is still very incipient in Brazil, one local expert predicts a cloudy forecast for Brazil’s IT community in the next few years. Pedro Augusto de Oliveria, Brazil IT manager of global gold producer AngloGold Ashanti, says current private cloud investments by large companies will evolve into public cloud investments by the business community at large.

“The Brazilian cloud computing movement started approximately three years ago but focused on the private cloud,” said de Oliveria. “The public cloud was viewed as an expensive solution, low performance, and, mainly, with risks for the customers.”

Many Brazilian companies, especially larger ones, have already included cloud computing as part of their medium-term strategic IT planning and are starting to migrate to private clouds, according to de Oliveria. “The use of SaaS based on the cloud will be, without any doubt, the best solution for many companies in the near future.”

However, although de Oliveria sees the most important cloud applications developed by large Brazilian companies being based on the public cloud, he predicts that in 10 years, everyone will be based in the public cloud, which may result in data centers no longer being company assets.

In an earlier report here on Sourcing Brazil, Edileuza Soares cited a global study by Gartner showing that “the Brazilian CIO is the one most resistant to adoption of the cloud model in comparison to CIOs in the rest of the world.” IT managers in Brazil are the “most delayed in starting cloud projects,” and 80% have no cloud-implementation plans for the next three years, the study found. Most cloud opponents cited security concerns and lack of solid offerings by IT providers.

Gartner’s study reveals that IT managers in Brazil are the most delayed in starting cloud projects, and that 80% of them do not have cloud implementation plans for the next three years. Only 10% of them said that they have hired some type of cloud service. The reasons the CIOs pointed to for not being interested in the cloud are security concerns and the lack of adequate business offerings by IT providers.

Small City Infrastructure Encourages Public Cloud Development

Variance in the robustness of Brazilian telecommunications infrastructure is already encouraging private cloud development among companies headquartered in smaller cities. “The telecommunication infrastructure is robust in the metropolitan cities, such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and other big cities,” de Oliveria explained. “However, there are a lot of big companies with headquarters based in small cities, and those kinds of companies cannot move to the public cloud as the telecommunications infrasturcture is not [robust enough].

“Due to this, there are a lot of companies investing in private cloud and it is clear that this infrastructure is cheaper than the traditional model.” de Oliveria added that development of either private or public cloud computing is that it offers better resource management and potential savings in the short, medium, and long terms.

All About Risks, Costs

While de Oliveria credits cloud computing as offering Brazilian companies many benefits, he says the link between the USA and Brazil is strong irrespective of how cloud technology develops on the Brazilian side.

“It does not matter if applications are based in American or Brazilian sites, systems performance will not be impacted significantly,” he said. “Global companies are focusing on the business solution without worrying about the capacity for processing of the information, or even in which country the applications will be installed. The concerns are now about risks, appropriate costs, and compatible performance demands from the business.”