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SANTA BARBARA, CA--(Marketwire -06/13/12)- Companies of all sizes view cloud computing as a strategic business opportunity. With the increase in the number of cloud infrastructure providers, businesses are now able to choose from a variety of options to align their cloud strategy with their specific business needs. RightScale Inc., the leader in cloud management, today announced results of a new market study of over 600 companies to uncover how businesses are approaching cloud computing and what priorities they set for implementing their cloud strategies.

"Cloud infrastructure now dominates as the architecture for 'the new IT' -- and companies big and small enjoy an unprecedented variety of options for deploying the best cloud solution to meet their business needs," said Michael Crandell, CEO of RightScale. "No one-size-fits-all approach will work for everyone, which is why it's important to choose a platform that will allow you freedom of choice now and into the future as you decide where and how to leverage infrastructure-as-a-service cloud providers."

Multi-Cloud is the Strategy of Choice for BusinessesWith adoption of cloud computing rising, businesses are becoming more sophisticated in their strategies for leveraging cloud technologies. More than two-thirds (68 percent) of survey respondents report that they are pursuing a multi-cloud strategy. 53 percent of respondents are pursuing a hybrid strategy that includes a combination of public and private clouds. Another 15 percent of respondents have a multi-cloud strategy that includes multiple public clouds, but no private clouds. Among the respondents that plan to use both public and private clouds, 55 percent prioritize their public and private cloud efforts equally, while 23 percent prioritize their private cloud initiatives and 22 percent prioritize their public cloud initiatives. 89 percent of the respondents report that public cloud will be included in their multi-cloud portfolio.

Customers often cite this multi-cloud approach as a key driver for choosing RightScale as their cloud management platform. "In order to make our customers successful, it is critical that we leverage the best in class solutions -- from public cloud, private cloud and even physical servers," said Sanket Naik, Senior Director, Cloud Operations at Coupa. "We are committed to zero downtime and seamless availability for customers to our platform. RightScale's multi-cloud support empowers us to customize our approach to the cloud to meet the business needs of Coupa and our customers."

Open Source Technologies Take the Lead for Private Cloud

Among the 64 percent of respondents who plan to include a private cloud option as part of their cloud portfolio, open source private cloud solutions are taking the lead. 41 percent of those respondents plan to use only open source-based private cloud options (CloudStack, OpenStack or Eucalyptus), while another 29 percent plan to use a combination of open source and VMware options. 30 percent of those respondents plan to use VMware-only based private cloud options.

"We've seen an explosion in multi-cloud usage in the market, and among our own customer base," said Michael Crandell, CEO of RightScale. "Many RightScale customers have already deployed multiple clouds, including private clouds, and those multi-cloud companies represent over 90% of cloud usage we manage. This means that cloud leaders are already using multiple clouds, and our survey shows that many more companies intend to employ that strategy. RightScale helps companies navigate and manage this complex landscape by offering support of eight public clouds and three private clouds. We are focused on continuing to evolve our platform and ecosystem to enable companies to take full advantage of infrastructure-as-a-service with more of the applications they use every day."

About the RightScale Cloud Market Survey RightScale polled 651 businesses of all sizes and from a variety of industries, between April and May, 2012.

About RightScale RightScale Inc., cloud management enables organizations to easily deploy and manage business-critical applications across public, private, and hybrid clouds. RightScale provides efficient configuration, monitoring, automation, and governance of cloud computing infrastructure and applications. Since 2006, millions of servers have been launched with the RightScale solution by leading enterprises including the Associated Press, CBS Interactive, Intercontinental Hotels Group, PBS, and Zynga.

RightScale is a registered trademark of RightScale, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Other product or company names mentioned may be trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

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RightScale Survey Reveals Hybrid Cloud Driving Multi-Cloud Strategy