More than half of IT professionals (51 percent) do not think their IT Service Management  (ITSM) processes are mature enough to effectively manage cloud-based services, and 26 percent believe their organizations aren't ready, while the remaining 23 percent are unsure, according to a new survey.

The global survey was conducted by ITSM provider Axios Systems. The survey revealed that only eight percent of organizations currently use their ITSM tool to manage cloud-based services; 19 percent think their current tool could support management of cloud services, but they have just not started to do so. About one-third (31 percent) of IT professionals indicate that their current ITSM tool would not support the management of cloud-based services; the remaining 42 percent of respondents feel unsure.

A significant number of respondents (28 percent) indicate that their organizations have already adopted a cloud strategy in one or more areas. Regarding future plans for cloud-based services, five percent of respondents have plans to implement cloud services in the next three months. Another 16 percent also have short-term plans to adopt cloud strategies in three-to-six months. With an additional 20 percent of respondents planning to roll out cloud services in six months or beyond, the market shows very clear signs of wide-spread cloud adoption. Only 32 percent expressed no current plans to adopt a cloud strategy.

Per the Hype Cycle for Cloud Computing report authored by David Mitchell Smith and published by Gartner on July 27, 2010, "Overall, we see the positioning of cloud-driven business and IT services as still emerging. However, the hype and momentum around the use of cloud-computing technologies will drive an accelerated pace and movement of cloud-driven business and IT services through the Hype Cycle milestones at a much faster velocity than other typical items that we normally track. As such, we believe that in less than five years, there will be major shifts and higher adoption ratios."

Markos Symeonides, executive vice president at Axios Systems, says, "ITSM and IT Infrastructure Library  (ITIL) play a critical role in managing cloud services. Many organizations we work with understand IT service supply chains and the need to fully view how their business services are constructed. These organizations must get an end-to-end view for all services, including cloud-based ones."