Cloud computing is no longer a new concept, at least not to those of us who follow the mechanics of software development to any degree. But software application developers and their project managers and CIOs still appear to be largely concerned with the 'challenges' and barriers to wide-scale cloud computing roll out. Is this then another Y2K in the making?

Analyst firm Evans Data has this week introduced the results of its 500 participant Cloud Development Survey by describing the, "Concerns, intentions and current adoption [rates] of developers regarding deploying to and developing for public or private clouds."

This is hardly a positive basis from which to start. The report itself examines which workflows are best suited to moving to a public cloud first and the best tools and languages for cloud development i.e. we are some considerable distance from any commonly accepted best practice, let alone a set of de facto standards in this computing space.

So is the cloud a computing 'cure-all', or a conundrum of obstacles emanating from deployment, security and licensing considerations?

Quoted on InternetNews.com, Mark Jensen of Deloitte's National Venture Capital Services group suggests that, "The problem we've had with the cloud is that a lot of fundamental technologies related to security and privacy don't exist yet. All that is still to be developed. It's not here now, but it's coming and it's going to be about as important to business as Y2K was."

Whether there are enough parallels to draw between the inertia felt by the wider perception of cloud computing and the Y2K problem as we knew it is open to debate. What is arguably true is that wide-scale reinvestment in software and hardware may result from both.