Experienced cloud adopters see public cloud solutions as a significant improvement from their traditional on-premise counterparts, and cite the cloud's positive and strategic impact on their business and IT organization, according to a new survey:
-- More than 60 percent of cloud adopters say cloud solutions are better than on-premise in terms of availability, total cost of ownership, ease-of-integration, ease-of-deployment and time-to-value.
-- 83 percent agreed that cloud solutions have helped them respond faster to the needs of their business.
-- 29 percent strongly agreed that cloud solutions have changed the way they run their business.
-- Nearly 40 percent say future cloud adoption will be part of an overall business transformation, 65 percent say it will be part of an IT transformation.
Given the positive experience of cloud adopters, it may not be surprising to see that adopters label many of the most common fears about cloud solutions as "misconceptions." Twenty-eight percent of survey respondents say that cloud security is the number one misconception about cloud solutions, with integration challenges (15 percent) and lock-in (13 percent) coming in a distant second and third choice. More than 35 percent of respondents said IT leadership is the primary driver of cloud misconceptions, more than triple the number who called out traditional vendors (10 percent) or media and analysts (6 percent) as the driver.
Cloud adopters are more aggressive in their near-term and long-term adoption plans than what general market data indicates. Today, 22 percent of cloud adopters said they had more than 50 percent of their IT in the public cloud; and 68 percent expect to have the majority of their IT in the public cloud within three years. While nearly every analyst group predicts tremendous growth for cloud computing in the next three years, they're typically much more conservative about how much of IT moves to the public cloud in that timeframe.
IT has often been portrayed as on the sidelines when it comes to cloud adoption, with business leaders using cloud applications as a way to get around IT. However, cloud adopters paint a much different picture:
-- 70 percent of cloud adopters say IT was a driver in the decision-making process to move to the cloud, and nearly 80 percent expect IT will be a driver in the future.
-- 70 percent agree that cloud solutions have "changed the role of IT within the business -- IT is now seen as a true business enabler," and 40 percent strongly agree with this statement.
Security, compliance and manageability remain priorities for improving cloud applications, just as they continue to be priorities for existing, on-premise IT solutions. However, a new set of challenges are beginning to emerge with cloud adopters, including cloud-to-cloud integration, bringing information to mobile devices, and reducing SaaS silos. More than 73 percent of respondents selected each of these three areas as an important or very important priority. Overall, more than 65 percent of respondents said enhancing their cloud applications was a high or essential priority in the context of their broader objectives. Only 3 percent rated it a low or non-priority.
Comment from Chris Barbin, CEO of Appirio: Companies leading the charge on cloud computing can teach the broader market a lot about what's real, what's hype and what to expect when you move more of your IT to the cloud. Cloud computing is a highly valuable but disruptive technology, and the enterprises that will be most successful with the transition are those who can learn from the experience of others and look beyond the challenges of today.
About the survey: Appirio's State of the Public Cloud Survey targeted more than 150 IT decision makers at mid-to-large sized companies that had already implemented at least one of the leading SaaS applications or cloud platforms. Conducted by a third-party firm, the survey uncovered valuable insights from companies that have already begun their move to the cloud.
Contact: A free copy of Appirio's State of the Public Cloud report, including full data and commentary, can be downloaded here.
Contact: http://www.appirio.com
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