Hybrid Cloud: Computing Model Of Choice Over The Next Decade

A global survey of medium to large organizations has found that cloud adoption rates remain steady in 2011, cloud adoption among public sector organizations will grow in line with commercial sector, finance/accounting is the most popular back-office function moving to the cloud ahead of customer relationship management (CRM) and human resources (HR), and enterprise applications will move to the cloud gradually over the next 10 years.

Summary of findings:

-- Cloud adoption rates remain steady in 2011. The survey revealed that "business living in change" (BLINC) are starting to invest more in cloud technology for core back-office functions, but that growth will remain steady this year. Thirty-two percent of respondents believe they will spend more on cloud computing this year, and 32 percent believe they will spend at the same rate as in 2010. Only four percent expect to spend less and 31 percent expect to spend nothing on cloud computing. Almost half of respondents (334) cited that they do not currently use any cloud applications in the back-office, and another third (222) said that between one and 25 percent of their back-office functions are currently cloud based. Potential for growth in the enterprise space is significant. Six respondents of different organizational size, geography and industry cited their back-office functions to be 100 percent cloud based.

The top three perceived disadvantages of cloud computing are: loss of control (51 percent), reliance on the Internet (54 percent)   and difficult to customize (38 percent)

The top three perceived advantages of cloud computing according to the survey are: easier maintenance (62 percent), automatic updates (42 percent), scalability (44 percent).

-- Cloud adoption among public sector organizations will grow in line with commercial sector. Despite a current low level of cloud adoption cited among 123 public sector organizations currently and relatively little planned investment in 2011, 25 percent estimate that cloud will account for between 25 and 50 percent of their back-office cloud applications 10 years from now, and 17 percent estimate it will be between 50 and 75 percent. The key perceived advantage of cloud technology according to the government sector respondents was easier maintenance while reliance on the Internet and loss of control were perceived as the main disadvantages.

-- Finance/accounting is the most popular back-office function moving to the cloud. Twenty-four percent of respondents already use a cloud application for accounting, ahead of any other function, according to the survey, while other back-office functions including supply chain management and manufacturing have seen little investment. Surprisingly, only eight percent of the survey respondents said they have invested in cloud based CRM technology.

-- Enterprise applications will move to the cloud gradually over the next 10 years. Organizations were asked what proportion of core back-office business applications were likely to be cloud-based 10 years from now. Just nine percent expect applications to remain 100 percent on-premises, while eight percent expect to be completely cloud based. A hybrid approach to cloud adoption appears to be the most popular model for the next 10 years at least with 83 percent saying they expect to have a mix of on-premises and cloud technology. 377 respondents expect <50 percent of back office applications to be cloud based in 10 years compared to 312 with >50 percent.

About the survey: The UNIT4 report is based on responses from 700 medium to large dynamic organizations based in 12 countries worldwide.The aim of the survey was to gauge views and plans relating to Cloud Computing from medium to large organizations worldwide that typically rely heavily on back-office technology to support them. Senior level finance and IT professionals from a range of sectors completed the survey in January and February. Organizations with 50 employees up to more than 5,000 are represented. Cloud Computing is defined as services or software delivered over the Internet. Back-office applications listed in the survey include finance/accounting, HR, manufacturing, supply chain management, project management, CRM, data analysis/reporting, procurement, payroll and field service management.

Contact: http://www.unit4.com