Employee access, not cost drives move to cloud adoption

Peter Dinham
Tuesday, 06 December 2011 11:16

The desire to connect their employees through the multitude of computing devices in use today is reportedly the primary reason for enterprises, including Australian companies, to make the move to cloud computing, according to a worldwide survey of nearly 4,000 IT decision makers.

According to the survey on cloud computing usage trends commisssioned by CSC and conducted by independent research company TNS, the market feedback turns conventional wisdom on its head, with 33 percent of IT decision-makers citing accessibility to information through multiple devices as the most important reason for their decision to adopt cloud computing.

However, the survey found that Australian and US organisations lag behind the rest of the world in preparing employees for cloud adoption, with 81 percent in Australia and 80 percent in the United States not providing any information or training.

And, 70 percent of Australian organisations say they have saved money by moving to cloud computing, although well behind Brazilian organisations that reaped the most cost benefit with 92 percent saving money.

Besides connecting employees, the other top motivating factors for cloud adoption within the enterprise were accelerating the speed of business, which was the choice of 21 percent of IT decision-makers, and cutting costs, with 17 percent citing it as most important.

In the United States, the trend among small businesses was even more pronounced, according to CSC, as nearly half, or 46 percent, of small businesses cited information access through a multitude of devices as the most important reason for adopting the cloud, while 10 percent of small businesses cited cutting costs.

Other key survey findings include:

'¢    Few organisations downsized IT after cloud adoption.
o    Only 14 percent of companies downsized their IT departments after adopting cloud while 20 percent of organisations hired more cloud experts.

'¢    The majority of organisations save money with cloud, but savings are small.
o    82 percent of all organisations saved money on their last cloud adoption project.
o    23 percent of U.S. organisations and 45 percent of U.S. small businesses (fewer than 50 employees) reported no savings while 35 percent of U.S. organisations saved less than $20,000.
o    Brazilian organisations reaped the most cost benefit with 92 percent saving money, while 70 percent of Australian organisations saved money.

'¢    Organisations are into the cloud for the long term.
o    65 percent of companies choose cloud subscriptions lasting one year or more.

'¢    Cloud computing gives organisations a green boost.
o    64 percent of organisations say that adopting cloud has helped them reduce waste and lower energy consumption.

'¢    Nearly all businesses boost improvements in IT performance after cloud adoption.
o    93 percent of all organisations saw at least one area of improvement in their IT department since adopting cloud.
o    52 percent reported increased data centre efficiency and utilisation, while 47 percent of companies said they witnessed lower operating costs after cloud adoption.
o    80 percent experienced improvements within six months of moving to the cloud.

'¢    Small businesses face less workforce resistance to cloud adoption.
o    74 percent of small businesses say that no one in their company resisted the move to the cloud.

'¢    Data security concerns do not change significantly after adopting cloud computing.
o    25 percent of organisations expressed more concern about data security after adopting cloud services.
o    47 percent of organisations in Singapore expressed more concern about data security following cloud adoption, while 47 percent of Brazilian organisations said they are less concerned after switching to cloud.

'¢    Employee preparation in advance of cloud implementation varies widely.
o    U.S. and Australia lag in preparing employees for cloud adoption with 80 percent and 81 percent of organisations providing any information or training, while 97 percent of Brazilian organisations prepared their employees.

'¢    Half of U.S. government IT workers say they've moved work to the cloud.
o    48 percent of U.S. government agencies moved at least one workflow to the cloud following the new requirement that U.S. federal agencies adopt a 'cloud-first' policy.