CDW Survey: Mobile Applications and Devices Promote Adoption of Cloud Computing

In the “2013 State of the Cloud Report”, CDW found out that about 75% of its respondents have this notion that the personal use of mobile devices and applications by employees influence how businesses take advantage of cloud computing. 68% of the respondents said that organizations have decided to adopt cloud computing because of requests from their employees. Also, cloud adoption savings have increased by as much as 3% from the 10% savings in 2011. CDW surveyed a total of 1,242 IT practitioners.

In the same survey, some 39% of the respondents said that their organizations are currently implementing cloud solutions, an increase of 11% from the 2011 figures. Some 60% of the IT respondents believe that their use of cloud services in their non-work related endeavors have greatly influenced their recommendations to adopt cloud computing at their workplace.

According to CDW General Manager for Cloud Solutions Stephen Braat, the steady increase in cloud adoption by enterprises isn’t really surprising due to the increase in use of mobile devices as well as the IT commercialization. The employees’ preferences to use mobile applications and devices have provided their organizations some benefits such as improved ability to innovate, enhanced employee mobility, improved efficiency, and cost savings.

About 1/3 of the respondents have reported that the performance of a cloud service is an important factor in their cloud adoption recommendation. 25% of the respondents have relied on technical integration of the cloud apps with legacy systems as a factor in adopting cloud computing. According to Braat, even if there are challenges in cloud adoption, the benefits far outweigh the adoption risks. With cloud computing personal use as a major factor in cloud adoption, it means that cloud providers must continuously expand their services.

According to the survey respondents, cost factors such as software management costs, IT labor costs, software licensing costs, cost of capital, real estate costs, and IT operations electric bills costs were considered in the cloud adoption decisions by organizations.

The survey included small, medium, and large sized businesses as well as public schools, colleges, universities, healthcare, and the local, state, and federal governments. The said survey was conducted between August and September in 2012.