In a T-Systems-commissioned IDC survey, results showed that 44% of U.S. business executives are willing to take advantage of more cloud computing solutions in the future. 26% of the total respondents believe that cloud computing can provide IT cost savings and that 21% of executives believe that cloud computing will be able to displace legacy systems. 14% of respondents believe that they will be able to shift to new cloud computing applications easily.
According to IDC Vice President for Outsourcing and Offshore Services Market Research, David Tapper, business organizations trust cloud computing to provide the promised productive gains and general business impact as well as cost reductions. In that same survey, 31% of business executives see cloud computing as solving their needs for Customer Relationship Management. 28% will use the clouds to take advantage of productivity tools like Office, collaboration, and email packages while 26% of executives will tap cloud computing for their Enterprise Relationship Management, and another 26% will use cloud computing for their online store requirements.
Although business firms are anxious about cloud security, the results show that it is not a main consideration anymore. Cloud security now includes issues like data availability and compliance requirements. Thus, business organizations now seriously study which of the cloud types available is more beneficial for them as well as the type of cloud services that they need. These business executives are also looking into private clouds to determine if this type of cloud can provide security. They are also amenable with service level agreements. Of the total business executive respondents, 40% have already implemented a private cloud while 13% have decided that a public cloud is better for their needs. 16% of the respondents are implementing hybrid clouds.
The survey also found out that business enterprises want to give new cloud computing suppliers a chance and these firms are open to the idea of trying services they haven’t utilized. In the provision of ERP services, more than 50% of respondents want to try new providers. According to Tapper, the Chief Executive Officers often decide on the cloud strategy while IT providers and Chief Information Officers are tasked to ensure that every cloud computing service aids in achieving the company’s objectives as well as the other related business benefits of a cloud implementation.
According to Heike Auerbach of T-Systems North America, finding the right cloud provider is still the primary requirement in implementing cloud solutions. The service provider must be able to present a clear migration plan as well as answer every cloud readiness query. The survey pooled together IT managers and Chief Information Officers from 104 US companies during the summer of 2012. The same survey was also done in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Spain, and the Netherlands.
