24% of enterprises have 'cloud-first' policy: Study

Cloud has rapidly gone from the periphery to something that you can trust to run critical parts of your business. And that’s what companies of all sizes in every sector are doing. As cloud services have matured and adoption has increased, research has consistently shown that using cloud has enabled companies to act more quickly and to collaborate more easily. Nearly 44 percent of respondents to a new study from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services claimed that using cloud has increased revenue, and 36 percent said it has increased profit margins. [caption id=“attachment_2010537” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Reuters[/caption] The survey of a total of 452 business and IT professionals highlighted that organisations that want to stay a step ahead are developing a more strategic approach to cloud adoption, management, and use. This manifests in various ways, with central IT either in control or providing guidance and support. Cloud usage in the enterprise continues to rise, with 84 percent saying their organisation’s use has increased in the past year. It has moved past the first wave of applications, such as sales force automation, which was relatively easy to adopt. As their companies move toward using cloud for more mission-critical services, over two-thirds of respondents said they would rather work with established technology vendors that offer a wider solution portfolio than with newer niche players. One of the problems with early cloud efforts was that they were done in a vacuum, with many projects initiated by business units with no IT involvement. Business leaders sought new capabilities without considering how a new service would connect to company systems or integrate with existing business processes. This limited the value of many early efforts by creating silos of data. That appears to be changing, with 62 percent of respondents saying their company is able to exchange data between multiple cloud services and/or internal systems. Successful experiences with cloud have led many organisations to adopt a “cloud-first” policy. The U.S. federal government was one of the first to do this. Cloud-first has now hit the private sector, with close to a quarter of respondents (24 percent) saying they have such a policy. Business agility has been the main benefit of cloud by a significant margin for the past few years, and it remains a leading benefit, with 71 percent saying their use of cloud has increased business agility in a number of key areas. In this study, agility was joined by increased collaboration as a top benefit, with 72 percent saying their organisation’s use of cloud has made it easier to collaborate with colleagues. However, security concerns are still the biggest inhibitor for those who have not adopted cloud; however, most respondents with cloud experience said its impact on data security has either been neutral (34 percent) or has actually increased it (39 percent). Only 10 percent said their use of cloud has decreased data security levels. “Cloud still suffers from a perception problem when it comes to security. Cloud providers have to do more to show decision makers that their services are at least as secure as the more traditional alternatives and help their customers manage risk appropriately for the business,” the study stated. This may be one reason that the lines of business are increasingly turning to IT instead of going it alone. Eighty percent of respondents said that involving central IT increases the security and reliability of their cloud efforts. Despite early fears that cloud would disenfranchise the IT organisation, this has not been the case; only 16 percent of respondents said they usually purchase cloud services with no IT involvement. A significant percentage of cloud purchases (43 percent) are made by central IT, with another 39 percent made together. Survey respondents were for the most part quite positive about the benefits of partnering with IT, claiming that it has increased not only security and reliability but also the ability to integrate cloud services with other company systems (cloud or not) and business processes. This ability to integrate disparate systems and data has become a key consideration in cloud purchases—57 percent feel strongly about that. Further, more than half (52 percent) feel strongly that involving central IT has lowered cost and complexity. There is still work to be done to bring cloud practices to full maturity. For example, while 65 percent involve their company’s security professionals in vetting potential cloud services, that still leaves many who don’t. Only 45 percent have policies to define which applications are appropriate for cloud, and only 54 percent have guidelines for how those applications are contracted and approved. This needs to change—especially given that business units are involved in making cloud decisions in 55 percent of cases. “While cloud users in general enjoy positive business outcomes, achieving a competitive advantage is no longer a given as more organisations join the club. Advantage in the future will come from how well cloud is managed and to what extent companies can use it to decrease friction in all of their business activities,” according to the study.