Business agility driving enterprise cloud use: Survey

Companies that are moving most aggressively to adopt cloud computing are being rewarded with competitive advantage through increased business agility, according to a recent survey of 527 Harvard Business Review readers in large and midsize organisations around the world.

Cloud computing has clearly become an accepted part of the enterprise computing environment, with 70 percent of respondents having adopted some form of cloud, revealed the Verizon Enterprise Solutions-sponsored survey.

When asked to describe their company’s attitude toward cloud computing, 35 percent said that they believe strongly in the benefits and are moving aggressively wherever it makes commercial sense.

We term these companies cloud enthusiasts. An almost equal percentage are cloud moderates, saying they believe in the value of cloud in some circumstances-for example, they’ve moved a few of their software applications completely into the cloud and are making some use of other types of cloud services. Twenty-two percent say they are cautious about adopting cloud computing but are looking into it. Only 9 percent are not currently doing anything cloud-related.

About 74 percent of respondents say that cloud computing has provided their organisation with competitive advantage, with 30 percent seeing significant advantage, 33 percent seeing some advantage, and 11 percent seeing a little advantage.

When asked how cloud has provided competitive advantage, enthusiasts led with business agility, saying that cloud has enabled them to be more responsive to changes in the market, helps them get to market faster with new products and services, and shortens the time for new business launches.

A number of cloud enthusiasts said that the ability to access data and cloud resources anytime/anywhere has provided their organisation with competitive advantage by helping to facilitate collaboration and communication among team members around the world as well as with trading partners.

Business agility leads the list of drivers for adopting cloud computing, with nearly a third of respondents (32 percent) saying it was their primary reason for pursuing cloud. This was followed by increased innovation (14 percent), lower costs (14 percent), and the ability to scale up and down in response to variations in business demand (13 percent).

Almost three-quarters say cloud will reduce business complexity (24 percent significantly and 47 percent somewhat). A similar percentage believe it will reduce complexity in their company’s IT operations (66 percent) and reduce costs (69 percent). More than half also believe it will increase employee productivity (61 percent) and responsiveness to customers (53 percent).

One clear sign that cloud is becoming a trustworthy part of enterprise computing is evident in respondents’ answers around security. Close to two-thirds (65 percent) say that cloud either increases security (24 percent somewhat and 11.5 percent significantly) or that its impact on security is neutral (29.5 percent).

Among respondents who are using cloud, 41 percent primarily use private clouds-i.e., their cloud environment is not shared with other organisations, even if it is provided by a third party. Thirty-five percent describe their use as hybrid, saying they operate in both public and private clouds. Only 13 percent said their use of cloud was primarily public-i.e., that they access computing resources provided by a third party, shared with other organizations, provisioned dynamically, and billed based on use.

Companies taking a cautious approach are much more likely to stick to private clouds, at 49 percent, compared with 39 percent of cloud enthusiasts and 40 percent of moderates. Only 19 percent of the cautious have hybrid environments, compared with 40 percent for both cloud enthusiasts and cloud moderates.

And 28 percent of the cautious simply don’t know what their company is doing when it comes to cloud.