New Survey of Cloud Adopters Addresses Misconceptions, IT’s Role in Cloud Adoption and Highlights Emerging Opportunities and Challenges
SAN MATEO, Calif., October 27, 2010—Appirio a cloud solution provider, issued results from its first State of the Public Cloud Survey, providing new insight into adoption trends, market misconceptions and the emerging challenges and opportunities for adopters of public cloud applications and platforms. Rather than another general market survey on cloud computing, this survey targeted more than 150 IT decision makers at mid-to-large sized companies that had already implemented at least one of the leading SaaS applications or cloud platforms. Conducted by a third-party firm, the survey uncovered valuable insights from companies that have already begun their move to the cloud.
“Companies leading the charge on cloud computing can teach the broader market a lot about what’s real, what’s hype and what to expect when you move more of your IT to the cloud,” said Chris Barbin, CEO of Appirio. “Cloud computing is a highly valuable but disruptive technology, and the enterprises that will be most successful with the transition are those who can learn from the experience of others and look beyond the challenges of today.”
Adopters Bullish on the Cloud’s Impact, Address Top Cloud Misconceptions
Appirio’s survey results show that experienced cloud adopters see public cloud solutions as a significant improvement from their traditional on-premise counterparts, and cite the cloud’s positive and strategic impact on their business and IT organization:
- More than 60% of cloud adopters say cloud solutions are better than on-premise in terms of availability, total cost of ownership, ease-of-integration, ease-of-deployment and time-to-value.
- 83% agreed that cloud solutions have helped them respond faster to the needs of their business.
- 29% strongly agreed that cloud solutions have changed the way they run their business.
- Nearly 40% say future cloud adoption will be part of an overall business transformation, 65% say it will be part of an IT transformation.
Given the positive experience of cloud adopters, it may not be surprising to see that adopters label many of the most common fears about cloud solutions as “misconceptions.” Twenty-eight percent of survey respondents say that cloud security is the number one misconception about cloud solutions, with integration challenges (15%) and lock-in (13%) coming in a distant second and third choice. More than 35% of respondents said IT leadership is the primary driver of cloud misconceptions, more than triple the number who called out traditional vendors (10%) or media and analysts (6%) as the driver.
Future for Cloud Adoption Looks Bright, IT Playing a Greater Role
Cloud adopters are more aggressive in their near-term and long-term adoption plans than what general market data indicates. Today, 22% of cloud adopters said they had more than 50% of their IT in the public cloud; and 68% expect to have the majority of their IT in the public cloud within three years. While nearly every analyst group predicts tremendous growth for cloud computing in the next three years, they’re typically much more conservative about how much of IT moves to the public cloud in that timeframe.
IT has often been portrayed as on the sidelines when it comes to cloud adoption, with business leaders using cloud applications as a way to get around IT. However, cloud adopters paint a much different picture:
- 70% of cloud adopters say IT was a driver in the decision-making process to move to the cloud, and nearly 80% expect IT will be a driver in the future.
- 70% agree that cloud solutions have “changed the role of IT within the business - IT is now seen as a true business enabler”, and 40% strongly agree with this statement.
New Challenges Emerge for Cloud Adopters
Security, compliance and manageability remain priorities for improving cloud applications, just as they continue to be priorities for existing, on-premise IT solutions. However, a new set of challenges are beginning to emerge with cloud adopters, including cloud-to-cloud integration, bringing information to mobile devices, and reducing SaaS silos. More than 73% of respondents selected each of these three areas as an important or very important priority. Overall, more than 65% of respondents said enhancing their cloud applications was a high or essential priority in the context of their broader objectives. Only 3% rated it a low or non-priority.
A free copy of Appirio’s State of the Public Cloud report, including full data and commentary, can be downloaded at http://thecloud.appirio.com/StateofthePublicCloudWhitepaper1.html. Additionally, an infographic laying out the key highlights is available at http://appirio.com/company/images/survey.gif. Appirio has also created a short video about the survey, which can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQXK7COcf6A.
About Appirio
Appirio (www.appirio.com) is a cloud solution provider offering products and professional services that help enterprises accelerate their adoption of cloud applications and platforms. Appirio's innovation and expertise has been recognized by BusinessWeek as one of America's Most Promising Startups and by AlwaysOn as 2010 On-Demand Company of the Year. Appirio has helped more than 180 leading enterprises implement, build and manage mission critical cloud solutions using salesforce.com, Google, Workday and Amazon. We are proud to serve a wide range of customers such as Avago, the City of Los Angeles, Diversey, Dunkin Brands, Flextronics, Japan Post Network, Ltd., IMS Health, Motorola, Qualcomm, RehabCare, Safety Kleen, Starbucks and VMware, as well as the 5,000 companies that use Appirio's products to connect and extend cloud platforms. Founded in 2006, Appirio has offices in the U.S. and Japan, and is backed by Sequoia Capital and GGV Capital.
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