More than two thirds of businesses plan to increase their cloud computing spending in 2017, according to a new report from B2B research provider Clutch.

The report, which polled 283 IT professionals at businesses across the United States, also found that for almost half (47%) of organisations, increased cost is a key challenge with their cloud provider.

48% of those polled said they expect to increase their cloud computing spend by 11%-30% this year, compared to 14% of respondents for a 31-50% increase. 23% said they expect their spending to remain approximately flat.

“Cloud is the new normal,” said Jeremy Przygode, CEO of managed service provider Stratalux. “When businesses need to evaluate new solutions, or need to do a hardware refresh on existing solutions… cloud is the go-to solution to figure out how to do that.”

45% of respondents said security was the biggest benefit of using the cloud, ahead of increased efficiency (41%), more data space (40%), flexibility (33%) and scalability (28%).

Przygode argues the transition towards public cloud is an ‘inevitability’. “I believe that all roads lead to public cloud eventually,” he said. “Different companies have different pathways to it.

“Some are going directly to public cloud; others are trying to build a private cloud first because they still want to retain control. But ultimately I believe that over time they will eventually become public cloud customers as well.”

Only 37% of respondents said they are using a public cloud today, compared with 68% for private cloud, and 47% for hybrid cloud. Kevin Rubin, president and COO of Stratosphere Networks, explained: “When you go with a hybrid solution, you have to make sure as a company it’s engineered properly to gain access to it.

“It’s a little bit more challenging – but customising your cloud experience allows [a business] to leverage different toolsets that are truly drilled down to their department, their individuals, and how they do business.”

You can read the full report here.

With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing Cloud strategies, now is the perfect time to attend 21st Cloud Expo October 31 – November 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center, CA, and June 12-14, 2018, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, and learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is on the right path to Digital Transformation.

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No hype cycles or predictions of zillions of things here. IoT is big. You get it. You know your business and have great ideas for a business transformation strategy. What comes next? Time to make it happen. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Jay Mason, Associate Partner at M&S Consulting, presented a step-by-step plan to develop your technology implementation strategy. He discussed the evaluation of communication standards and IoT messaging protocols, data analytics considerations, edge-to-cloud technical architecture, IoT platform selection, end-to-end security, enterprise systems integration and monetization techniques.

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There’s a lot to gain from cloud computing, but success requires a thoughtful and enterprise focused approach. Cloud computing decouples data and information from the infrastructure on which it lies. A process that is a LOT more involved than dragging some folders from your desktop to a shared drive. Cloud computing as a mission transformation activity, not a technological one.
As an organization moves from local information hosting to the cloud, one of the most important challenges is addressing cloud computing as a mission transformation activity, not a technological one. Cloud computing isn’t a new technology. It’s a new way of consuming and provisioning information technology services. Adopting cloud computing means paralleling your mission processes, rethinking the economic models and abstracting your applications from the technology stack silos, which are currently the norm.

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The dirty little secret, however, is that we are as unable to predict the future as you. None of us really knows what will happen next. The future is made up of an incredibly complex mixture of technologies, possibilities, and events that come together in ways that no one can truly predict.
The answer, therefore, is not to attempt to predict the future. But instead, to prepare for an uncertain future by building organizational capabilities that allow you to anticipate and rapidly pivot, respond and react to any change that the market may throw at you.

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We build IoT infrastructure products – when you have to integrate different devices, different systems and cloud you have to build an application to do that but we eliminate the need to build an application. Our products can integrate any device, any system, any cloud regardless of protocol,” explained Peter Jung, Chief Product Officer at Pulzze Systems, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA

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Companies have always been concerned that traditional enterprise software is slow and complex to install, often disrupting critical and time-sensitive operations during roll-out. With the growing need to integrate new digital technologies into the enterprise to transform business processes, this concern has become even more pressing.
A 2016 Panorama Consulting Solutions study revealed that enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects took an average of 21 months to install, with 57 percent of these projects experiencing timeline overruns. A span of almost two years can be a long time when disruptive change comes in weeks or months rather than years. Any executive that has been around enterprise software implementations knows not only that new systems can take a long time to implement, but can take almost as long to change or update with new technologies.

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“When we talk about cloud without compromise what we’re talking about is that when people think about ‘I need the flexibility of the cloud’ – it’s the ability to create applications and run them in a cloud environment that’s far more flexible,” explained Matthew Finnie, CTO of Interoute, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 20th Cloud Expo, held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.

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In the decade following his article, cloud computing further cemented Carr’s perspective. Compute, storage, and network resources have become simple utilities, available at the proverbial turn of the faucet. The value they provide is immense, but the cloud playing field is amazingly level. Carr’s quote above presaged the cloud to a T.

Today, however, we’re in the digital era. Mark Andreesen’s ‘software is eating the world’ prognostication is coming to pass, as enterprises realize they must become software companies to remain competitive.
The value IT brings to such companies is unquestionable. If Carr’s conclusions hold up, however, such technology will become less strategic as it becomes more ubiquitous – suggesting that digital enterprises are in for a world of hurt.

Perhaps we should set aside his conclusions as more applicable to a decade gone by. Or maybe there’s more to digital transformation than meets the eye?

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“We are a monitoring company. We work with Salesforce, BBC, and quite a few other big logos. We basically provide monitoring for them, structure for their cloud services and we fit into the DevOps world” explained David Gildeh, Co-founder and CEO of Outlyer, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at DevOps Summit at 20th Cloud Expo, held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.

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