More than four in five respondents to a survey from Commvault and CITO Research say they are at least ‘very concerned’ about missing out on new advancements in cloud technology.

The fear of missing out (FOMO) in this space is real. Of the 100 IT leaders polled, more than two thirds said they were worried about keeping up to date with the latest products and iterations across the primary cloud providers. The most popular methods of keeping up to date were through reading tech publications and networking, cited by three out of five respondents. Interestingly, only one in three said they read vendor websites themselves.

A quarter (24%) of those polled said they were a ‘cloud only’ organisation, while 32% said they are ‘cloud first’ with plans to become cloud only, and only 6% said they did not have a specific migration plan. When asked to sum up their cloud journeys in one word, only one respondent proffered the term ‘frustrating’; ‘innovative’ (51%) and ‘exciting’ (35%) were the most popular.

When it came to the biggest barriers in moving apps and data to the cloud, the sheer volume of data was the primary concern, cited by 68% of respondents. This was followed by developing staff skills and acquiring talent (65%) and managing policies across cloud and on-prem data (55%). As one participant in a CTO panel put it: “The number one barrier to moving to the cloud is staff. That is what I hear from everyone. It’s the culture of moving to the cloud.”

“Cloud is changing the essential elements of the way we do business, and changing it for the better,” the report notes. “As cloud advancements continue, keeping up with those developments is important. But it’s equally important to pay attention to fundamentals.”

You can read the full report here (no registration required).