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Cloud continues to be important to businesses – but there’s no strategy in place

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Latest survey research from Cloud Sherpas has revealed while seven in 10 IT leaders view enterprise cloud software as central to their company’s success, only half have a formal cloud strategy in place.

82% of the more than 200 global respondents to the2015 Enterprise Cloud Report said cloud technology was a key part of their IT strategy. 36% of those polled said they were currently using multiple applications, while 31% said they were regularly using cloud daily. 52% of high tech and manufacturing respondents said they were using multiple cloud applications, compared to 50% for education and 44% real estate.

The survey data shows the driving forces behind enterprise cloud adoption. In a multiple choice question 57% of respondents cited the CIO as the primary driver, ahead of the CEO (22%) and CTO (19%). The organisation’s customers were cited by 19% of those polled. Efficiency (71%) was the key organisational factor to improve according to respondents, ahead of collaboration (66%), innovation (55%) and engagement (50%).

One of the more curious parts of the survey came when answering statements on security and privacy.

To the statement “Security concerns have prevented one or more of my company’s business functions from adopting cloud technology”, 28% strongly agreed while a further 31% agreed. Regarding the statement “The complication of our legacy system has challenged my organisation from taking it to the cloud”, 62% overall agreed, with 24% strongly agreeing. Almost two thirds (63%) agreed with the statement “Privacy concerns have prevented one or more of my organisation’s business functions from adopting cloud technology.”

The overall consensus of the survey again relates to the lack of clear strategy organisations deploy when moving their IT infrastructure to the cloud. “A transition to the cloud requires companies to consider multiple factors beyond price and vendor, including a thorough analysis of the existing application stack and proper alignment with business needs,” said Matthew Johnson, Cloud Sherpas vice president of advisory services.

“When stakeholders across the business, including executives, come together on a strategy and execution, companies will get the most benefit from moving to the cloud,” he added.