Close to 50% of US Businesses Plan to Embrace Cloud Services

STAFF REPORT

Nearly 50 percent of US executives are aiming to tackle current IT challenges by leveraging cloud solutions, and they are planning to invest more in cloud computing in the days ahead, according to a recent survey by analyst firm IDC.

The survey found corporations are counting on cloud computing for lowering IT costs (26 percent), replacing legacy systems (21 percent) and for gaining flexibility of using different applications.

“As the US cloud services market continues to mature, enterprises find that overall business impact and productivity gains from the cloud are as significant as achieving cost reductions,” said David Tapper, IDC VP Outsourcing and Offshore Services Market Research.

Cloud computing is seen as most likely to deliver solutions for Customer Relationship Management (31 percent), productivity tools like email, collaboration or Office packages (28 percent), online stores and Enterprise Relationship Management (26 percent each), according to the research firm.

For enterprise, the challenge is choosing right cloud type and cloud service because many of them are yet to be clear about how cloud computing will impact compliance requirements or data availability.

40 percent of US respondents have implemented a private cloud strategy while only 13 percent are relying on public cloud and 16 percent on hybrid cloud solutions, the survey found.

On their way to adopt cloud computing, enterprises are increasingly considering new service providers, and they are also considering providers whose services they have not previously used. In ERP, according to IDC, more than half are considering providers with whom they have had no previous experience.

“CEOs,” Tapper said, “are ranked as most significant in the decision-making process on using clouds. The result is that buyers are viewing cloud as strategic in achieving critical business objectives for which CIOs and IT vendors must ensure that their cloud solutions help achieve these objectives and associated business benefits.”

IDC’s survey on cloud computing was commissioned b T-Systems.