A third (33%) of cloud-adopting companies are seeing little to no benefit from shifting their IT infrastructure off-premise, suggests research compiled by global tech firm Unisys.
The organisation polled 1,000 senior IT and business leaders from 13 countries, including the UK, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, of which 93% said they were in the throes of migrating their critical IT systems to the cloud.
Of those questioned, the majority (66%) said moving to the cloud has either moderately or greatly changed their organisation for the better. According to the accompanying Unisys Cloud Success Barometer report, this is because firms whose cloud strategies are tightly integrated with wider business goals tend to feel the benefit of moving off-premise more.
“Companies that made cloud core to their business (by integrating an adoption plan into their broader business transformation strategy at the outset) were more than twice as likely to see great or moderate improvements to their business compared to those for which cloud was a minor part of their business strategy,” the report stated.
This observation is based on the findings shared in the report that suggest the 32% of organisations which described cloud as “core to their strategy” were 30% more likely to report benefits than the 49% which described it as being a “major part” of their overall business plans.
The report went on to warn companies that are neglecting to make cloud a core part of their business strategy that they are leaving themselves open to being out-innovated by their competitors, with 41% of respondents citing this as a major concern and 30% claiming to have already been affected by a rival firm moving to the cloud.
“Most of the top business concerns centre on threats to future performance,” the report stated. “Specifically, business leaders fear that not moving to the cloud will leave their organisation trailing behind others in the market – that they will be left behind (41%), outperformed by the competition (40%) and miss new business opportunities (41%).”
Kevin Turner, digital workplace strategy lead at Unisys, said the research highlighted precisely why it is so important for organisations to think about the role cloud will play in their organisation in the broadest of terms.
“By taking a broader strategic view and integrating with core business planning, cloud adoption will deliver greater results”
Kevin Turner, Unisys
“Our findings show the majority of organisations are approaching their use of cloud computing from a tactical perspective, and whilst tactical moves can be very powerful, by taking a broader strategic view and integrating with core business planning, cloud adoption will deliver greater results,” said Turner.
“Committing to the cloud with a considered approach, ensuring best practice supported by a robust methodology, is imperative to leveraging the cloud to meet your objectives.”
The company also quizzed respondents on their attitude towards adopting a multicloud approach to sourcing off-premise services, resulting in just under a third (28%) saying they have embraced this way of working.
“Multicloud represents the future of cloud computing, and for obvious reasons. Organisations that adopt multicloud strategies can design applications to run across any public cloud platform, expanding their marketplace power,” said Turner.
“Additionally, a multicloud strategy helps organisations gain greater sovereignty over their data, spread their risk in case of downtime and increase the business’s negotiating leverage – as well as offering cost savings by allowing businesses to shop rates for different service needs from multiple vendors,” he said.
