IT Priorities 2017: Nordic organisations to spend more on cloud services

More than half (52%) of IT decision-makers at Nordic organisations expect spending on cloud services to be higher in 2017 that the previous 12 months, according to the findings of research from Computer Weekly/TechTarget.

The survey of IT decision-makers in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland also revealed that 43% expect the overall IT budget in 2017 to be higher than in 2016, while 27% expect it to fall.

The implementation of software as a service (SaaS) models, as well as the creation of hybrid clouds which utilise public and on-premise infrastructures, are the most common cloud projects planned, with 47% of respondents expecting to do both.

A total of 44% are planning to implement an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) model, using a private cloud, and 23% will carry out a platform as a service (PaaS) project in 2017.

In the datacentre, 46% of respondents said the plan to carry out hybrid cloud projects that integrate on-premises cloud infrastructure with public cloud services.

Perhaps as a result of the increased use of cloud infrastructure and software, 37% of Nordic organisations will look for cuts in spending on staff, maintenance and software.

The Nordic countries are not alone in their strong cloud focus. Cloud computing is developing rapidly across Europe, according to the European Commission, which said the European cloud market would be worth €44.8bn by 2020, compared with €9.5bn in 2013.

Meanwhile, the Computer Weekly/TechTarget annual survey revealed that IT automation is the most likely broad initiative for Nordic organisations in 2017, with 37% expecting to focus on the technology.

The biggest loser in IT budget terms in 2017 will be IT consultancy services. Nordic organisations will be hit hardest by cuts in 2017, with 62% of decision-makers expecting cuts.