Customer survey results. Private cloud The Experience of Early Adopters. Survey with Brennan private cloud customers

Transcription

1 Customer survey results Private cloud The Experience of Early Adopters Survey with Brennan private cloud customers October

2 Table of Contents Private cloud - The Experience of Early Adopters 3 Survey results and findings 4 Drivers for private cloud adoption 4 Barriers to private cloud adoption 5 Expected benefits of private cloud before adoption 6 Benefits experienced since private cloud before adoption 6 Benefits experienced versus those expected 7 Production environment and backup use 7 Applications in private cloud environments 8 Application plans for next 12 months 8 Private cloud: most value 9 Private cloud: dislikes 10 Reasons for selecting Brennan as an private cloud provider 10 Ratings of Brennan s private cloud service 11 2

3 Private cloud The Experience of Early Adopters Survey with Brennan private cloud customers, October 2010 Background and state of play 2009 was a break-out year for private cloud services with much attention paid to it and to the concept of cloud computing generally, and with an increasing number of businesses pursuing it as a realistic option has offered more of the same. According to research firm IDC, 20 per cent of Australian companies are now making some use of the cloud (using either a public or private model) and their number is growing rapidly, with a further 20 per cent of Australian IT managers looking to implement cloud-based services in the coming 12 months, and another 45 per cent intending to do so thereafter. The experience of early cloud adopters is an important guide to how these trends are playing out on the ground: revealing what customers of private cloud can realistically expect in terms of benefits and value. As subscribers to one of the first and leading private cloud services in Australia, Brennan s customers are uniquely positioned to provide a user s perspective on private cloud. This report is the results of fifteen interviews with Brennan s early-adopters, gauging their opinions about private cloud and its benefits, both expected and achieved. 3

4 Survey results and findings Drivers for private cloud adoption Customers were asked what drove their decision to adopt private cloud. The most commonly cited drivers were its pricing model (OPEX) (identified by 54% of respondents) and the access to expertise it provided (identified by 46%). The next most popular drivers were the fact that private cloud was scalable (23%), provided a comprehensive solution (23%) and could be quickly deployed (15%). In addition to saying that private cloud would provide them with a fixed price and cost savings with no capital outlay, customers also stated that with private cloud they felt that they were moving with the technology. Barriers to private cloud adoption 40% of customers said that there were no barriers to them adopting private cloud. Of those who did have concerns before they adopted, the most commonly named barriers were Product maturity (identified by 23%), Security concerns (15%) and Price (15%). 4

5 Barriers to private cloud adoption Expected benefits of private cloud before adoption Customers were asked what benefits they had expected to see before making the switch to private cloud. Reduced costs was the most consistent theme, with 53% of customers nominating improved pricing or cost savings, followed by scalability (46%), reliability (38%), performance (31%), accountability (15%), improved service levels (15%) and freed resources (15%). Flexibility, fast deployment and updated software were also nominated. 5

6 Benefits experienced since private cloud before adoption After making the switch to private cloud, customers nominated the following as the benefits they have experienced: improved pricing or cost savings (46%), reliability (46%), scalability (38%), performance (38%), freed resources (23%), access to expertise (23%), and improved service levels (15%). Fast deployment, flexibility, accountability, a fixed monthly cost, a simplified support process and updated software were also nominated. Benefits experienced versus those expected 85% of customers said that the benefits they had experienced were the same as those they expected 15% said that they d experienced more benefits than those they d expected. These were around:. Performance. Reliability. Access to national technical resources. Freeing resources to drive IT business enablement rather than operational support No customers said that they d seen less benefits than they d expected. 6

7 Benefits experienced versus those expected Production environment and backup use 92% of customers were using private cloud in a production environment. 46% were using private cloud as part of a backup or redundant environment. 7

8 Applications in private cloud environments There was a high prevalence of custom, industry-specific applications being run on private cloud platforms (38%). Beside these, the most commonly run applications were Intranet (46%) or SharePoint applications (30%), followed by Microsoft Office applications (46%) and customer-facing web sites (30%). Application plans for next 12 months 30% of customers planned to move further applications to private cloud in the next 12 months. These applications included SharePoint and Extranet applications. 70% of customers had no plans to move new applications to private cloud in the next 12 months. Many of these customers explained that they already ran everything on private cloud. 8

9 Private cloud: most value Asked what single benefit was of most value to them about their private cloud service, customers nominated access to expertise (23%), a single point of management and responsibility (23%), scalability (15%), reliability (7%), flexibility (7%), customer service (7%), and data redundancy and disaster recovery (7%). This suggests that businesses seeking to adopt private cloud in future will be best served by private cloud and cloud providers who provide genuine ICT expertise and advice. Customer comments on this question included: The biggest benefit is peace of mind that our critical data is protected. Of most value is the access to expertise. The people delivering the service are critically important. The reliability of the service has been its biggest benefit, as well as the fact we have dedicated support engineers. 9

10 Private cloud: dislikes Asked what they disliked about private cloud, an impressive 84% of customers said Nothing. 7% nominated cost. 7% nominated lack of control. This reveals that in general customers have high levels of satisfaction with the service they receive. Interestingly, no customers cited security concerns, suggesting that security has not troubled early adopters. Reasons for selecting Brennan as an private cloud provider Nominated reasons for choosing Brennan to provide private cloud were: an existing relationship with Brennan s account team (46%), Brennan s experience with private cloud (46%), a recommendation from another Brennan customer (23%), the price of Brennan s service (15%), Brennan s technical competency and skill (15%) and Brennan s ability to provide a complete solution. 10

11 Ratings of Brennan s private cloud service Brennan scored consistently high ratings for its private cloud service. Out of 10, Brennan scored an average of 8.46 for Performance, 8.31 for Reliability, 8.31 on Time to increase capacity and 8.46 Overall. Future functionality Asked what needs or features private cloud could be improved to meet, 84% of customers could not name one. 7% suggested for integrated voice services. 7% asked for improved local controls for basic administrative tasks. The high percentage of customers unable to name a future need they would like Private cloud to be able to meet suggests that Private cloud is already capable of meeting the majority of customer requirements. 11

12 Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Newcastle