The cloud in reality A look at the extent to which companies across the UK are currently using cloud technologies and how they plan to benefit from them in the future.
Cloud based services have been available for sometime now and the adoption of such amenities is widely encouraged. Some organisations have unreservedly embraced this shift in the delivery of IT, others have taken a more cautious stance but Highlander, a based supplier of IT and Telecomms services, needed to establish a more detailed picture on the uptake to support their future strategy. CPB UK Ltd were asked to carry out a survey to 9,500 UK based organisations in order to gain an accurate representation of what cloud services are currently being used and what the priorities are for future transitioning into the cloud. It is hoped that this report provides a useful insight for all individuals involved in planning and evaluating cloud strategies. Profile of respondents Of those completing the survey, 80% were classified as decision makers or influencers within IT strategy. All organisations surveyed were UK based. Public sector institutions were represented by 46% of completions, the balance of 54% being made up of commercial enterprises. Those employing more than 1000 staff accounted for 43% of participants with a further 48% from the 100 to 1000 bracket. Familiarity with cloud solutions How familiar are you with cloud solutions? This question produced interesting results. Whilst accepting that the question would produce subjective answers, it was surprising to find that just 9% claimed to be Specialists. Maybe this demonstrates a real lack of specialism within UK organisations, or perhaps an element of those seeing themselves as Knowledgable (63%) are overly conservative in their self assessment. Surprisingly, 8% of IT Executives claimed that they have no familiarisation with cloud solutions! 63% 8% 9% No familiarisation Knowledgable A Specialist 2
Existing cloud utilisation Which of the following IT services does your organisation utilise from service providers? 85% of respondents confirmed that their organisation is using at least one cloud based service, the breakdown of individual services being : 85% Use Cloud Software as a Service 27% 21% 18% 13% Hosted Infrastructure Outsourced Platform or Storage as a Service 9% 12% Co location services Other Cloud The prominence of Software as a Service is backed up by the recent IDC report, Worldwide and Regional Public IT Cloud 2013-2017 Forecast, which boldly predicts that SaaS will account for 59% of all public cloud spend by 2017. Which elements of infrastructure have you already moved, or are planning to move, to the cloud? Results here were slightly surprising, as we would have expected Storage and Back up to be the foremost remits. It is interesting to see that business applications and email were indeed the leading elements of infrastructure. Email Storage Backup Security Business App s (CRM, Accounts, Helpdesk etc) Others 9% 14% 12% 13% 20% 22% 3
Commitment to the cloud Does your organisation have a formal strategy for adopting cloud services? Less than 20% of respondents confirmed that their organisation have a clear plan in place: How committed is your organisation to a cloud-based IT infrastructure? Although 34% stated that they envisaged a significant move to the cloud, there were 14% who foresee no strong allegiance to this shift: 17% 14% 3% 49% 34% 51% 31% Clear plan of what to deploy and from whom Have ideas of preferences to deploy. No suppliers agreed To be dealt with on an as and when basis Looking to move everything to cloud based solutions Want to move as much as possible to the cloud. Only selected elements will move to the cloud. Not committed at all What drivers would make you consider cloud based solutions for your organisation? Not surprisingly almost 60% placed reduced running costs as a main attraction. A better and more flexible platform on which to run operations was also seen as a big lure by 53% of contributors. Conversely, the cloud being a means for a more controlled payment/cost structure was not seen as important by 79%. Evenly divided opinions were given on the matter of whether the cloud would be more resilient with 41% placing this as an influential factor, 24% expressing a moderate standpoint and the balance of 35% not seeing this as important. The five potential drivers for cloud services listed were: Real value Indifferent Limited impact Reducing overheads 35% 42% 23% Reducing running costs 59% 6% 35% Planned monthly payments rather than large capital costs 18% 3% 79% Providing a better and/or more flexible service 53% 21% 26% Providing a more resilient infrastructure 41% 24% 35% 4
The future for cloud services What impact do you think cloud services will have on IT infrastructure within organisations such as yours in the next 3 years? The majority confirmed that they do not foresee huge changes in the way that they operate. Over half (57%) see the cloud having only a limited impact and a further 9% predicting no impact at all. Vast most aspects of IT will be cloud based 6% Substantial a lot of in-house aspects will move to the cloud 28% Limited not much will move to the cloud 57% None at all 9% What percentage of your total will be allocated to cloud services in the next 2 years? A large majority envisage no more than 20% of their overall IT spend being used on cloud services in the next 2 years. 71% Highlander In today s competitive marketplace businesses like yours need to operate with more agility, lower costs and better staff productivity. This is where Cloud technologies from Highlander can help. Cloud technologies can help to simplify your I.T. set-up, lower your upfront costs and help your staff work anywhere and from any device. 0 to 20% of 20% 20% to 50% of 9% Over 50% of Highlander offer Microsoft Office 365, Hosted Email / Exchange, Hosted Back-up and Hosted Anti-Virus. To learn more about what these solutions can do for your business, take a look at our Cloud website: http://cloud.highlanderuk.com/ The aforementioned IDC report (Worldwide and Regional Public IT Cloud 2013-2017 Forecast) supports this in predicting that 17% of product/service spend will be cloud based by 2017. Highlander I.T. & Telecoms Systems House Shepcote Office Village 333 Shepcote Lane Sheffield S9 1TG T: 0114 2923 800 E: business@highlanderuk.com W: www.highlanderuk.com Tweet: @highlanderit