Survey results have been published by Unisys which show a trend away from traditional on-premises data centers / centres towards cloud-based hosting.
Survey respondents indicated that use of on-premises data centers will decrease from 43 percent now to 29 percent in 2019, while private cloud use will increase from 20 percent now up to 28 percent in two years. Over the same period, public cloud use will rise from 18 percent to 21 percent, hybrid cloud from 11 percent to 13 percent, and use of community cloud (a private cloud shared by multiple organizations with a common mission) will hold steady at 9 percent.
The respondents show widespread agreement on the benefits enterprises expect from the cloud. At least 94 percent cite improved disaster recovery/business continuity, agility and flexibility, more efficient storage, reduced capital costs and standardization of IT as being at least somewhat important. Improving agility – the capability to deploy IT resources nimbly in response to quickly changing business conditions and the factor most closely aligned to gaining competitive advantage – is the top driver overall, with 78 percent of respondents saying it is critical or very important.
While the respondents clearly appreciate the tangible benefits of the cloud, they are also forthright in acknowledging its challenges. Many report encountering unexpected roadblocks, with 60 percent saying those impediments slowed their cloud migrations and 17 saying that the roadblocks brought their migrations to a standstill.
42 percent of respondents name concerns about security (ranging from identity and access management to micro-segmentation of data) and compliance as both the most common causes and potential results of slowdowns in cloud migration.
About the research
IDG Research surveyed 400 enterprise IT and business executives at the director level and above on behalf of Unisys in April and May 2017. The executives were affiliated with organizations of 1,000 employees and above, with the responses divided geographically as follows:
- 100 in the United States;
- 75 in Europe (25 each in UK, Germany and France);
- 100 in Latin America (50 each in Brazil and Mexico);
- 125 in Asia Pacific (50 each in Australia and China, 25 in Hong Kong).
