Cloud Computing – Who will lead: Business or IT?
There’s no doubt about it – 2015 is shaping up to be a big year in terms of cloud adoption. As more companies begin to realize the cost savings and advantage that cloud computing enables, the market will continue to move past the hype stage and become a cornerstone of almost every business’s computing and storage mix.
The State of the Cloud survey reveals business leaders are adopting cloud-based solutions at a rapid pace, sometimes without regard for whether their IT departments agree with the move. This disconnection may be attributed to the fact that cloud expectations are likely rooted in business units desire for more agility and they feel that IT is too cautious in cloud adoption. However, the findings also suggest IT leaders are becoming more comfortable with cloud, particularly its security aspects and that, increasingly, corporate IT departments have been seeking a greater role in identifying and selecting cloud-based solutions for the business.
- Concerns about cloud security are declining
Basically, enterprises are becoming more and more comfortable with cloud technologies, while IT concerns about cloud security have declined to 41 percent in 2015 from 47 percent reporting it as a significant challenge in 2014. As a consequence, central IT has increased its focus on public cloud, with 28 percent of central IT respondents reporting public cloud as the top priority in 2015. At the same time, more than 62 percent of executives report that a majority of cloud purchase decisions are now made by their central IT departments.
However, many business unit managers continue to be skeptical in regards to IT’s role. For example, while 59 percent of IT leaders see their departments as leading the way with public cloud deployments, only 34 percent of business types see an IT role here. At the same time, 57 percent of IT types say IT will take a leadership role in selecting private clouds, versus 35 percent of business managers.
Also, 56 percent of IT managers say IT should be deciding or advising on which applications should go to cloud, versus 44 percent of business executives. Another 55 percent of IT managers consider IT as ultimately charged with managing all cloud deployments, versus 39 percent of business managers.
- Other cloud computing trends
Besides the “fight” for Cloud supremacy between Business and IT, the State of the Cloud report also highlighted some interesting trends we should keep in mind this year. Here are some of the most important:
- Hybrid cloud remains the preferred strategy – 82 percent of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy, up from 74 percent in 2014.
- Public cloud leads in broadness of enterprise adoption while private cloud leads in workloads – 88 percent of enterprises are using public cloud while 63 percent are using private cloud. At the same time, 13 percent of enterprises run more than 1,000 VMs in public cloud, while 22 percent of organizations run more than 1,000 VMs in private cloud.
- There is plenty of room for more cloud workloads – 68 percent of enterprises run less than a fifth of their application portfolios in the cloud, while 55 percent of enterprises report that a significant portion of their existing application portfolios are not in the cloud, but are built with cloud-friendly architectures.
- AWS continues its public cloud domination – AWS adoption by enterprises is 57 percent while Azure IaaS is second at 12 percent, up from 6 percent in 2014.
The 2015 State of the Cloud Survey shows that cloud adoption is growing and most enterprises are leveraging multiple cloud environments that combine both public and private cloud options. However, the questions still remain: Who will lead cloud computing? Business or IT?
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