Cloud Leaders: Act Now
A new study from Sand Hill Group identifies the business value of cloud computing for customers and the urgent actions needed by vendors to ensure success in the rapidly approaching cloud era.
By Kamesh Pemmaraju, Sand Hill Group
Mar. 24, 2010
It is tempting to dismiss cloud computing as another product of the well-oiled technology hype machine. But consider these facts: Mega-technology vendors are pouring billions of dollars into cloud products. Cloud vendors are realizing record growth. Analysts forecast cloud services as a $100 billion-plus opportunity in just a few short years.
Is cloud computing worth all of this excitement? In a word: Yes.
Sand Hill Group's new study, "Leaders in the Cloud," proves that the business value of cloud computing is real, the road to enterprise cloud adoption is shorter than most experts think, and both customers and vendors must act now to build the cloud solutions that will revolutionize business in the coming decade.
It's the Business Value
"People are asking the same questions about the cloud today that they did about Internet back in 1997."
Think back to 1997 and the buzz surrounding the Internet. Consumers and companies were excited about the technology's potential but worried about security, privacy, bandwidth, standards and more. In the end, what enabled the Internet to transform communication and commerce?
Business value.
Cloud computing will deliver even greater benefits to companies - and it will revolutionize enterprise IT in the process.
Interviews with forty "Leaders in the Cloud" describe cloud computing's ability to increase ROI, decrease TCO, speed development, improve reliability and renovate the perception of IT in their companies.
The result? A more agile, competitive business.
Realizing multi-fold decreases in cost compared to traditional solutions... Developing applications on platforms in 15 minutes... Creating applications over a weekend... Consolidating server investments from 13 machines to 1... Reallocating IT budgets from 80 percent maintenance to 80 percent innovation...
These are but a few of the real-world examples of bottom-line business benefits already being realized by cloud leaders and detailed in our new study, "Leaders in the Cloud: Identifying the Business Value of Cloud Computing for Customers and Vendors."
Based on 40 in-depth interviews and quantitative surveys of more than 500 IT executives, the study examines the cloud computing initiatives at companies today, the plans for future deployment, the business benefits realized, the challenges encountered and the details on specific use cases of cloud technology. Eight of the interviews were conduced with software industry executives responsible for cloud strategy and products within their organizations in order to gain insight from the vendor perspective.
The study finds that even in its infancy, cloud computing is already delivering significant value to companies. Although technological and organizational challenges to adoption remain, CIOs report the pursuit of IT-driven business benefits will only increase their cloud computing commitment and investment in the near future. Gaps in technology and vendor offerings remain to be filled.
The following excerpts from the Leaders in the Cloud report look closer at the specific business benefits realized through cloud computing, the state of cloud adoption and the drivers behind the move to the cloud.
The Business Value of Cloud Computing
Leaders in the Cloud found early deployers are achieving significant bottom-line business benefits from early cloud computing initiatives. The Executive Summary of the report identifies fifteen business benefits experienced by cloud leaders. Consider these three benefits - Strategic Alignment, Agility and ROI - and the associated findings from the study.
Strategic Alignment
"I have never established a cloud computing strategy that everything needs to go off-premise or move to some type of hosted model. The driver behind it all is a business need."
For decades, IT and business executives have struggled to speak the same language, work together and align goals. But in our study, cloud leaders expressed optimism that change is on the horizon. CIOs were unanimous in saying the primary driver for adopting cloud computing is to meet business needs. As the IT organization leverages the cloud to solve each problem with new levels of speed, flexibility and cost-effectiveness, the business leaders gain renewed respect and excitement for IT - and for the cloud. Early inroads by SaaS vendors selling to non-IT executives resulted in security, governance and maintenance concerns. Today, CIOs describe a more collaborative evaluation of cloud solutions involving both IT and business leaders with one common motivator: advancing the goals of the company.
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Is cloud computing worth all of this excitement? In a word: Yes.
Sand Hill Group's new study, "Leaders in the Cloud," proves that the business value of cloud computing is real, the road to enterprise cloud adoption is shorter than most experts think, and both customers and vendors must act now to build the cloud solutions that will revolutionize business in the coming decade.
It's the Business Value
"People are asking the same questions about the cloud today that they did about Internet back in 1997."
Think back to 1997 and the buzz surrounding the Internet. Consumers and companies were excited about the technology's potential but worried about security, privacy, bandwidth, standards and more. In the end, what enabled the Internet to transform communication and commerce?
Business value.
Cloud computing will deliver even greater benefits to companies - and it will revolutionize enterprise IT in the process.
Interviews with forty "Leaders in the Cloud" describe cloud computing's ability to increase ROI, decrease TCO, speed development, improve reliability and renovate the perception of IT in their companies.
The result? A more agile, competitive business.
Realizing multi-fold decreases in cost compared to traditional solutions... Developing applications on platforms in 15 minutes... Creating applications over a weekend... Consolidating server investments from 13 machines to 1... Reallocating IT budgets from 80 percent maintenance to 80 percent innovation...
These are but a few of the real-world examples of bottom-line business benefits already being realized by cloud leaders and detailed in our new study, "Leaders in the Cloud: Identifying the Business Value of Cloud Computing for Customers and Vendors."
Based on 40 in-depth interviews and quantitative surveys of more than 500 IT executives, the study examines the cloud computing initiatives at companies today, the plans for future deployment, the business benefits realized, the challenges encountered and the details on specific use cases of cloud technology. Eight of the interviews were conduced with software industry executives responsible for cloud strategy and products within their organizations in order to gain insight from the vendor perspective.
The study finds that even in its infancy, cloud computing is already delivering significant value to companies. Although technological and organizational challenges to adoption remain, CIOs report the pursuit of IT-driven business benefits will only increase their cloud computing commitment and investment in the near future. Gaps in technology and vendor offerings remain to be filled.
The following excerpts from the Leaders in the Cloud report look closer at the specific business benefits realized through cloud computing, the state of cloud adoption and the drivers behind the move to the cloud.
The Business Value of Cloud Computing
Leaders in the Cloud found early deployers are achieving significant bottom-line business benefits from early cloud computing initiatives. The Executive Summary of the report identifies fifteen business benefits experienced by cloud leaders. Consider these three benefits - Strategic Alignment, Agility and ROI - and the associated findings from the study.
Strategic Alignment
"I have never established a cloud computing strategy that everything needs to go off-premise or move to some type of hosted model. The driver behind it all is a business need."
For decades, IT and business executives have struggled to speak the same language, work together and align goals. But in our study, cloud leaders expressed optimism that change is on the horizon. CIOs were unanimous in saying the primary driver for adopting cloud computing is to meet business needs. As the IT organization leverages the cloud to solve each problem with new levels of speed, flexibility and cost-effectiveness, the business leaders gain renewed respect and excitement for IT - and for the cloud. Early inroads by SaaS vendors selling to non-IT executives resulted in security, governance and maintenance concerns. Today, CIOs describe a more collaborative evaluation of cloud solutions involving both IT and business leaders with one common motivator: advancing the goals of the company.
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