Today’s Cloud

Focus & Motivators
The concept of cloud computing has transitioned
from being an emerging technology to a mainstream
powerhouse going beyond basic storage.

Since 2011, cloud
computing has
seen a rise in
utilization
57%
51%

Plan to use
cloud in the
next year

Using
cloud
now*

Plan to use
cloud in
1 – 3 years

61%

69%

72%

70%

20%

25%

24%

18%

16%

16%

21%

18%

15%

13%

11%

14%

*have at least one application in the cloud

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Since 2014, we can see that having at least one application
in the cloud has transitioned to the norm. So what else is
happening in the cloud landscape? IDG Enterprise’s 2016
Cloud Computing research lets you know.

Exploring Cloud Adoption

Adoption
isn’t over…

56%

of organizations are still
identifying IT operations that
are candidates for cloud hosting

The most popular applications for cloud solutions
Email/
messaging

Collaboration
& conferencing
solutions

Secure file
sharing and
storage

CRM &
salesforce
automation

Data storage
& data
management

47% 41% 33% 31% 29%
top factors
to consider
with cloud
Migration

The sensitivity of the
data being accessed by
the application
The importance of
the application to daily
business operations
The cost associated
with migrating the
application

82%
76%
74%

52% state this as
critical to consider

43%

plan to migrate
data storage/data
management and
business/data
analytics to the
cloud in 1-3 years

Fuel Behind Cloud Implementation

28%

Average
Investment

$1.62M $3.03M $286K
enterprise

of total IT budget will be allocated to
cloud computing within the next year

Who influences the cloud purchase process?

SMB

CIO or Top IT Executive
90% enterprise 79% SMB

Hopes for Cloud
technologies

74% enterprise 81% SMB

Lower total cost
of ownership

84% enterprise 62% SMB

Replace on-premise
legacy technology

73% enterprise 71% SMB

Enable business
continuity

84%
CEO
77%
IT Architect
72%
CFO
72%
CSO/CISO/Head of IT Security
69%
80% enterprise 59% SMB

42%
35%
33%

26% enterprise 39% SMB

Are using
Are using

62%
60%
26%

Are using

Use of Cloud Models & Services
A percentage of an organization’s
total IT environment may reside
in multiple models

private
cloud
public
cloud
hybrid
cloud

Currently

In 18 months

Private 23%
Public 15%
Hybrid 7%

Services

28%
22%
10%

Other deployed services

Cloud budgets
are focused on
these services

Software
-as-aService

30%

Infrastructure
-as-a-Service

19%

Platform-as-a-Service

n

45%

Backup-as-a-Service

n

Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service

n

Security-as-a-Service

n

Storage-as-a-Service

72%

6%
Other

of orgs have already
deployed Storage-as-aService, followed by Disaster
Recovery-as-a-Service (58%)

How Will the Adoption Get Done?

Cloud Impact on a Personnel Level
Collaborate
with other
business units
or departments

Rethink IT
organizational
structure

Retrain or
reposition
current IT staff

Seek new
IT talent
and skills

51% 39% 46% 36% 40% 32% 38% 31%
enterprise

SMB

70%

enterprise

SMB

enterprise

SMB

of enterprise organizations
report to adding new roles
due to cloud investments

enterprise

SMB

More than a third

of IT decision-makers
say that lack of the
right cloud skill sets
is a challenge to
implementing a cloud
computing strategy

35% cloud architect/engineer
30% cloud systems administrator
29% security architect/engineer

Challenges to Cloud Adoption

2016’s Top
Challenges
Concerns
about where
data is
stored

53%
52%

Concerns
about
security
Concerns
about
vendor
lock-in

Do challenges differ by model?
Private 24%
Concerns about
vendor lock-in

22%

Lack of the right skill sets to
manage and derive maximum
value from cloud investments

21%

Concerns about security
of cloud computing solutions

PUBLIC 43%

Concerns about where
data is stored

41%
21%

Concerns about security
of cloud computing solutions

Hybrid 24%

Concerns about security
of cloud computing solutions

19%
18%
18%

44%

Concerns about
vendor lock-in

Concerns about where
data is stored
Concerns about
vendor lock-in
Lack of the right skill sets to
manage and derive maximum
value from cloud investments

But...organizations are getting more
comfortable with public cloud security

37%

40% 35%
32%

44%

29% 25%

33% 31%

Uncertain
ability to
audit provider

45% 41%

30%

2014
2015
2016

Uncertain
ability to
recover data

2014
2015
2016

Uncertain that
provider meets
regulatory
compliance
requirements

2014
2015
2016

40%

2014
2015
2016

56% 41%

Uncertain ability
to enforce
security policies
at a provider site

2014
2015
2016

Access across
an untrusted
network

IDG Enterprise Cloud Computing Survey 2016
For more information visit
idgenterprise.com/resource-type/research