Enterprises are gradually shifting focus from incremental to transformational benefits of cloud

For this research Infosys surveyed 876 executives representing both technology and business functions from organizations with over USD 1 billion in revenues across US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).

Highlights of the survey :

• To assess the intensity of cloud adoption, Infosys discovered four distinct segments which provide clues into enterprise cloud thinking and behavior 

1. Torchbearers (51 percent) – Have high adoption of cloud across functions, and seek to be fully integrated and a cloud-first organization

2. Pathfinders (19 percent) – Have moderate cloud adoption, and actively seek to derive more business value from the cloud    

3. Defenders (19 percent) –  Understand the importance of cloud, but have a siloed approach and unsure about how to derive business value from the cloud

4. Aspirants (11 percent) – Have low cloud adoption across functions, and mostly have a tactical approach towards the cloud

• 94 percent of enterprises surveyed had a stated enterprise-wide cloud strategy, validating the notion that the cloud is well‑entrenched in enterprises
• 49 percent of the respondents stated that the strategy is well-defined and followed diligently, while 45 percent stated it exists only as a guideline and business functions or regions have flexibility to develop their own
• Cloud adoption is primarily being driven by emerging technologies (50 percent), competitive activity (49 percent) and reduction in overall IT costs by leveraging pay per use models (45 percent)
• The most anticipated outcomes of cloud adoption are delivering an enhanced experience to customers and other stakeholders (52 percent) and standardizing and integrating the technology landscape across the enterprise (50 percent)
• Among those enterprises that prefer private cloud, over 61 percent of enterprises have 25-50 percent of their workload on the private cloud, and 21 percent have over 50 percent of their workload on it. Similarly, among enterprises that prefer public cloud, 56 percent stating that they have 25-50 percent of their workload on this cloud model
• With legacy systems still rampant in most enterprises, it’s no surprise that aligning legacy systems (59 percent) is stated as a top challenge
• Following areas showed over 50 percent adoption of cloud initiatives
  • End User Productivity areas (61 percent) which include email, intranet, knowledge management
  • Business Support (59 percent) which include finance, HR, CRM
  • Core (55 percent) which include manufacturing, logistics
• Manufacturing, Financial Services and Insurance, and Consumer Goods, Retail and Logistics industries are fast adopters of the cloud and have a high percentage of respondents who are Torchbearers and Pathfinders

The survey also highlighted that business leadership (50 percent) plays a significant role in defining key business outcomes from cloud transformation programs. IT leadership, on the other hand, is actively involved in conceiving technology design & strategy, vendor evaluation & selection, and to oversee cloud transformation programs.

Narsimha Rao Mannepalli, EVP and Head – Cloud & Infrastructure, Infosys, said, “Cloud initiatives have mushroomed across the enterprise as businesses recognize the inevitability of cloud computing in their quest for digital transformation. There are multiple challenges that will emerge, but investments in cloud transformation initiatives by enterprises have demonstrated long-term benefits as they aspire to win the digital race and achieve significant business performance improvements by building a robust Cloud ecosystem. The findings of this survey elucidate the multiple facets of Cloud implementation which will help enterprises derive their strategy and embark on a digital transformation journey with cloud at the core for optimum business benefits.”

For a full copy of the report, please visit at : www.infosys.com/navigate-with-cloud