Cloud Adoption Is Shifting to Its 'Second Wave'

By Gina Roos | Posted 2015-09-28

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Cloud Adoption Is Shifting to Its 'Second Wave'

In the 'second wave' of cloud adoption, businesses are focusing on sales growth and innovation—in addition to earlier goals concerning cost and efficiency.
High Expectations

53% of companies expect the cloud to drive higher revenue over the next two years. The challenge: Only 1% have optimized cloud strategies and 32% have no cloud strategy.
Cloud Status

57% of companies are planning to implement or are using some form of the cloud.
Adoption Strategies

44% of companies said their cloud adoption strategies are opportunistic/ad hoc. Only 25% have optimized, managed or repeatable strategies.
Implementation Plans

44% of companies are currently using or planning to implement a private cloud, 37% are using or planning to implement a public cloud, and 64% are already using some form of hybrid cloud.
Mixed Strategy

48% of cloud adopters said their strategy includes workload portability across public and private cloud resources while 50% said it includes a mix of public cloud, private cloud and dedicated traditional IT resources.
Hybrid Cloud Drivers

Three key hybrid cloud requirements include portable workloads (33%), security (47%) and policy automation (67%).
Incumbents Win

83% of companies want to work with their IT incumbent providers to transition to the cloud.
Performance Indicators for Private Cloud Users

55% of private cloud users expect the cloud to improve IT budget allocation, and 54% expect the cloud to have a positive impact on revenue.
OpenStack Rules

65% of cloud adopters reported that OpenStack is key to their cloud strategies. These respondents also had higher expectations for the cloud to improve key performance indicators, such as revenue growth, strategic allocation of IT budget and the ability to meet service-level agreements.
More Control

70% of companies expect to be able to migrate apps and data from their data center to a public cloud and among multiple cloud providers, while 64% expect to have two or more major cloud providers and 64% expect to act as brokers of IT services.
Leading Adopters

Manufacturing has the largest percentage of companies adopting the cloud, at 33%, followed by IT (30%), finance (29%) and health care (28%).
Cloud Laggards

Sectors slow to move to the cloud include government/education (22%), professional services (22%) and retail/wholesale (20%).
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The cloud is moving into its "second wave" of adoption, as businesses are looking at it not only for efficiency and reduced costs, but also to increase sales and drive innovation, according to a Cisco-sponsored study from IDC. The report finds that 53 percent of IT decision-makers at 3,400 companies expect the cloud to fuel increased revenue in the next two years. The most mature cloud organizations report an average of $1.6 million in additional revenue per application deployed on a private or public cloud. The second wave of cloud adoption is about business outcomes driving cloud adoption, not just IT, said Fabio Gori, director, data center and cloud solutions marketing, Cisco. "It is truly about the ability to increase a company's revenue, and freeing up more budget to invest in new strategic projects." The ultimate winner will be the hybrid cloud, the direction in which many companies are headed, he said. Cisco and its partners are offering a tool to help businesses benchmark their own cloud adoption and related benefits compared with industry peers. Here are key takeaways from the cloud adoption survey.

Gina Roos is a business and technology writer who has contributed print and Web articles to leading electronic industry publications. She was Editor-in-Chief at Electronics Sourcing North America, and served as Site Editor for UBM's Green SupplyLine and Electronics Supply & Manufacturing Websites. She also authored the "In the Channel" column, covering the electronics distribution industry for EETimes ProductWeek. Gina was the founder and editor of Electronics Advocate, an online magazine covering design and supply chain issues in the electronics industry. The publication was sold to MMG Publishing UK in 2010. Gina has a degree in journalism.

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Cloud Adoption Is Shifting to Its 'Second Wave'

Cloud Adoption Is Shifting to Its 'Second Wave'

High Expectations

Cloud Status

Adoption Strategies

Implementation Plans

Mixed Strategy

Hybrid Cloud Drivers

Incumbents Win

Performance Indicators for Private Cloud Users

OpenStack Rules

More Control

Leading Adopters

Cloud Laggards

Why Tech Companies Are Eager to Inves...