Johannesburg, 17 Feb 2015
Research highlights:
* Cloud computing continues to take on increasing importance for IT organisations.
* Hybrid cloud adoption has grown by 9% since 2013, over a quarter of global respondents (27%) have now deployed a hybrid cloud.
* 64% expressed a need for hybrid cloud due to its agility and security.
* As IT organisations lose control over spending budget, 71% believe IT must start to serve as in-house brokers for on-demand services to help business growth.
* However, 35% of respondents believe their organisation doesn't have the right level of skills and knowledge to achieve business priorities.
EMC has released the findings of a global study of 10 451 IT business decision-makers across 33 countries, conducted by Vanson Bourne, which gauged global sentiment about IT's evolving role in organisations today.
The survey revealed increasing adoption of cloud computing globally, with the majority of respondents citing hybrid cloud as their preferred option for greater agility and security.
Respondents believe IT is a business enabler now more than ever before, yet spending is moving outside of its control. To help support business growth, a majority of respondents believe IT must act as an in-house broker of on-demand services. This pressure combined with a widening IT skills gap appears to be driving interest among IT professionals in pursuing hybrid cloud.
Critical findings from the survey include:
Challenges and drivers for adoption
* While 71% of respondents favour a strategy for IT to serve as an in-house broker of on-demand services, survey data indicates a lack of confidence in IT's own ability to help drive business growth.
* 35% believe their organisation doesn't have the right level of skills and knowledge to achieve key business priorities.
* 69% of respondents believe training IT staff to keep pace with the implications of megatrends such as cloud, mobile, social, and big data, will be a challenge for their organisation over the next one to two years.
Increasing importance of hybrid cloud and automation
This has put the spotlight on automation and innovations such as hybrid cloud.
* Hybrid cloud adoption has grown 9% since 2013, with 27% uptake across the globe, the highest being the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region (28%), followed by Latin America (24%) and Asia Pacific and Japan (24%).
* Roughly two-thirds of global respondents (64%) expressed a need for a hybrid cloud due to the agility and security it provides.
* 74% believe that increasing automation in their infrastructure is imperative to business growth.
Future of cloud and scepticism towards public
* While organisations are moving increasingly online, only 16% of respondents would be willing to host any application on a public cloud.
* The applications that most respondents would not be willing to put in the public cloud include financial planning (39%), human capital management (35%) and ERP (32%).
* Developed markets with more advanced IT economies lead the charge for cloud adoption, while emerging markets appear to be more risk averse with lower levels of cloud uptake overall.
* Emerging markets are, however, more positive about the IT department and hybrid cloud - 79% say they expect a competitive advantage from megatrends such as cloud, mobile, social, and big data (vs. 75% of developed countries) and 67% think combining public and private cloud will improve security and agility (vs. 60% of developed countries)
For more detailed results, including breakdowns by country, please visit http://www.emc.com/campaign/global/forum2014/survey.htm.
EMC quotes
Servaas Venter, Country Manager, EMC Southern Africa: "This survey shows that IT decisions makers around the globe are adopting a common vision for the future of IT. First, the vast majority believe technology will create a competitive advantage as more and more business moves online. Second, there is a conviction that IT must become an in-house provider of on-demand services to truly enable the business. And finally, that the best way to improve agility and security is to combine public and private clouds in IT service offerings."
Jeremy Burton, President, Products and Marketing, EMC Corporation: "Enterprise IT continues to be under massive pressure to improve quality of service while reducing cost. As a result, companies are moving toward more advanced levels of IT infrastructure driven by innovation such as hybrid cloud. We expect this uptake to continue in 2015 as companies look for agile, simple, and secure services."
Survey methodology
Survey data collected from the 2014 EMC Forum registrations has been gathered for each individual event (this survey is a non-mandatory set of questions delivered via email upon completion of the registration form). Sector and size data is also collected for each respondent. 10 451 respondents from the following 33 regions were interviewed in total:
* APJ: Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand
EMEA: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Nordics, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, UAE, UK
* Americas: US, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico
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