Table of Contents
- Summary
- Drivers to adoption
- Inhibitors to adoption
- The cloud’s impact on manageability of IT
- Perceptions of cloud costs
- The cloud’s impact on hiring
- Types of organizations that will emerge
- Key takeaways
- About Jo Maitland
- About GigaOm
- Copyright
1. Summary
It’s well-known that cloud computing is a disruptive force bearing down on enterprise IT — but not in the same way for everyone. In fact, the latest GigaOM research survey shows that those in senior IT management often have a very different take on cloud computing than that of the people working for them.
This report looks at the June survey of 302 IT decision makers at companies with over 500 employees. We partnered with venture capital firm North Bridge to examine cloud adoption trends across a broader spectrum of cloud users. Those results are found here.
This snapshot report compares senior managers’ (C-level and VP-level) answers to questions about cloud adoption to those from their direct reports (IT managers and directors). The purpose is to examine any disconnect between the two groups. With some understanding of the different viewpoints, IT organizations should have a smoother migration to the cloud.
Senior IT leaders have to watch for sticking points in moving their cloud efforts forward:
- IT operations managers fear that a migration to cloud threatens their jobs. Reassure them that a 100 percent shift won’t happen, and that any shift that occurs will be gradual. IT ops should morph into a role managing the complexity that comes with a move to the cloud by matching the requirements of your business and your customers to the services offered by your cloud providers.
- IT managers are less concerned with the finances of IT (e.g., TCO and capex to opex) than they should be. Less than a quarter of those surveyed thought that TCO would improve with a move to the cloud. IT leaders will need to invest in analytics and modeling to help IT managers make the most cost-effective use of cloud resources.
Tech vendors and service providers should take note of the following:
- The C suite cares deeply about anything to do with the economics of cloud (TCO, capex versus opex, etc.). Almost half (49 percent) of IT leaders expect better TCO from adopting cloud services.
- Other hot buttons for IT leaders are complexity, interoperability, lock-in, and the growth of cloud APIs.