Survey: Cloud making real-world strides, boosting ability, reducing costs

The move to the cloud for enterprises continued to accelerate, with a new report from the Harvard Business Review and commissioned by Verizon Communications finding 70% of those surveyed had adopted cloud computing into their operations.
Of those firms that have adopted cloud computing, the survey of 527 HBR readers found that 35% were “moving aggressively whenever it makes commercial sense,” while a similar number were a little more cautious in their deployment models. Around 30% of those surveyed were either still looking into cloud options or not doing anything cloud related.
For those that have taken to the sky, 74% said the move has provided a competitive advantage, with 30% of those classifying that advantage as “significant” and 33% seeing “some advantage.” Of course, the survey also noted that so-called “cloud enthusiasts” were more than twice as likely to claim a significant advantage compared with more moderate supporters of cloud efforts.
“It’s easy to look at all the coverage of cloud computing and dismiss it as vendor marketing hype,” explained Siki Giunta, SVP for cloud, data center and connected solutions at Verizon. “It’s true that there’s a lot of noise and hyperbole. But this research shows that cloud has graduated from hype to reality and is now a mainstream IT delivery mechanism for the enterprise.”
Similar to what is being seen in the telecom software world, business agility and reduced complexity were cited by enterprises in drivers for adopting cloud computing solutions. The survey found 32% of those questioned noted an increase in business agility as their primary reason for adopting a cloud platform, with 14% noting increased innovation and 14% admitting to lower costs.
A recent report from IHS Technology found cloud-based software was set to dominate workforce management solutions. That report singled out cloud-based software as having a particular “rosy” future, noting the software-as-a-service platform is expected to nearly double from $539 million in revenues last year to nearly $1 billion in 2018.
A different report from IDC predicted that the move toward the cloud, network function virtualization and software-defined networking were set to revolutionize the telecom industry. IDC predicts that the ongoing “shift to the [third] platform, built on cloud, mobile, social and big data and analytics technologies” is forcing telecom operators and their suppliers to “accelerate their efficiencies and agility,” with virtualization “set to revolutionize the telecom industry as it transforms the culture and operational infrastructure, as well as the fabric of legacy proprietary infrastructures that have, until now, dominated the space.”
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