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Businesses Taking the Cloud Plunge, but Waters Still Uncharted

While many organizations are jumping into cloud business head first, they don’t necessarily have a long-term strategy for using cloud-based services. Rather than creating new revenue streams, businesses are focused on the cost-cutting of IT aspect that cloud can deliver over time.

A recent IDC (News - Alert) survey revealed that less than three-quarters (69 percent) of companies in the U.K., U.S., France and Germany had already started using private cloud technologies, with nearly half (40 per cent) saying they were using public and hybrid cloud.

However, while some companies are already taking the plunge, 64 percent of U.K. organizations said they are still “considering” how to approach cloud – compared to 60 percent in France and 52 percent in Germany.

According to IDC, “most enterprises’ cloud strategies are not particularly sophisticated, however – and still focus on the technology-related drivers for cloud adoption, such as cutting the cost of IT, rather than business-related drivers, such as creating new revenue streams,” ZDNet recently reported.

While there are many elements IT departments need to consider when shifting toward cloud-based technologies, above all else, enterprises need a cloud strategy for any cloud implementation to be successful in the long term, according to Louis Hayner, chief sales officer at Alteva (News - Alert).

“The cloud enhances productivity and efficiency, generating a better ROI, whether it is public, private or hybrid delivery based,” Hayner told TMCnet. “The cloud addresses and answers both simple and highly sophisticated challenges faced by a variety of companies. In a class all of its own, the cloud helps enterprise-level and SMBs.”

In related news, as more enterprises and consumers continue to invest in public cloud services, IDC recently predicted that U.S. revenue in this segment will grow from $18.5 billion in 2011 to $43.2 billion in 2016, which is a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.5 percent over the forecast period, TMCnet reported.

The three verticals that accounted for more than 50 percent of the spending in 2011 are discrete manufacturing, professional services and process manufacturing.

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