The cloud is being widely adopted for applications important to business success, according to a new study by Forrester Research conducted on behalf of Infosys, a provider of consulting and outsourcing services.
A majority of the 300 organizations in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Australia surveyed by Forrester in July and August, 2014 (81 percent) said they’re either using or planning to use critical apps in the cloud in the next two years.
The survey found that cost savings is no longer the primary driver for leveraging cloud services, with 77% of organizations considering agility to be the key driver.
Other highlights of the study: 77 percent of respondents are either using or planning to use infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) or software as a service (SaaS) for a range of business applications within the next two years; and 66 percent agree that they should prioritize the development of a comprehensive cloud strategy for their IT infrastructure.
In addition, 70 percent of businesses want to work with a cloud implementation provider that offers a single point of accountability; and 66 percent are either concerned or very concerned about the complexity involved in managing and governing a hybrid cloud environment.
"While cloud adoption has definitely accelerated, user-experience has become a major concern for enterprises,” Vishnu Bhat, senior vice president and global head, Cloud & Infrastructure Services at Infosys, said in a statement. “They are facing challenges in terms of poor levels of self-service, insufficient transparency and lack of operational simplicity. These need to be addressed immediately as integration and orchestration are critical success factors in an effective hybrid cloud environment.”
