Verizon: 65% of Enterprises Are Leveraging the Cloud
A new Verizon Enterprise Solutions (VZ) report shows enterprises are leveraging the cloud now more than ever before, and the number of cloud users is likely to increase over the next few years as well.
Verizon Enterprise Solutions’ “State of the Market: Enterprise Cloud 2014” report revealed 65 percent of enterprises are using cloud computing, and enterprise spend on cloud is up 38 percent year over year. Researchers also pointed out 71 percent of enterprises said they expect to use the cloud for external-facing production applications by 2017.
“When it comes to enterprise IT and cloud computing, the discussion has decidedly shifted from ‘if’ to ‘how’ and ‘what,'” Siki Giunta, Verizon Enterprise Solutions’ senior vice president of cloud services, said in a prepared statement. “Customers are now coming to us with more detailed, stringent requirements and questions about where and how to use cloud to transform their businesses and mission-critical workloads, instead of whether or not to use it.”
Other report results included:
- 84 percent of cloud adopters ranked uptime as the most important factor in selecting a cloud service.
- 71 percent of respondents said more than 80 percent of cloud spend is managed by their IT department, and the chief information officer (CIO) or chief technology officer (CTO) oversees 62 percent of all cloud purchases.
- 71 percent of Verizon cloud customers are using the cloud for mission-critical applications.
- 65 percent of enterprises said they believe the cloud doesn’t compromise IT security, and 36 percent said they believe the cloud actually improves it.
- 35 percent of enterprises said they strongly believe in the benefits of the cloud and are adopting it aggressively wherever it makes commercial sense.
- 32 percent of companies that have adopted the cloud said business agility was their primary driver.
- 14 percent of enterprises cited cost reduction as the main motive in moving to the cloud.
“As the technology underpinnings of the cloud have matured, it has become an established delivery platform for application workloads and fundamentally redefined the relevancy of IT to the broader organization,” Giunta added. “That technology maturation is mirrored in greater sophistication in how enterprise IT leaders are collaborating with their lines of business and, ultimately, approaching their cloud purchasing decisions.”
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Enterprises, however, aren’t the only organizations that could increase their cloud usage over the next few years.
An Aug. 2014 Intuit report revealed 78 percent of small businesses are expected to fully adapt to the cloud by 2020, up from 37 percent in 2014.
How to find the right cloud solution
Enterprises and small businesses can choose private, public or hybrid clouds, but which option is the best choice?
Verizon Enterprise Solutions researchers recommended taking a “scorecard approach” to find the right cloud solution.
“We recommend a scorecard approach [to evaluate] each workload’s security and risk profile, elasticity and economics. Only then can the business prioritize its overall application portfolio,” researchers wrote in the “State of the Market: Enterprise Cloud 2014” report.
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