EMC Corporation has released the findings of a global study of 10,451 IT business decision-makers across 33 countries, conducted by Vanson Bourne, which gauged global sentiment about IT’s evolving role in organisations today. The survey revealed increasing adoption of cloud computing globally, with the majority of respondents citing hybrid cloud as their preferred option for greater agility and security.
Respondents believe IT is a business enabler now more than ever before, yet spending is moving outside of its control. To help support business growth, a majority of respondents believe IT must act as an in-house broker of on-demand services. This pressure combined with a widening IT skills gap appears to be driving interest among IT professionals in pursuing hybrid cloud.
Challenges and drivers for adoption
- 71% of respondents globally favor a strategy for IT to serve as an in-house broker of on-demand services, survey data indicates a lack of confidence in IT’s own ability to help drive business growth.
- 48% of respondents globally and 47% in EMEA believe that spending on technology is out of the IT department’s control, with majority of respondents in emerging markets like Saudi Arabia (65%), UAE (64%) and Qatar (63%) stating the same.
- 35% globally believe their organisation doesn’t have the right level of skills and knowledge to achieve key business priorities lead by respondents in developing markets like LATAM (34%) and EMEA (33%)
- Majority of respondents in LATAM region (85%), UAE (85%) and Saudi Arabia (81%) believe training IT staff to keep pace with the implications of megatrends such as cloud, mobile, social, and Big Data, will be a challenge for their organisation over the next 1-2 years (beating the global average of 69%).
Increasing importance of hybrid cloud & automation
- Hybrid cloud adoption has grown 9% since 2013, with 27% uptake across the globe, the highest being the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region (28%), followed by Latin America (24%) and Asia Pacific and Japan (24%)
- Hybrid cloud adoption is the highest in the EMEA region lead by countries like UK and Netherlands (36% reported to be using hybrid cloud)
- In the Middle East, UAE and Saudi Arabia lead in hybrid cloud adoption with 32% and 30% reported to be using hybrid cloud (global average is 27%). Roughly two-thirds of global respondents (64%) expressed a need for a hybrid cloud due to the agility and security it provides.
Future of cloud & scepticism towards public
- While organisations are moving increasingly online, only 16% of respondents would be willing to host any application on a public cloud
- Developed markets with more advanced IT economies lead the charge for cloud adoption, while Emerging markets appear to be more risk averse with lower levels of cloud uptake overall.
“Enterprise IT continues to be under massive pressure to improve quality of service while reducing cost. As a result, companies are moving toward more advanced levels of IT infrastructure driven by innovation such as hybrid cloud. We expect this uptake to continue in 2015 as companies look for agile, simple, and secure services,” said Jeremy Burton, President, Products and Marketing, EMC Corporation.
Methodology
Survey data collected from the 2014 EMC Forum registrations has been gathered for each individual event (this survey is a non-mandatory set of questions delivered via email upon completion of the registration form). Sector and size data is also collected for each respondent. 10,451 respondents from the following 33 regions were interviewed in total:
- APJ: Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand
- EMEA: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Nordics, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, UAE, UK
- Americas: US, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico
For more detailed results, including breakdowns by country, please visit http://www.emc.com/campaign/global/forum2014/survey.htm
