Here are 6 statistics you need to know.
Flexibility, scalability, mobility – the benefits of moving to a cloud-first network go on and on. If you’ve even been considering a cloud-first strategy, you’re probably already aware of at least some of these advantages. But these six key findings revealed in the RightScale 2016 State of the Cloud Report* may surprise you.
- Security concerns are decreasing.
In past RightScale reports, security has always been the top concern among respondents. However, from 2014 to 2016, security concerns for Enterprise central IT teams, who typically have the most responsibility for security, declined from 47 percent to 37 percent. Is seems as cloud providers and best practices mature, security concerns will continue to decline.
- Top cloud challenge cited is lack of resources/expertise.
Nearly 32 percent of respondents indicated lack of resources/expertise as their No. 1 cloud challenge, an increase from 27 percent last year. As companies continue to place higher demand on the cloud, the need for technical expertise has grown.
- Cloud cost management is a significant challenge.
Cloud cost management as a challenge has steadily increased each year from 18 percent in 2013 to 26 percent in 2016. From reducing or eliminating data centers to utilizing flexible capacity, companies have significant opportunities for savings if they know what actions to take.
- Cloud adoption is on the rise.
This year’s survey findings revealed that private cloud adoption increased from 63 percent to 77 percent, and hybrid cloud adoption increased from 58 percent to 71 percent since 2015. More enterprise workloads are also moving to the cloud – mainly the private cloud – from 22 percent to 31 percent since last year. Overall, 95 percent of respondents are using cloud, up from 93 percent last year.
- Cloud users see increase in speed.
The survey findings show the two benefits that had the largest increase were faster access to infrastructure, which grew from 57 to 62 percent, and faster time-to market, which grew from 48 to 52 percent.
- Cloud initiatives differ based on company size.
The study showed that 2016 cloud priorities differed among Enterprises and SMBs. Enterprises, who generally have a larger number of applications, are more focused on moving more of those workloads to the cloud (57 percent). Small and Medium-sized Business (SMBs) indicated optimizing existing cloud use to achieve cost savings (43 percent) as their No.1 initiative.
Whether you’ve just starting to think about moving some applications to the cloud, have a robust cloud-first strategy in place, or you’re somewhere in-between – we can help. From cost savings to workplace efficiency, our experienced team of technical engineers will help you fully take advantage of all the benefits a cloud-first network can offer.
* Source: RightScale 2016 State of the Cloud Report reveals results from a survey of 1,060 technical professionals across a broad cross-section of organizations about their adoption of cloud computing.