Some 63 per cent of UK enterprises are now planning to move their entire IT estate to the Cloud in the near future. This is according to the latest research from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF).
CIF has launched its latest White Paper into the levels of Cloud adoption in the UK based on detailed market research conducted in Q4 2015 which polled 250 senior IT and business decision-makers from both the public and private sectors. The Cloud adoption rate amongst UK-based organisations now stands at 78 per cent – the same level as the previous year, but substantially higher than when the research was first conducted in 2011 when it stood at 53 per cent.
Of those organisations that use Cloud, three quarters (77 per cent) use at least two services and one in eight (12 per cent) have deployed five or more. These figures represent a healthy increase in Cloud service penetration in UK businesses from the levels reported in 2014, suggesting that organisations’ engagement with Cloud is deepening.
“This is the sixth major body of research we have conducted into the UK end user community, and while we are continuing to analyse and report on trends and adoption rates within the UK, we also wanted to explore the issue of digital transformation and how Cloud computing is facilitating business change,” stated Alex Hilton, CEO of CIF.
“It should come as no surprise that digital transformation is creeping up businesses’ agendas as they seek to stay ahead of the competition. Cloud is very much part of the digital transformation agenda, and it is clear from this research that those companies with plans to digitally transform, struggle to do so without the delivery model.”
Key findings include:
Cloud landscape
- Cloud adoption remains high with 78 per cent of organisations using Cloud services today and this is likely to increase to 85 per cent in the next two years
- Of those organisations using Cloud, three quarters expect to increase their usage in 2016, 77 per cent of organisations that use Cloud have deployed two or more services and they store, on average, 29 per cent of their data in the Cloud
- Around six in ten (63 per cent) foresee a time when they will move their entire IT estate to the Cloud
- Webhosting (57 per cent), email (56 per cent), eCommerce (53 per cent) and collaboration services (52 per cent) are the applications most likely to be hosted in the Cloud today
Benefits of Cloud
- The flexibility of the delivery model stands as the most common reason given by Cloud users for their initial adoption (77 per cent). This is followed by scalability (76 per cent) and 24/7 service dependence (74 per cent)
- Over two in five (45 per cent) say that enabling innovation is a business objective driving their continued investment in the Cloud. Enhancing business continuity (37 per cent) and improving customer service (31 per cent) are the other objectives most likely to drive investment
- 64 per cent of the sample stated that using the Cloud saved their organisation time and 86 per cent report that their organisation has experienced at least one intangible benefit of Cloud
Alex Hilton continued: “The IT landscape is clearly shifting as businesses become more open to receiving IT as-a-service and arrive at their natural technology refresh cycles. The proportion of organisations operating on-site servers/data centres has dropped from 85 per cent in 2014 to 76 per cent today. This change could be attributed to the increase in those organisations that consider infrastructure refresh to be an opportunity to adopt alternative deployment models such as Cloud, which has risen to 85 per cent from 71 per cent a year ago.
“We will be announcing further data on the impact of Cloud as an agent of digital disruption over the forthcoming months. However it is worth saying that these findings once again indicate that there are significant benefits to be had by business that pursue both digital transformation and Cloud strategies in tandem. The benefits of Cloud – and adopting a Cloud-first approach – are considerable and well documented. Flexible, on-demand, consumption-based Cloud services and applications are removing the barriers to change, allowing businesses to react quickly to changing market conditions and move on new opportunities faster than their competitors,” concluded Alex.
