ServiceNow has released a new report, “The 2016 Cloud Computing Tipping Point”. It reveals adoption reality finally measures up to hype for cloud computing. There are game-changing consequences for IT departments as DevOps’ influence extends across the enterprise.
To better understand the adoption, drivers, and implications of an increasingly cloud-centric world, ServiceNow commissioned a survey of 1,850 mid- to senior- level managers. It was a global study, evenly split among IT, line-of-business management and Development/Operations professionals (DevOp).
The 2016 Cloud Computing Tipping Point research revealed three significant findings for the 225 UK organisations included in the survey:
Adoption Reality Finally Measures Up to Hype for Cloud Computing
- 57 per cent of respondents said they would choose cloud - software as a service or platform as a service - for new business applications as the platform of choice over on-premises data centres, compared to 52 per cent globally.
- 76 per cent said they would complete the shift within two years (77 per cent globally).
“The cloud-first enterprise is at the heart of enabling the agility, speed and scalability to break new ground in today’s competitive business landscape. There is a clear shift from traditional data center computing to cloud computing, but it’s one with far-reaching implications - a shift away from focusing resources, skills and budgets on the back-end infrastructure to creating a truly service-oriented enterprise” said Bob Moore, area vice president, UK, ServiceNow.
DevOps Drove the Charge to a Cloud-First World
- Nearly every respondent (94 per cent), both in the UK and globally, reported that they are involved in some way with the DevOps movement, a philosophy with origins in the agile development community. The goal of DevOps is to drive the rapid creation and hosting of new apps and services. Traditionally there was little interaction between IT and developers but the DevOps movement aims for early and frequent collaboration between these groups.
- A large majority (82 per cent) said that the rise of DevOps is a major factor driving the move to cloud-first, compared to 76 per cent globally. Increasing the development cadence puts pressure on how enterprises deploy new applications. DevOps shines a spotlight on the bottlenecks incurred when hosting apps on company-owned infrastructure. Cloud is the way to rapidly add new streams of revenue-driving apps to fuel business growth.
“Cloud is not new, so why was 2016 the year enterprises became cloud-first? According to the survey, the answer is the rise of DevOps,” said Moore. “DevOps saw early that cloud computing could solve many of the issues they were grappling with. And DevOps’s “can-do” vibe – enabled by cloud – is extending across the enterprise.”
A Cloud-First World Demands New IT Skill Set
- Nearly all UK companies (97 per cent) who have completed making the shift to a cloud-first model said their current IT staff lacked the required skillsets to help them make this shift (89 per cent globally).
- 88 per cent, feel cloud could be a replacement for a formal IT department at least some of the time, both in the UK and globally.
IT will have to adapt to this new reality, where most of the apps and infrastructure are outside the data centre:
- 81 per cent said the cloud shift actually raised IT’s relevancy to the business (72 per cent globally).
- 77 per cent said IT will be completely essential in the future (68 per cent globally).
“Amidst the cloud-first shift, there are ominous signs for IT if there’s no change,” said Moore. “We believe this presents a real opportunity for those visionary IT organisations who can become strategic partners to the enterprise during this shift to cloud-first.”
The cloud-first shift has several likely consequences for IT departments:
- IT visibility and cost predictions could be obstructed: According to all survey respondents, two top priorities in the cloud shift were:
- Achieving 360-degree visibility (64 per cent)
- Predicting the cost of computing (63 per cent)
IT must have full visibility of the organisation’s compute environment, including all cloud-based services and applications. Visibility helps IT more effectively manage demand, understand compute costs, utilise cloud- and on-premises-based resources, execute on projects, ensure regulatory compliance, and manage business relationships.
- The rise of DevOps means more of the enterprise will be playing in IT’s backyard: IT teams will be seeing more business app projects coming from the bottom up, and will need to enable the line of business with greater tools to code. At the same time, they’ll need to maintain control of their enterprise environment for security and compliance. They’ll need to delegate development to a growing legion of employees with DevOps skills.
- Cloud growth means cloud sprawl: Implementing more agile cloud management policies and best practices will be critical. Companies will have to deal with a greater number and types of vendors, and those vendors will come and go more quickly than they may be accustomed to. That means Service Integration and Management (SIAM) and vendor management will gain importance.
