2nd Watch Survey: AWS Users Plan to Increase Spending on Cloud-native Services in 2017

A key takeaway from the survey was that companies are planning to spend more money on those AWS cloud native services in 2017 than they did last year. According to the survey results, 35 percent of respondents said they plan to spend 10-20 percent more on these services this year than last, while 13 percent said they would spend 21-30 percent more. The ramp-up in spending is occurring as companies are realizing the value of previous investments in cloud-related products and services. Thirty-six percent of survey respondents said they are gaining their expected return-on-investment from the use of cloud services, and another 30 percent said they had not yet achieved their anticipated ROI but soon would.

The survey also identified some of the reasons companies are spending more on technologies around those services. Per the survey results, 31 percent of respondents said the opportunity to increase revenue would be the biggest driver for acquiring cloud-native services, while 24 percent said it would be the opportunity to decrease costs. The next most commonly cited reason was the ability to provide better customer service (22 percent), followed by the desire to achieve a faster time-to-market on new products and services (20 percent).

The survey respondents also said that their Sales and Marketing departments (32 percent) were the most likely organizations to benefit from the use of new services, followed by Customer Service (19 percent) and Product Development (18 percent). Meanwhile, 29 percent of respondents said they are most likely to invest in databases and storage technology in preparation for new cloud services. Another 27 percent said they would invest in software to support new tools, and 26 percent said they’d focus on adding networking gear and servers. And finally, 23 percent said their cloud infrastructure would benefit most from better data analytics, while 18 percent said on-demand pricing.

Despite the fact that a vast majority (71 percent) of respondents to 2nd Watch’s survey are using public cloud technologies today, use is not without its challenges. For example, 34 percent of survey respondents said a lack of internal technical skills was the biggest obstacle they face when implementing new cloud services — unsurprisingly, 36 percent said they planned to use an outside firm to implement the services. An additional 28 percent of respondents cited a lack of budget as the chief impediment to acquiring new cloud services, while 21 percent said there wasn’t enough executive support for cloud.

"The survey results are consistent with what we’re seeing and hearing from our customers. They are making new investments into these cloud-native services as payoff from previous investments show up, and they’re looking for new ways of creating value and driving down costs," says Jeff Aden, EVP of Marketing & Strategic Business Development & Co-Founder at 2nd Watch. "As far as challenges go, the largest enterprises will continue seeking support from leading providers that are experts in public cloud and have experience migrating and managing enterprise workloads."