Unlocking The Cloud: How A Computing Revolution Went Mainstream
April 3, 2014
Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Lindsey LaManna.
By now, we’ve all heard about the cloud and the numerous benefits of cloud computing, but how are companies really using the cloud? Working with SAP, Oxford Economics surveyed 200 senior business and IT executives to find out. Respondents to the survey were highly diversified, representing various industry segments including banking, capital markets, consumer products, retail and telecommunications, as well as multiple countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, UK and US.
What they found is that companies are investing heavily in the cloud, with 95% using cloud technology. Companies are moving more and more business functions into the cloud, and making the cloud into a truly strategic option. As more and more functions (HR, finance, etc.) adopt cloud technologies, the barriers between executives disappear—clouds of information merge…
- 12% of HR functions are using cloud platforms now and it is expected to be 44% in 3 years
- 27% of marketing functions are using cloud platforms now and it is expected to be 62% in 3 years
The first wave of cloud computing services was built on basics, like simple hosted applications and software-as a-service. These early developments allowed IT to be more agile and flexible, but information and process silos made it difficult for companies to harness the full power of cloud technologies…
Subscribe to the CloudCow bi-monthly newsletter @ http://eepurl.com/smZeb