New 451 Research Report: “IT Organizations Must Alter Their Approach”

Today, we are releasing a new 451 Research report: The Impact of Cloud Applications on the Role of IT. The report, which we commissioned, is an exploration of the benefits and growing challenges IT professionals face because of cloud application adoption.

Last year, our Trends in Cloud IT research showed the benefits of cloud applications and the differences between Google Apps and Office 365. We uncovered a massive amount of qualitative data about how the cloud was changing the role of IT. But we wanted to dig deeper, and working with 451 Research has helped us do so.

For advanced access to the report, register for our August 3rd webinar, 451 Research Presents: How the Unique Challenges of Cloud Application Adoption are Redefining the Role of IT.

Report Highlights

The data in the report was collected from 269 organizations across a wide range of verticals. The survey sample includes respondents (IT decision-makers or influencers) from both mid-sized (500-1,000 employees) and large enterprises (more than 1,000 employees), with job titles ranging from manager to C-level executive.

• 64% of organizations surveyed have most or all of their IT workloads and processes delivered via cloud services.
• Just 8% of respondents did not see any cost savings, improvement in user experience/functionality, or reduction in IT effort on routine work.
• More than 60% of IT professionals report less time spent on daily maintenance, configuration, upgrades, and backup as a major benefit of cloud applications, while nearly 40% report increased participation in business strategy and/or planning for the future.
• The top three benefits of cloud applications to end users are automatic synchronization of data across multiple devices, more effective peer collaboration, and reduced dependency on email.
• 44% of Google Apps users say the cloud office system fits their needs very well, compared with 39% for Office 365.
• Only 1% of Google users pointed to poor suitability, compared with 6% of Microsoft users.
• Security was the most often cited pain point for cloud office systems, followed by service quality, followed by integration with business systems.
• 60% of IT professions are learning and developing skills that help them better understand cloud service types, deployment models, vendors, and available solutions.
• Only 22% of survey respondents say their day-to-day work life is more or less the same as before adopting cloud applications.

Register for our August 3rd webinar to get advanced access to the 451 Research report.

About 451 Research

451 Research is a preeminent information technology research and advisory company. With a core focus on technology innovation and market disruption, 451 Research provides essential insight for leaders of the digital economy. More than 100 analysts and consultants deliver that insight via syndicated research, advisory services, and live events to over 1,000 client organizations in North America, Europe and around the world. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in New York, 451 Research is a division of The 451 Group.

About the Authors

Csilla Zsigri

Csilla works on the 451 Advisory team, where she runs consulting projects and does custom market research – providing strategic guidance and competitive intelligence to IT vendors, service providers, enterprises, and governments, in areas such as cloud, hosting, datacenters, and enterprise security. Csilla was in charge of market intelligence and commercial exploitation in several EU-funded ICT research and innovation projects and is co-author of several forward-looking market studies prepared for the European Commission.

Andrew Reichman

Andrew Reichman is a Research Director for cloud data within the 451 Research Voice of the Enterprise team. In this role, he designs and interprets quarterly surveys that explore cloud adoption in the overall enterprise technology market. Prior to this role, he worked at Amazon Web Services, leading their efforts in marketing infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to enterprise firms worldwide. Before this, he spent six years as a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, covering storage, cloud and datacenter economics. Prior to his time at Forrester, Andrew was a consultant with Accenture, optimizing datacenter environments on behalf of EMC. He holds an MBA in finance from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington and a BA in History from Wesleyan University.