The 3 main reasons why multinationals want to move into the cloud
Improving productivity and performance (in one word efficiency) is with 42% the main reason for global decision-makers in HR, finance and IT to move into the cloud. A somewhat surprising second place is reserved for IT staff or skill shortages required to run current systems with 38%. On the final step of the podium, we find improving the ways data is shared across different departments with 37%.
That’s just a few of several intriguing outcomes of a global study about cloud conducted by MIT Technology Review in collaboration with Oracle. The 700 respondents are active in a wide range of industries: from construction and manufacturing to professional and financial services.
The respondents’ job titles vary from mid-level to senior managers in finance, HR and IT as well as C-level executives. The companies themselves are headquartered all over the world: over 35% in the Americas (mainly the US & Canada), 40% in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East & Africa) and 20% in Asia. The companies are sizeable given 75% post annual revenue between $250 million and $1 billion.
A dramatic shift in security
For years one of the main arguments against moving into the cloud was security. However, in the survey, 36% of respondents say improved security was one of the main reasons for actually moving finance and HR with all their sensitive data into the cloud.
“I don’t think we would even have considered the cloud 6 years ago,” says Tony Guglielmin, vice president and chief financial officer at Ballard, a clean energy company in Vancouver, British Columbia.
That’s not so strange if you consider hosting providers and SaaS vendors focus heavily on security, knowing that once a breach happens, trust and clients disappear. The economics are another critical factor. Hosting providers can afford to heavily invest in costly talent because they usually house multiple applications from different vendors, That sizeable IT investment will be a lot harder to justify for your average corporation, regardless of their size.
Change is needed, fast
After security comes the need to have systems that can adapt faster to change with 33%. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone working in a corporate environment. Usually, the will and the knowledge to jump on new opportunities and counter rapidly changing market conditions are there. However, the sheer size of the businesses and aging IT-systems usually prevent them from executing quickly and killing whatever initiative they wanted to execute.
A disconnect in priorities
We find a surprising difference between C-level execs and middle management when it comes to the next most-mentioned reason: cost reduction. Just 18% of C-level respondents say it’s essential versus 45% of middle management respondents.
This shows different priorities between the groups. Maybe not that surprising to those in the know. But it gives a great example of how the average board views the problem versus the average middle manager. For example, looking at the answers of C-level respondents alone, IT staff or skill shortages required to run existing systems would have been numero uno. You could say it is the holistic view versus the practical day-to-day operations view.