SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Jun 24, 2014) - 2nd Watch, a provider of cloud deployment, management and monitoring services, announces the results of its survey of more than 400 IT professionals on cloud infrastructure buying trends. The survey, delivered online over the past two weeks, focused on cloud purchasing behaviors, goals and attitudes, and scored participants based on the answers into one of three buying categories: Calculated, Market-Driven and All-In.
Nearly 42% scored as Calculated buyers, defined as companies that are just dipping their toes in the proverbial cloud water by testing one or two applications. The next highest scoring category was All-In at 32%, defined as buyers who are interested in moving their entire data center/application infrastructure to the cloud. Market-Driven companies, that are moving all "edge" or customer-facing applications to the cloud, made up 16% of the responses. The remaining 10% split their responses evenly among two categories.
"The results are a telling barometer on the state of cloud maturity, as nearly half of companies have moved beyond the cautious stage to pushing significant percentages of their applications and processes to the cloud," says Kris Bliesner, CEO at 2nd Watch. "The survey also shows that goals for the cloud are fairly split between cost-saving measures and the desire to be more agile in the market."
Saving money and avoiding in-house management of technology was the top goal for moving to the cloud, as stated by 36% of participants. Application-specific goals comprise 33% of responses and 29% said they use the cloud to quickly respond to new opportunities. A large percentage of individuals, 64%, say that the cloud will help drive business and/or customer-related innovations at their company.
Additional survey highlights:
Cloud adoption: Nearly 30% say that their company is almost or already 100% running in the cloud and that cloud infrastructure will continue to grow at their companies in the future. Meanwhile, 43% they aren't sure about future use of the cloud and 26% say that their company will grow cloud computing but maintain a hybrid infrastructure for a long time.
Selection criteria: When choosing a cloud infrastructure provider, 37% say they look at both cost and comprehensive services; 32% compare cost and performance metrics and 30% say that name-brand market leaders are the way to go to ensure a reliable, fast user experience.
Influencers: 47% said that the IT director has the most buying influence on cloud strategy, whereas 28% pointed to business unit leaders and 24% said sales and marketing were top influencers.
Competition: Nearly half the participants (48%) say that they are not influenced by what competitors are doing in the cloud. However, nearly 30% of individuals say that their company is influenced by competitive cloud moves and that the cloud is a key differentiator. Driving sales and better customer service is the main driver for 22% of companies, who say they are "sometimes" influenced by competitors.
Executive buy-in: CEOs are still cautious about the cloud due to privacy, security or legal concerns, says 42% of participants. In 35% of companies, however, the CEO is an enthusiastic supporter of the cloud, while 22% report that their CEO doesn't care much how employees get work done as long as there are results.
Barriers: Nearly half (45%) say that a lack of control and lack of visibility in the cloud is their company's greatest concern. The next top concern is growing complexity stemming from issues such as integration needs (36%). Finally, the remaining 18% say that the attractive pricing and service offerings of cloud providers mitigate any concerns.
About 2nd Watch
2nd Watch is a global leader in building, deploying and managing Amazon Web Services (AWS) based IT operations for enterprise customers. 2nd Watch assists customers in evaluating the economics of moving IT operations into AWS, designs and builds highly reliable and scalable AWS based enterprise IT platforms, and provides software tools and management services that enable enterprises to deploy, manage and optimize cloud based IT operations infrastructure. 2nd Watch has effectively moved over 2MW of enterprise data center capacity into the AWS cloud as part of 300+ platform and data center migrations. 2nd Watch is an AWS Premier Consulting Partner and is headquartered in Liberty Lake, WA with offices in Seattle, San Francisco, and New York. For more information, try the TCO Calculator at tco.2ndwatch.com, email info@2ndwatch.com, visit www.2ndwatch.com or call 1-888-317-7920.