Agile cloud technology offers security and scalability to support employees around the globe.
AUSTIN, Texas – July 14, 2021 – As cloud adoption rates continue to rise, an estimated 50% of workloads will run in the cloud by 2023. Behind this recent boom lie a variety of driving factors that lead to an increased need for cloud technology: greater security, scalability, cost-savings, etc. And as more organizations embrace a remote (if not hybrid) culture, they’ll turn to the cloud to support employees outside of the office.
- The vast majority of decision makers (80%) said that cloud technologies are useful for supporting remote workers
- More than two-thirds of all companies plan to adopt at least one new cloud technology by 2023
- Many decision makers say their company now follows a “cloud-first” technology strategy (67% of large businesses vs. 34% of SMBs)
- Cloud-based security solutions are poised to realize 51% adoption within the next two years
“Total cost of ownership has always been a big factor influencing technology purchase decisions. Our recent research indicates most IT buyers now believe running services and applications in a public cloud is cheaper than self-hosting.” said Peter Tsai, Head of Technology Insights at Spiceworks Ziff Davis. “In the age of remote work, businesses will increasingly embrace the flexibility, scalability, and convenience of the cloud model… for example, turning to cloud-based security solutions to protect devices, data, and end users no longer confined to corporate offices.”
To capitalize on future opportunities, it’s critical for technology vendors to fully understand the holistic needs of companies considering a move to the cloud, as well as the needs of IT buyers and the larger buying collectives within an organization. Additionally, knowledge of how present and future cloud adoption trends might impact the business landscape can help inform organizations’ IT plans and technology vendors’ marketing strategies.
Cloud Technology Trends
COVID-19 accelerated cloud adoption for most organizations as they scrambled to support remote employees in early 2020. Adoption will only continue to increase as more organizations take measures to prevent future disruptions by adopting flexible work policies. Our research indicates that those organizations already following a cloud-first strategy overwhelmingly agree (88%) that their organization’s cloud strategy is on the right path.
The State of Adoption
Cloud file sharing (54%), software-as-a-service (46%), cloud backup and recovery (40%), and cloud storage infrastructure (37%) are the most adopted cloud technologies, and among the many solutions that will see healthy gains across multiple areas including public, private, and hybrid cloud, cloud storage, cloud security, and emerging cloud technologies. Given the cloud’s agile and scalable capabilities, it’s no surprise that businesses with flexible work policies are more likely to use cloud technologies and complete the buyer’s journey faster (in less than three months).
Our research found that the top four attributes that decision makers care most about when evaluating a cloud-based solution are reliability/availability, ease-of-use, total cost of ownership (TCO) to acquire, deploy and manage, and security capabilities/features.
Security Remains of Utmost Importance
Security remains top-of-mind for decision makers in an age where hackers can bring a company, supply chain, or even an entire city to its knees. ITDMs said cloud providers offer superior security compared to their own organization’s data centers, but significantly more BDMs hold this belief (59%) than ITDMs (50%).
However, cloud users can’t blindly trust providers to safeguard everything. The “shared responsibility model” for security and compliance says service providers (such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure) are responsible for the underlying infrastructure of the cloud. At the same time, customers are responsible for what’s running on top of that infrastructure, including their data, access management settings, applications, and configurations.
Methodology
The survey was conducted by Spiceworks Ziff Davis in March 2021 and included more than 300 IT decision makers and 200 business decision makers from organizations across North America, EMEA, and APAC. Respondents represent a variety of company sizes, including small- to medium-sized businesses and enterprises, in addition to a variety of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, non-profit, education, government, and finance. Our full data set includes deep insights covering public cloud, hybrid cloud, cloud storage, cloud security, and Software-as-a-Service.
For more information and a complete list of survey results, contact us, or visit: https://swzd.com/resources/
About Spiceworks Ziff Davis
Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD), a division of J2 Global, Inc. (JCOM), is a trusted global marketplace that connects technology buyers and sellers with the most actionable and precise intent data. We are uniquely positioned to offer tech brands unmatched visibility into accounts that are truly in-market, by leveraging our scale, quality, and diversity of intent data. With unparalleled access to the world’s most influential technology buyers through a combination of first-party (e.g., Community, Tools, Editorial) and third-party intent data, SWZD is a leader in intent-backed, intelligent, omnichannel marketing. For more information, visit www.swzd.com.
Media Contact
Caryn Pratt
VP, Marketing
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
caryn.pratt@swzd.com