CIAO DATE: 04/2015
March 2015
In less than a decade, the cloud has gone from a distant vision to the mainstream of business technology. More and more companies are moving core functions into the cloud, and many now have several years of experience with the opportunities and challenges that accompany this transformation. Widespread enthusiasm about the cloud’s far-reaching impact is strong, with companies continuing to invest in the cloud in order to capitalize on the opportunities it brings—and many already reaping quantifiable benefits as the cloud becomes the primary platform for business. But some things have changed along the way. In late 2014, Oxford Economics and SAP surveyed 200 senior business and IT executives around the world about their adoption and use of cloud technology. Compared with the same survey fielded in 2012, the results show that companies have become more realistic about both opportunities and challenges along their journey to the cloud. The early days of inflated expectations have given way to the reality of the hard work of implementation and day-to-day execution needed to realize the big payoffs promised. As the cloud becomes the primary choice for so many business functions and strategies, a certain amount of refinement and fine-tuning is a healthy part of the process. The cloud is growing up.
Resource link: The Cloud Grows Up [PDF] - 1.4M