Security, backup and recovery, geographic location of cloud data centres and compliance requirements emerged as important elements of a cloud strategy.
This is according to a recent Cloud Adoption Survey conducted by ITWeb in partnership with data solutions leader, Pure Storage.
Cloud is mission critical for organisations
Moving mission-critical apps to the cloud can be a complex process, as organisations need to address challenges around security, data management, and performance.
An overwhelming majority of survey respondents (80%) said they consider the applications they are using in the cloud to be mission-critical for their business, while 12% did not consider them so.
The top three types of business applications being used (or planned to use in future) in the cloud are software development (59%), office productivity tools (58%), and internal enterprise applications (58%).
When it comes to backup and recovery solutions, cloud managed back-ups enables the secure, automated backup and recovery of critical information stored on servers or corporate devices. A vast majority (70%) have considered cloud as a long-term home for their backup data; while only 13% are unsure.
Security
While many cloud service providers implement good security standards and industry certifications, the survey reveals that local executives still hold a perception that cloud data is inherently less secure than data that is housed on-premises.
Other areas of concern were cloud provider lock-in (43%), performance concerns (37%) and integration with existing systems (36%).
According to IDC, cloud adoption is accelerating faster than previously anticipated in SA, with 65% of local CIOs planning to invest in public and private cloud. The fastest-growing market segment is forecast to be cloud system infrastructure services, or infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
While cloud computing offers many benefits for organisations, including a reduction in hardware costs, according to the Pure Storage study, almost a third (29%) of the survey respondents cited cost and lack of return on investment as additional barriers to cloud adoption.
Revenue increase
The top three most important benefits of all cloud computing, both public, private and hybrid, according to the respondents, are the ability to grow and shrink IT capacity on demand; the ability to rapidly launch new products and services, and convenience for the development teams.
When it comes to the adoption phase of different cloud services, most respondents report they are already in production stage. Specifically: Software-as-a-Service – 65%, private/ internal cloud – 63%; Storage-as–a-Service 57%; Infrastructure-as-a-Service: – 56%; and Platform-as-a-Service: – 52%.
About the survey
The 2019 ITWeb/Pure Storage Cloud Adoption Survey ran for 14 days on ITWeb during April and was completed by 121 respondents.
Over 50% of those are decision makers – 18% are C-level executive, while a further 33% are at mid- management level.
22% of respondents employ 10 000 or more employees; 21% employ between 1000 and 4 999, while 21% employ fewer than 50 people.
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