How the Cloud Looks from the Top:
Achieving Competitive Advantage In the Age of Cloud Computing.
In a new global survey of nearly 1,500 business and technology leaders, sponsored by Microsoft, and conducted by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, the majority � 85% � said their organizations will be using cloud tools moderately to extensively over the next three years.
It is no secret about the cloud�s ability to increase business speed and agility, lower costs, and enable new means of growth, innovation, and collaboration as the drivers for this fairly aggressive rate of adoption.
"Companies large and small are moving quickly to adopt some form of cloud computing tools and services, recognizing a new technology that could reshape their competitive landscape."
- Harvard Business Review, A Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Report, Sponsored by Microsoft
A small group of early adopters (only 7% of respondents have been using cloud computing for more than five years)
said cloud technology has already provided them with real business value and advantage, including faster time to market and speed to effectiveness, lower cost of operations, and the ability to acquire and integrate new operations more quickly and easily. These benefits are becoming more widely recognized; more than half of respondents (57%) believe that cloud will be a source of competitive advantage for early adopters, and 26% described their company�s posture toward cloud as enthusiastic.
But for others, the speed of adoption is slower because executives say they have yet to gain a full understanding of the benefits and risks of cloud computing, and they have concerns about security, business continuity and compliance issues. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they are using limited or no cloud services today and
36% described their company�s posture toward cloud as either cautious or resistant.
Clearly, the speed of migration will be influenced by circumstances. More evidence of cloud�s business benefits would accelerate adoption � as would better-informed management teams � while a high-profile security breach or major outage resulting in loss of business could inhibit expansion.
But there�s wide consensus that cloud technology has the potential to offer more flexible, agile, and usable means to solve business problems � and that it has a lower cost to implement and run. �In some cases, we�re talking orders of magnitude and millions of dollars a year,� said the CIO of a global electronics manufacturing services provider.
