Journey to the cloud.

Businesses are rapidly accelerating their adoption of cloud to help drive business outcomes.

With now nearly 68% of organisations using the technology for this purpose, up from 43% in 2015, it is safe to say that the technology is a must have.

The good news for the UK is that 63% of businesses are using some form of cloud, up from 42% in 2015, according to Cisco’s, ‘Cloud going mainstream: All are trying, some are benefiting; few are maximising value’ report which was developed in partnership with IDC.

To show that this use is not just for the sake of it, that it is actually delivering business value, the report shows that the most ‘cloud advanced’ UK companies are seeing an annual benefit per cloud-based application of £2.3 million in additional revenues, and £0.8m in cost savings.

The IDC-Cisco report shows varying levels of maturity and many with no strategy.
The IDC-Cisco report shows varying levels of maturity and many with no strategy.

This is compared to a global average that saw $3m in additional revenues and $1m in cost savings.

It was also found that 37% of the cost savings were made through business process improvement, demonstrating the productivity benefits adoption is bringing to UK businesses.

Other findings in the report showed that:

  •  29% of cloud adopters are using cloud-based IoT applications
  • 48% view adequate security as an important inhibitor to deployment
  • 95% of leading organisations with optimised strategies have built a hybrid IT environment that uses multiple private and public clouds based on economics, location and governance policies.

Specifically looking at the UK the report showed:

  • 33% have no strategy. However, 70% of UK organisations are using or are planning to implement some form of the technology.
  • Only 27% of UK companies are pursuing optimised, managed, or repeatable cloud strategies. Obstacles to achieving greater maturity include skill gaps, legacy siloed organisation structures, and IT/Line of business misalignment.
  • 65% of cloud adopting UK businesses are using some form of hybrid cloud.

On the whole the UK is positions sixth when it comes to hybrid adoption by country with 46%, behind Korea with 55%, Japan 54%, China 52%, Germany 51%, Latin America 47%.