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Cloud infrastructure reality is outperforming perception claims Oracle. Nearly half of UK companies plan to run their business on cloud infrastructure within three years according to a recent study. This appears to confirm that UK businesses are embracing cloud infrastructure (IaaS) to boost performance and innovation levels.

Negative perceptions persist – primarily around security, complexity and loss of control. These continue to present barriers to adoption. Nevertheless, the study shows respondents see these as becoming outdated and myths. Those enterprises which have moved to IaaS describe their experience as being positive.

James Stanbridge, Vice President Iaas Product Management at Oracle said: “When it comes to cloud adoption there has always been a case of perception lagging behind reality. Cloud is still relatively new to a lot of businesses and some outdated perceptions persist. We are now seeing high levels of success and satisfaction from businesses that are saving money, cutting complexity and driving exciting innovation thanks to cloud infrastructure. Those resisting the move need to challenge the perceptions holding them back because the longer they wait, the further ahead their competitors will pull.

James Stanbridge, Vice President, Iaas Product Management, Oracle (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessta/)
James Stanbridge, Vice President, Iaas Product Management, Oracle

Cloud infrastructure reality details

Selected snippets from the Report show:

  • 59% of UK businesses that are already using IaaS to some extent say it makes innovation easier
  • 51% say moving to IaaS has significantly cut their time to deploy new applications or services
  • 54% say IaaS has significantly cut on-going maintenance costs
  • 54% believe businesses not investing in IaaS will increasingly find themselves struggling to keep pace with businesses that are
  • 64% of experienced IaaS users worldwide say the move was easier than they expected (although some fear the move to IaaS may be complicated).

A large proportion of UK businesses agrees IaaS will have a role to play in their workplace within three years. 42% saying they will run most or all of their business IT infrastructure on IaaS. Only 18% believe IaaS will still have little or no role in their business in three years.

For this research Oracle partnered with Longitude Research to survey 1,614 IT professionals in Australia, Germany, India, Italy, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea and the UK about:

  • the state of their cloud infrastructure implementation
  • how these professionals expect to use the technology in the coming years.

Selected results and more information are available inside the report entitled “You & IaaS: The new generation”.

What it means

Oracle’s research is broader and deeper than other recent research in the UK. It found that experienced users are almost twice as likely to believe IaaS can provide world class operational performance – in terms of availability, uptime and speed – compared to non-adopters. This, if repeated globally, would represent significant competitive advantage and confirms other initiatives.

Surprisingly this study focuses on just one cloud technology, IaaS. It doesn’t address how they got to cloud or if they are running on shared, dedicated or a hybrid infrastructure. There is also no real mention of whether they just ported existing apps to the cloud or re-architected them to take advantage of what the cloud offers. The failure to talk about Software as a Service (SaaS) is also disappointing. While there is some good information in this report, it is the omissions that raise questions.

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Charles Brett is a business/technology analyst consultant. His specialist areas include enterprise software, blockchain and enterprise mobility tech (including metering). Specific industry sectors of interest and experience include finance (especially systems supporting wholesale finance), telecommunications and energy. Charles has spoken at multiple industry conferences, has written for numerous publications (including the London Times and the Financial Times). He was the General Chair of the bi-annual High Performance Systems Workshop, 2005. In addition he is an author and novelist. His Technology books include: Making the Most of Mobility Vol I (eBook, 2012); Explaining iTunes, iPhones and iPads for Windows Users (eBook, 2011); 5 Axes of Business Application Integration (2004). His published novels, in the Corruption Series, include: The HolyPhone Confessional Crisis, Corruption’s Price: A Spanish Deceit and Virginity Despoiled. The fourth in The Corruption Series - Resurrection - has is now available. Charles has a B.A. and M.A in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He has lived or worked in Italy, Abu Dhabi, South Africa, California and New York, Spain, Israel, Estonia and Cyprus.

1 COMMENT

  1. Great Analysis on Cloud Infrastructure growth report.Businesses cannot ignore the cost benefits and flexibility offered by cloud computing models. Nearly three years ago Forbes announced the cloud had gone mainstream. Compelled to reduce the complexity they manage, gain more agility to address strategic initiatives, and maintain flexibility and control, current Business applications are evaluating their options. CIOs and CFOs are especially interested in deployment options which leverage cloud technologies. Businesses using Infor often view compelling change events as a time to consider migrating to cloud services. This could include an infrastructure refresh, a new version release, an upcoming purchase of additional storage. Customers can choose to keep their application on premise, select a third-party to host and manage their applications in a private cloud, or tap into public cloud, offered through Amazon Web Services.

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