Let’s face it: We’re all susceptible to a little peer pressure. And why not? It’s only logical – if everyone’s doing something, there might be a good reason behind it.
The same goes for our mindset when researching a product or way of business- we all want to know what everyone else is saying and doing. The herd may not always be right, and of course we should always think critically, but sometimes there’s interesting insights to be gained. Projected to be a $180 billion industry in 2015, cloud computing has been a hot topic for some time now. The vast majority of organizations are already using the cloud in some capacity – 94% according to a survey by RightScale. We’ve poured over articles, infographics, and whitepapers to tell you what they’re saying:
On Security:
Security concerns are consistently reported as being the number one reason why organizations are hesitant to adopt the cloud; however, this number decreases heavily among those who are already cloud users. According to RightScale, only 13% of those experienced in cloud computing cite security as a concern. On the flip side, improved security is consistently one of the top reported benefits of moving to the cloud by those who’ve already done it.
On Benefits:
In addition to security, other benefits commonly reported are scalability (reported by around 60-70% of users across studies), reduced cost of IT infrastructure (reported by 75-80% of users), and easier management of IT (50-60% of users). A majority of organizations report seeing benefits within 6 months of deployment.
On Who’s and What’s:
Reportedly, small and medium size businesses have been more apt to jump on the cloud computing bandwagon earlier in industries such as tech, finance, and banking. Companies are using an average of four cloud services, the most common being, of course, web hosting and email, but in addition to that, many are using the cloud for storage or application development.
On Future Plans:
Cloud adoption is only growing, and the industry is projected to be worth $235 billion by the end of 2017. According to a survey by GigaOm, IT’s 2015 cloud spending will go up this year by a whopping 42%, and 45% of business say they have plans to run their company from the cloud, if they don’t do so already. The popularity of the hybrid cloud is also growing rapidly, with 55% of respondents to the survey planning to use a hybrid cloud within the next two years.
If these numbers tell us anything, it’s that there’s no stopping cloud computing. It’s only growing and improving, and it’s becoming more integrated into the way we do business every day. One great way to leverage the cloud in your business processes is through enterprise content management (ECM), an end-to-end solution that allows you to store and access your content from anywhere. To learn more, check out our ultimate guide to ECM below!
