For enterprises looking to migrate to the cloud, with sprawling workloads and data, it can be a long, arduous journey. According to a new survey, more than two thirds of large enterprises are not getting the full benefits of their cloud migration journeys.

The study from Accenture, titled ‘Perspectives on Cloud Outcomes: Expectation vs. Reality” – polled 200 senior IT professionals from large global businesses and identified security and complexity of business and operational change as key barriers to cloud success.

This doesn’t mean enterprises struggle to see any benefits of the cloud – overall satisfaction was at above 90% on average – but when it came to cost, speed, business enablement and service levels, only one in three companies said they were fully satisfied on those metrics.

This breaks down further when looking at specific rollouts (below). Overall, enterprises are seeing greater benefits the more chips they put in; satisfaction levels climb to almost 50% among those with heavy investments, compared to less than 30% for those just starting their journeys.

When it came to public and hybrid cloud, the results showed an evident cost versus speed trade-off. More than half of those with public cloud workloads said they had fully achieved their cost objectives, while for speed it dropped below 30%. Hybrid cloud initiatives, the research noted, saw much more consistent results across the board, if not quite the same cost savings.

This makes for interesting reading when compared with similar research. According to a study from Turbonomic in March, the vast majority of companies ‘expect workloads to move freely across clouds’, with multi-cloud becoming the de facto deployment model for organisations of all sizes.

Yet the Accenture study argued this would not be plain sailing. 42% of those polled said a lack of skills within their organisation hampered their initiatives. Securing cloud skills is of course a subject which continues to concern – but according to Accenture, managed service providers (MSPs) may provide the answer. 87% of those polled said they would be interested in pursuing this initiative.

“Like most new technologies, capturing the intended benefits of cloud takes time; there is a learning curve influenced by many variables and barriers,” said Kishore Durg, senior managing director of Accenture Cloud for Technology Services. “Taking your cloud program to the next level isn’t something anyone can do overnight – clients need to approach it strategically with a trusted partner to access deep expertise, show measurable business value, and expedite digital transformation.

“If IT departments fail to showcase direct business outcomes from their cloud journeys, they risk becoming less relevant and losing out to emerging business functions, like the office of the chief data officer, that are better able to use cloud technologies to enable rapid innovation,” added Durg.

You can read the full report here (pdf, no opt-in required).

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