More than a quarter of US-based IT leaders say large-scale public cloud migration is ‘essential for business survival’ post-Covid-19, according to a new report from cloud services provider Cloudreach.
The study, titled ‘US Businesses Become Future-Ready With Large-Scale Cloud Migration’ and which was put together by IDC InfoBrief, polled 200 US IT leaders on their experiences of digital transformation during the pandemic.
Two thirds (66%) of those polled said Covid-19 – and the resultant increase in remote working – as the primary catalyst for cloud migration. Three in five (59%) cited regulatory changes, such as GDPR and Privacy Shield, while the same number said business demand for greater IT speed and agility warranted change. Improved security (50%) and data centre expansions (45%) were also cited.
Almost 30% of respondents said they had accelerated their digital transformation plans within the past 10 months, with 17% saying the pandemic had delayed their initiatives.
Yet public cloud adoption does not entirely correlate with overall recovery. One third (32%) of those polled were focusing predominantly on business continuity, compared to 16.5% who are at a stage of ‘next normal.’ Of this number, almost three quarters (72%) said their digital transformations were either well underway or completed.
The research also noted the changing role of the CIO during the past 12 months. More than half of CIOs polled (55%) said the pandemic has led to increased scope across the business, moving IT from a cost centre to a business enabler. This correlates with a recent Gartner study which noted CEOs wanted ‘determined CIOs who make and implement timely decisions while displaying the emotional dexterity to be tactful and supportive.’
“The initial period of the pandemic has forced many C-suite leaders, who were hesitant to migrate from legacy technologies, into accelerating their digital transformation plans for the sake of their organisation’s survival,” said Dave Chapman, head of strategy and professional services at Cloudreach. “The longer term changes that emerge from this global crisis are likely to fundamentally alter the way many organisations work and, as a result, will accelerate enterprise-wide modernisation efforts on an unprecedented scale.”
This is by no means the only study which has explored increasing cloud adoption amid Covid-19. IDC noted in October the pandemic will accelerate a $1 trillion cloud ecosystem by 2024, while Telstra mused in June that 97% of companies polled in Europe and North Asia saw cloud as ‘the only option.’
You can read the full report here (email required).
Photo by Dewang Gupta on Unsplash
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