News Feature | January 12, 2015

Survey: Reliability, Business Continuity Drive Demand For Cloud Adoption

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Reliability, Business Continuity Drive Demand For Cloud Adoption

According to a survey by NaviSite. one-third of U.S. respondents have migrated a significant amount (50 to 70 percent) of their IT infrastructure to the cloud. This was motivated by the need to improve reliability, reduce downtime, and to offer improved service levels. And 65 percent of U.S. respondents reported IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) private cloud as a top priority for 2015, with the ability to personalize solutions as a key criterion for solutions provider selection.

NaviSite commissioned Redshift Research to conduct the online survey of 250 IT decision makers in the U.S. and the U.K. The survey, conducted in August 2014, aimed to understand IT decision makers’ use of cloud computing, the vendor selection process, and principle concerns over migrating to a cloud-based infrastructure.

“The results of this survey are in-line with the trends we are seeing in our customer base where cloud services have gathered increasing traction over the last few years. The discussion within enterprises has shifted past the initial strategy to the ground-work of driving mainstream adoption and achieving the associated benefits around agility, cost, performance, and security. Organizations are not only moving their existing mission-critical production workloads to an IaaS model but are also standing up their next-generation of applications directly on the cloud,” said Sumeet Sabharwal, NaviSite GM, in a press release.

The survey also reveals security remains a top concern. Almost all of U.S. respondents reflect some degree of concern over data security and 48 percent says this falls into their top three concerns. In addition, 61 percent of respondents say security is a top priority when deploying the IaaS model and 58 percent say it’s a concern related to colocation services.

Sean McAvan, managing director of NaviSite Europe comments in a press release, “Effective business leaders recognize that while they need to leverage virtual technologies to remain competitive, they also need to leverage their existing investments in traditional platforms. Those companies who most effectively leverage cloud and virtual technology often partner with a managed service provider, freeing them up to focus on their core competencies.”