64% of CIOs cite poor end-user experience as biggest management concern with Cloud Computing

The study, which was conducted by independent research and consulting firm Research In Action, found that the majority of CIOs (79%) are concerned about the hidden costs associated with cloud computing. From a management perspective, the top three cloud computing concerns were:

1. Poor end user experience due to performance bottlenecks (64%)
2. The impact of poor performance on brand perception and customer loyalty (51%)
3. Loss of revenue due to poor availability, performance, or troubleshooting cloud services (44%)

CIOs rated cloud computing as their top investment priority in both the short and long term, with integration between public, hybrid and private cloud cited as the most important trend in the cloud computing space over the next five years.

“With cloud adoption topping the list of priorities for CIOs, companies are clearly seeing a benefit to the agility, flexibility and time-to-value that cloud services can deliver,” said Bernd Greifeneder, CTO of Compuware’s APM business unit. “But CIOs are right to carefully consider the impact cloud and third-party services can have on end-user experience. The dynamic and remote characteristics of cloud-based applications require a new, smart and automatic approach for deep, proactive monitoring that not only identifies end-user experience problems but also provides deep diagnostics for problem resolution.”

The study also revealed that companies are increasingly leveraging the cloud to deliver business-critical applications, such as e-commerce, which was the most commonly used cloud service; 81% of CIOs are either already using cloud-based ecommerce platforms or are planning to within the next 12 months. However, despite the business critical nature of these cloud applications, 73% of companies are still using outdated methods to track and manage application performance. In fact, the most common metric used to track application performance in the cloud is simple availability or uptime, rather than more granular end-user metrics such as response time, page rendering time and user interactivity time.

“The cloud is increasingly being used to deliver business-critical applications, so it is quite shocking that most companies are just waiting for problems to occur and then firefighting,” said Thomas Mendel, Managing Director at Research In Action. “The fact is that most traditional monitoring tools simply don’t work in the cloud. Effectively monitoring and managing modern cloud-based applications and services requires a new approach designed to work in today’s complex, hybrid and dynamic environments. Failure to do so could have a hugely detrimental impact on reputation, customer loyalty and revenues.”

Methodology: Compuware APM commissioned Research in Action, an independent research company, to conduct a study examining IT project and investment priorities for 2013. In December 2012, Research in Action interviewed 468 IT decision makers from large and mid-sized enterprises from a range of industries across the U.S., Asia and Europe.

Compuware APM is the leader in a new generation of application performance management. Unlike traditional APM solutions that are heavy, difficult and reactive, Compuware APM is light, smart and proactive. Compuware APM is built to manage the complexity of today’s most challenging modern applications including mobile, cloud, big data and SOA. Compuware APM optimizes and monitors tens of thousands of applications for more than 4,000 customers, large and small, around the globe. Through the lens of end-user experience, our customers enjoy faster performance, proactive problem resolution, accelerated time-to-market and reduced application management costs through smarter analytics, advanced APM automation and a unique performance lifecycle foundation.