Public cloud delivers competitive advantage, say IT professionals

82% of IT professionals believe that public cloud could help their organisation gain a competitive advantage, according to a recent survey conducted by ANS Group.

Tuesday, 22nd August 2017 Posted 7 years ago in by Phil Alsop

The cloud and managed services provider questioned 50 IT professionals and the results showed a clear appetite for public cloud adoption, as no respondent was unconvinced that public cloud could deliver an advantage (18% were unsure). 73% are looking to increase public cloud utilisation in the future, with 52% already operating a ‘cloud first’ strategy.

The main benefit of public cloud was seen to be the scalability and flexibility on offer, with 32% of IT professionals believing this to be the case. Next was speed of deployment (26%) and elasticity (17%), followed by the cost reductions on offer (13%).

Andy Barrow, CTO at ANS Group said: “When deployed correctly public cloud can be a huge differentiator and we’re in the midst of a clear movement towards public cloud adoption and ‘cloud first’ strategies.

“Although the cost savings can be significant, it’s interesting that our results show this has become a secondary driver. The ability to disrupt traditional ways of working is clearly the biggest contributing factor.

"It’s important that businesses that do opt for public cloud put the right foundations in place to make the most of the benefits. The first step is to carry out an assessment to analyse the existing IT application landscape. From here, recommendations can then be made to ensure public cloud becomes a seamless extension of your IT capability.”