Cloud Computing survey: 65% of respondents believe Ireland is lagging but 85% of cloud computing projects are successful.

 28th September, 2009 –  In August 2009 the Irish Internet Association Cloud Computing Working Group conducted a market research survey to understand how Irish companies are responding to the cloud computing opportunity.

Presenting the results of the survey at the Cloud Computing Summit in Croke Park last week IIA Cloud Computing Working Group Chair, Gerry Power of Sysco Software Solutions said, “The fact that 85% of cloud projects in Ireland are successful and 94% of those who have deployed them plan to do so again is very encouraging data but negatives also exist. To counter these, our working group are taking two immediate steps:  firstly, building consensus around a single definition for cloud computing to improve understanding; and secondly, publishing a whitepaper which will examine all the major obstacles identified to overcome the perception that Ireland is lagging and to help drive adoption.”

Power’s presentation at the Cloud Computing Summit focussed on the following survey findings:

·        Respondent Profile

·        Understanding of Cloud Computing

·        Hopes for Cloud Computing

·        Perception of adoption of Cloud Computing in Ireland

More details of these research findings and graphs follow below. Further details are available on request.

Respondent Profile

The survey was completed by over 200 respondents, 73% of who considered themselves Senior Management.

• 25% of respondents were vendors, 75% non vendors
• 26% work in Technology, 17% in Professional Services, 11% in Financial Services, 11% in Manufacturing and 10% in Public Sector.
• 47% work in mid market companies (> 50 employees) including 19% who work in enterprises with over 500 employees. 53% worked in SMEs with less than 50 employees.
• 35% work in General Management, 35% in IT with 13% working in Finance
• 73% are Senior Management

The survey revealed the following:

Poor understanding of Cloud Computing

Asked whether they had a clear understanding of cloud computing, 43% said no.  When vendors were excluded, this lack of understanding grew to 54%.  43% of IT managers admitted they did not have a clear understanding and 85% of finance managers declared the same.

High hopes for Cloud Computing

Despite the lack of clear understanding, 43% have high confidence in the promise of cloud computing.  Amongst the large enterprises, this confidence drops to 36% but 55% still have reasonable confidence in the promise.  This was confirmed by the 21% who responded that they could see a business benefit compared to only 3% who did not. 76% declined to answer this question which may arise from the previously indicated lack of clear understanding of cloud computing.

29% of those surveyed have already deployed a cloud computing project and 85% of those projects were considered successful. When asked if they would use the cloud again, 94% said yes.

There is a significant perception that Ireland is lagging

65% of respondents believe Ireland is lagging compared to 33% who believe Ireland’s adoption is consistent with international adoption and just 2% who believe Ireland is leading as an early adopter.

Why?

• 26% feel lack of understanding is the major obstacle
• 22% believe broadband penetration is the problem
• 19% chose security concerns
• 14% have reliability concerns

The data was analysed further by categorising cloud computing applications into 9 types:

• Collaboration Applications
• Productivity Applications
• Business Applications
• IT Management
• Infrastructure on-demand
• Application development platform
• Finance Applications
• Core Business Applications
• Legacy Applications

In all categories, the perception is that Ireland is lagging. Respondents were asked to assess each category’s current maturity in Ireland. Collaboration applications scored the highest in terms of current maturity in Ireland. Respondents were also asked to indicate in each category their company’s current adoption and the maturity in each category they hoped to have reached in 3 years. In all 9 cases, current adoption lags behind current maturity and planned adoption exceeds maturity.

Graphs available on request. Please contact Roseanne Smith, IIACommunications Manager at members@iia.ie.