Many chief information officers are proving to be barriers to enterprise cloud adoption, according to a recent survey by research firm Gartner which found that almost 50 per cent of CIOs consider cloud solutions as a mere “viable option.”
For its 2015 CIO survey, “Flipping to Digital Leadership: The 2015 CIO Agenda,” Gartner polled more than 2,800 CIOs that accounted for US$397 billion of global IT spend and $202.5 billion of infrastructure and operations (I&O) spend.
“The survey results showed that for most CIOs, public cloud is an option for projects, but only a first consideration for a small minority,” according to Dave Russell, vice-president at Gartner. “I&O leaders have been more protective of their existing infrastructure and, in many cases, have been the biggest obstacles to cloud-based solutions.”
The survey found that nine per cent of respondents are not even considering cloud computing for software-as-a-service (SaaS) projects, 15 per cent consider cloud computing for infrastructure-as-a-service projects “while a larger percentage view cloud as something to consider on an exception basis, nearly half have quickly moved from viewing cloud as a concept to a viable option.”
“Rather than ignoring the cloud outright, or only reluctantly considering it, evaluating all implementation models at the onset of a project can help save time and produce better results,” said Mike Chuba, research vice-president at Gartner.
Even if the best solution for business is indeed an on-premises, non-cloud deployment mode, he said, I&O teams should investigate all options to make the best use of all resources.
I&O teams need to gear up for what Gartner calls “Nexus of Forces” (convergence of mobile, social, cloud and information technologies).
While some leaders are actually preparing for a post-nexus technologies (Internet of Things, thinking machines, 3D printing, augmented human and robotics) “CIOs, on average, are stuck thinking about now, rather that the future.”
Gartner said 84 per cent of CIOs surveyed focused only on three years or sooner down the road.