Survey: Global Business Execs Fear Cloud Delays

Digital Transformation Delays

Canopy, the London-based cloud service provider formed by a partnership between Atos, VMware and EMC, released a survey of 950 financial, business and IT leaders at mid-market and enterprise firms in four European countries and in the United States.

The survey, conducted in September, by Vanson Bourne reveals executives' fears that by not keeping up with cloud solutions, their companies are losing money and missing opportunities for growth in the rapidly transforming digital landscape.

Who Was Asked?

In the U.S., U.K., Germany and France, the participants were comprised of 75 CIOs, 75 CFOs and 50 business decision makers. Netherlands businesses were represented by 50 CIOs, 50 CFOs and 50 business decision makers.

Almost 60 percent of the respondents spoke for companies listed on global stock exchanges. Just more than 70 percent represented enterprises with more than 1,000 employees, and 17 percent of the companies had more than 10,000 employees.

Missed Revenue Concerns

Three-quarters of the CFOs polled fear their business is missing revenue opportunities by not having the right cloud applications and infrastructure in place to support digital business transformation.

Of the CFOs from the U.S., on average each believes their businesses lost out on $41 million of revenue last year by not having the right cloud solutions in place to support their digital transformation.

The concerns run deeper than revenue projections. More than 80 percent of CIOs and CFOs fear those technological deficiencies will eventually cause their businesses to become uncompetitive, and almost three-quarters of them estimate that will happen within the next 15 months.

Missed Growth Opportunities

And the American CFOs estimate that if their companies had greater cloud capabilities, they would achieve double-digit growth next year. On average, they envisioned a $75 million revenue boost that would be enabled by cloud solutions.

Most respondents -- 94 percent -- recognized the need to embrace cloud-based applications and infrastructure to deliver digital transformation, and 69 percent said the lack of cloud investment was holding back vital digital initiatives.

"As our survey highlights, digital must be in the DNA of every department to help the business maximize market share and revenue," said Jacques Pommeraud, Canopy CEO.

Same Old Barriers

Despite the maturity of cloud technology, the Canopy survey revealed many of the traditional barriers to cloud investment remain.

The top barrier, cited by 60 percent of the respondents, was security. Another 40 percent cited data protection as a concern, 26 percent cited protection of intellectual property and 36 percent were worried about vendor lock-in.

"While 'digital' is a widespread term today, right now digital transformation is only happening in pockets. One key to unlocking digital transformation is cloud computing. From hospitality and retail to manufacturing, those emerging as winners are taking advantage of these digital capabilities," Pommeraud said.

No Cloud Blues

Roughly one-third of the CIOs polled in all five countries said they worried that if their IT departments didn't adopt a more cloud-based approach over the next year it would jeopardize the business. These were their concerns:

-- 38 percent globally (53 percent in the U.S.) reported it would lead to reduced staff productivity

-- 34 percent globally (37 percent in the U.S.) reported increased time to market

-- 33 percent globally (39 percent in the U.S.) reported a reduced ability to service customers in new ways

-- 35 percent globally (33 percent in the U.S.) reported a risk of data theft

-- 35 percent globally (53 percent in the U.S.) reported limitations to launching new products and services

No Cloud Pains

Almost half the respondents participating in the global survey said they were losing money because they lacked the cloud-based resources they needed to meet critical IT objectives.

Three specific problems with current infrastructure were each blamed for this revenue loss by more than 40 percent of all the companies surveyed: IT departments not being able to develop applications fast enough, the inability to complete enough product releases each day/week to keep software highly competitive, poor responsiveness of internal IT tools to on-board customers quickly.

The survey suggests the problem of IT departments not developing applications fast enough is much more prevalent in the U.S., with 57 percent of American respondents citing it as a cause of revenue loss.