Cloud Computing: IT Teams Stressed by Business Plans to Rapidly Adopt Cloud and SaaS

A report from Saugatuck Technology finds that the move by businesses to the cloud is happening at a blazing pace.  The report sees that businesses are moving to the cloud happening in two phases, first a transitional phase where systems consist of hybrid integrations of both on-premise and cloud software, and finally a phase where systems are fully based in the cloud.

• The top concerns about cloud computing continue to be data security and privacy.  But as businesses continue to adopt SaaS, there are also increasing concerns about how to handle the integration of cloud-based solutions.
• The top benefits that businesses say that they’re able to drive from SaaS applications is clost savings and greater business flexibility and agility.
• Increasingly businesses are developing metrics and finding that they are able to justify the ROI from using cloud/SaaS solutions.
• The period from now to 2014 is likely to be a transitional period during which there will be a preference for mixing/integrating cloud software deployments with on-premise solutions.  After that period, it’s expected that hybrid solutions will give way to solutions based solely on the cloud.   This transition of systems from on-premise to hybrid to pure-cloud is expected to put significant stress on IT departments.
• Up until now, cloud solutions have typically been point solutions, targeting specific capabilities like CRM.  This approach often requires significant integration between on-premise and/or other cloud-based applications.  Increasingly companies will prefer adoption of suites of cloud software which require less custom integration.
• Over the next four years, the biggest demand in cloud computing will come from CRM, Collaboration, Customer Support, HR/HCM, and Collaborative Commerce applications.
• Cloud solutions in the areas of finance, accounting, budgeting, reporting and planning, and GRC are expected to be adopted later or at a slower pace.

Bruce Guptill, Senior Vice President and head of research at Saugatuck, said that “One of the most important themes in the report is that the acquisition and use of SaaS is shifting quickly from being cost-driven to being a means of enabling more effective and efficient business operations.”

Bill McNee, Saugatuck CEO and founder and lead researcher for the report, said that “The big shifts that we see toward more pure-play Cloud in a short amount of time, coupled with a clear need to emphasize business improvement and flexibility, suggest that the roles and mission of IT leaders and organizations within enterprises are going to change significantly, and change very rapidly. They’re going to have get a lot more innovative, and do it a lot more quickly, than most are prepared for.”