Financial experts estimate companies may be jealously sitting on trillions of dollars in cash, and refusing to spend it. Companies are choosing to avoid large capital intensive investment programmes which incur large, upfront costs. Instead, the more desired spending pattern is to switch to projectssuch as investing in a cloud computing infrastructure which is charged monthly on a per usage basis
How Cash & Flexibility Are Driving Cloud Investment
1. CA Technologies Survey
Infographic Summary
Introduction
Time to market
Flexible capacity
Powering the recovery
Growth agenda
Conclusion
CA Technologies is an IT
management software and
solutions company with expertise
across all IT environments - from
mainframe and distributed, to
virtual and cloud.
Cloud: Responding to changing business demands
CA Technologies manages and
secures IT environments and
enables customers to deliver
more flexible IT services. The
majority of the Global Fortune
500 relies on CA Technologies to
manage evolving IT ecosystems
http://www.ca.com
Survey conducted by IDG Connect on behalf of CA Technologies, via telephone interviews
2. CA Technologies Survey Infographic Summary
Infographic Summary Cloud development & time to market Which of the following business drivers is most important
when you think of Cloud computing?
Introduction 27%
Time to market Flexibility
Flexible capacity 47% 51%
Cost
Powering the recovery
Growth agenda 26% 33%
Speed
Conclusion
Respondents reporting speedier
development cycle, but with 15%
quality assurance concerns
Respondents reporting “significant”
benefits from a speedier development
process
The key drivers of Cloud adoption in Europe
CA Technologies is an IT
management software and Respondents reporting a faster development
solutions company with expertise cycle, somewhat constrained by ITIL release
across all IT environments - from management requirements
mainframe and distributed, to
virtual and cloud.
CA Technologies manages and
How does your organisation manage the trade off
secures IT environments and between spending too much on IT capacity and not
enables customers to deliver spending enough when demand spikes?
more flexible IT services. The
majority of the Global Fortune
500 relies on CA Technologies to We prioritise budget constraints &
36%
manage evolving IT ecosystems tolerate demand spikes that slow
http://www.ca.com
down our systems
28%
Capacity is prioritised: we plan for
spikes and accept low utilisation
most of the time
23%
We don’t manage capacity
13%
We cloud burst to an external provider
to balance cost and performance
Reducing IT costs Growth through new
and avoiding capex product innovation
3. CA Technologies Survey Introduction
Infographic Summary
The fact that cloud computing is an established reality is well The answer has always been obscured by a suspicion that decisions
Introduction accepted. What is not known, though, is, in a time of austerity, what are shaped by self-preservation. With cloud’s use of external providers,
are organisations doing about it? For example, how is the economic could the technology work against the best interests of an internal
Time to market downturn impacting the broader organisation’s expectations on team and threaten their jobs? Alternatively, could the need to
IT and how are these expectations shaping the adoption of cloud streamline an organisation so it can seek growth through innovation
Flexible capacity technologies? actually make the IT department central to future plans?
Powering the recovery All too often technology is considered as an IT issue but this can miss Further complicating a clear answer is that to date research and
the ungoverned use of IT by different entities within the business. To conclusions have been based on gut feel or skewed by limited data
Growth agenda understand how cloud adoption is being impacted by the economy one collected from only the earliest adopters. What is needed, to get an
must appreciate how the very nature of the cloud accelerates the use accurate picture, is broad empirical data from mainstream IT decision
of digital services outside of IT. makers in the field who are daily charged with supporting enterprise
Conclusion
wide strategies and are doing so in a time of austerity.
So, surely the best approach to understanding what IT is doing with
respect to the cloud is to look at it from the perspective of how The following white paper sets out just such an up-to-date picture,
the pressures organisations are facing are expressed through the IT through 300 interviews with IT decision markers (1).
decisions taken to deliver on corporate strategy and stay ahead of out-
of-process adoption of technologies by renegade business units. IT’s The results give the clearest picture yet across Europe of IT maturity,
CA Technologies is an IT use of cloud may be driven by a need to rationalise budgets, innovate attitudes to cloud and the IT and business drivers behind potential
management software and faster, become leaner, drive efficiencies and seek growth in new uptake of the new technology.
solutions company with expertise markets; or even all of the above.
across all IT environments - from
mainframe and distributed, to
The backdrop to these weighty questions is far from ideal. Today, IT
virtual and cloud.
departments are having to cope with a variety of new challenges, such
CA Technologies manages and
secures IT environments and as big data and mobility, at a time when budgets show little or no
enables customers to deliver growth.
more flexible IT services. The
majority of the Global Fortune With these huge challenges weighing heavily, traditional IT practices
500 relies on CA Technologies to are facing massive change. Commissioning more equipment,
manage evolving IT ecosystems employing large teams to set it up and then maintain and patch it is, for
some companies, no longer an option.
http://www.ca.com
The question arises, then, if a more flexible, cost-effective solution is
desired - or dare we say, required - is cloud too untried and too risky?
Or is it the path forward because it is quickly becoming a proven, (1) Survey data based on 300 telephone
flexible way of consuming IT services, resulting in capital expenditure interviews conducted with 120 decision makers
savings, more rapid innovation, and growth in existing and new (eg CTO and CIO) and 180 influencers (eg data
markets? centre managers) during August 2012.
4. CA Technologies Survey Accelerating time to market
Infographic Summary Cloud development & time to market
Introduction Attitudes to the cloud are clearly maturing. While the technology The emergence of DevOps, the radically tighter alignment between
was originally portrayed as a low cost means of outsourcing IT development teams and IT operations, is playing a transformational
Time to market infrastructure and applications, there has been a massive shift in role in speeding up time in which companies can equip staff, clients
opinion as early adopters have shown not just the computing gains and partners with the latest applications to boost productivity and
Flexible capacity but, crucially, the business benefits. improve margins.
Powering the recovery Those who have looked beyond their own IT capabilities and invested The proof comes with a quarter of companies already reporting
in cloud-based system have found the improved speed in setting up ‘significant’ benefits from speedier development cycles while nearly
Growth agenda services is not limited to just the IT department; it goes right across half (47%) of respondents reveal the main issue holding them back
the business. Whether it is innovating new products, supporting staff from capitalising further on their cloud investment are ITIL release
in multiple locations with improved mobility, improving financial management requirements. They have the clear potential for speed;
Conclusion forecasts, managing supply chains, obtaining business intelligence, now all they need are more flexible release rules and systems to allow
or any doing almost any other traditional or emerging core business them to realise it.
function, cloud adopters are reporting massive speed to market
business benefits. While three in four are hugely optimistic about the cloud, only a
quarter of companies (26%) had concerns that cloud technology might
CA Technologies is an IT 27% be too fast to ensure quality standards are met. This is a completely
understandable result. Three in four are enjoying the speed to market
management software and the cloud brings while one in four is more cautious, concerned that
solutions company with expertise their DevOps teams might go faster than its safe to go.
across all IT environments - from
mainframe and distributed, to The solution is likely to be found in either evolving ITIL release
47%
virtual and cloud.
management recommendations or, perhaps ironically, extending
CA Technologies manages and
secures IT environments and
the use of cloud and IT automation technologies. For example,
enables customers to deliver many companies are now switching on extra capacity, as and when
more flexible IT services. The required, and deploying updates or entirely new services at a rate not
majority of the Global Fortune considered by the previous edition of ITIL.
26%
500 relies on CA Technologies to
manage evolving IT ecosystems This is having a profound impact on what is considered best practice
for planning, building, testing, and running applications. As the
http://www.ca.com
DevOps phenomenon gains more traction, setting up collaborative
Respondents reporting speedier development cycle, development and testing areas, commissioned instantaneously and
but with quality assurance concerns going live in minutes rather than months, will transform the delivery
expectations of the business and the performance capabilities of IT.
Respondents reporting “significant” benefits from
a speedier development process
Respondents reporting a faster development cycle, somewhat
constrained by ITIL release management requirements
5. CA Technologies Survey Flexible capacity - unleashing the power of cloud
Infographic Summary How does your organisation manage the trade off between spending too
much on IT capacity and not spending enough when demand spikes?
Introduction
There is clear evidence that not only are cloud adopters speeding up cloud services. Or, perhaps one should ask, is the question mark
Time to market time to markets and the pace at which new intellectual property (IP) hanging over the acceptance of cloud technologies being raised by the
can be created, they are also using the new technology to ensure staff, 23% -30% of companies who either don’t care to or don’t know how
Flexible capacity customers and partners are offered the best possible IT and web to manage their current IT capacity? If so, perhaps asking them about
experience both internally and externally. the reality of cloud computing is like asking the man who cannot tie his
Powering the recovery laces if studs improve football skills.
However, this is where we hit a clear polarisation in attitude which
Growth agenda probably says more about the maturity of the company’s IT strategy
then the benefits of the cloud.
We prioritise budget constraints &
36%
Conclusion tolerate demand spikes that slow
On the one hand 13% of companies are using the flexibility of
commissioning ‘elastic’ capacity to ‘cloud burst’ and let cloud resources
handle peaks in traffic on their systems. This gives them the benefit of
down our systems
28%
Capacity is prioritised: we plan for
not paying for too much capacity up front, which may be underutilised
much of the time, while at the same time having capacity when
spikes and accept low utilisation
most of the time 23%
needed. High utilisation rates without risk of handling a spike in
CA Technologies is an IT demand, what’s not to like about this model? We don’t manage capacity
management software and
solutions company with expertise
across all IT environments - from
However, on the other extreme, a staggering near one in four We cloud burst to an external provider 13%
to balance cost and performance
mainframe and distributed, to companies (23%) do not manage capacity at all. Also worth noting is
virtual and cloud. that while more than one in three (36%) put up with poor performance
CA Technologies manages and by prioritising budget over service levels, more than one in four prefer
secures IT environments and to throw money at the issue and build systems that can handle peaks
enables customers to deliver but are underutilised at other times. Interestingly, when asking firms what their prime concerns around the
more flexible IT services. The cloud were, a positive picture emerges. More than a third (37%) have
majority of the Global Fortune To put the theory to the test that this variety of answers speaks more no concerns at all and for half (47%) the main issues is not acceptance
500 relies on CA Technologies to about internal IT maturity than any concern over cloud services, but rather ensuring new technology does not impact their regulatory
manage evolving IT ecosystems respondents also revealed a lack of advanced action on ‘asset compliance. The changing role of the IT department and the quest
http://www.ca.com sweating’. In a time of austerity businesses are under pressure to make to keep pace with technology was raised by less than one in ten
sure all assets are used to their fullest potential, yet only a quarter respondents respectively.
(24%) measure and report on capacity utilisation for each IT service.
A third have measures in place, but not for individual services, and a Clearly these statistics show the focus has moved from the minutia
further third (30%) have no measures in place at all because ‘it’s not of internal acceptance to how these new technologies can be utilised
part of our focus’. without breaching regulation. This is a mature, high level concern
which underlines how far acceptance of the cloud is entrenched within
Clearly organisations which do not measure the effectiveness of their organisations - a development which would appear to only be held
spending are not placed to take advantage of potentially more efficient back by internal IT maturity.
6. CA Technologies Survey Powering the recovery - From saving money to making it
Infographic Summary Which of the following business drivers is most
important when you think of Cloud computing?
Introduction
When the cloud first started to be talked about among organisations, When asked to make a straight choice between flexibility, cost and
Time to market its most obvious benefit was cost. That is, of course, not a bad thing speed, more than half of respondents opted for flexibility as the main
and it is hardly surprising considering it has been gaining traction business driver of cloud. That there should be a business driver is, of
Flexible capacity during a worldwide economic downturn. course, an interesting point, showing that the technology has moved
beyond being a choice made by IT teams to become more of a strategic
Powering the recovery However, a far more positive message is now emerging from enterprise decision.
organisations that have invested in cloud technologies. While cost
Growth agenda savings are still very important, cloud adoption is beginning to be This is further evidenced by respondents’ revelation that cost savings
driven by demands for replacing outdated IT systems with new, are not just associated with IT expenditure. Instead nearly half (43%)
improved tools to empower business growth. of all respondents revealed that automating internal IT processes
Conclusion is the activity most likely to deliver cost and time savings. This was
double the proportion of interviewees who selected the process of
outsourcing IT to cloud providers (21%) and almost triple the choice of
developing a self-service catalogue (16%).
Flexibility Cloud technology users are clear on the benefits they seek and they
CA Technologies is an IT have a preferred approach. Cloud is helping them to automate (no
management software and doubt, standardised and at times re-engineer) processes which boost
solutions company with expertise
across all IT environments - from 51% efficiency, streamline resources and make the organisation leaner
and fitter to seek growth - and it is growth that is clearly identified
mainframe and distributed, to as the intended business outcome from more flexible cloud-based IT
virtual and cloud.
Cost technologies.
CA Technologies manages and
secures IT environments and
33%
enables customers to deliver
more flexible IT services. The
majority of the Global Fortune
500 relies on CA Technologies to
manage evolving IT ecosystems Speed
http://www.ca.com
15%
7. CA Technologies Survey How to make cloud a reality - Growth agenda driving cloud
Infographic Summary The key drivers of Cloud adoption in Europe
Introduction There is an apparent contradiction when IT decision makers and The reason almost certainly lies in the strategy of companies not
influencers are asked about the key drivers behind cloud adoption wanting to risk capital expenditure in uncertain times, moving
Time to market which encapsulates the multiple promises of the technology. whatever can possibly be moved in to operating expenditure. This
underlines why flexibility is the prime business driver for cloud
Flexible capacity When asked about business drivers more than half (51%) rank adoption and yet reducing cost and capital expenditure is the number
flexibility above speed (33%) yet when separately asked to rank the one priority behind choosing cloud technologies. Clearly flexibility, on
Powering the recovery top drivers for adopting cloud technology, cost reduction and avoiding the business driver side, involves cost but also the ability to be more
capital expenses was the first choice for 61%. agile, to get to markets quicker with less money committed up front.
Growth agenda Organisations want the flexibility of scaling IT systems up and down at
short notice and they want to do this through a consumption-based
billing model which avoids capital being tied up in IT.
Conclusion
So, if they do not want budget tied up in internal infrastructure, what
do they want it for? The answer is very positive and leaps out from
respondents’ choices of the second, third and fourth drivers for
choosing cloud technologies. Namely; innovation (40%) the second
most important driver. Interestingly, and perhaps a bellwether for the
CA Technologies is an IT economy, approximately one in three companies rate growth within
management software and and outside the EU s as their third or fourth driver.
solutions company with expertise
across all IT environments - from Clearly, cloud technology is becoming so well proven that it has moved
mainframe and distributed, to beyond being an attractive IT proposition. Today it is fast becoming
virtual and cloud.
recognised as crucial business asset for any organisations seeking out
CA Technologies manages and
secures IT environments and
new growth. The order of priority makes perfect sense. Avoiding large
enables customers to deliver capital expenditure projects is the number one priority because it
more flexible IT services. The can fund the second priority of innovating new products and services
majority of the Global Fortune through which they can then seek growth.
500 relies on CA Technologies to
manage evolving IT ecosystems Another point that underlines the integral trust now being place
in cloud technologies is that, as the graph show, there is now little
http://www.ca.com
distinction between growth in the EU and beyond. The flexibility,
scalability and speed to market promise of cloud is clearly being seen
as providing organisations with the support and tools they need to look
in to growth markets that are both close to home and, crucially, further
afield.
Reducing IT costs Growth through new
and avoiding capex product innovation
8. CA Technologies Survey Conclusion: powering recovery - the genie is out of the box
Infographic Summary
Introduction If assumptions are allowed to go unchecked they can become However, as has been demonstrated, neither is true. To quickly
engrained and thought leadership and strategies hampered dispense with the threat issue - only one in four respondents feel
Time to market
by outdated perceptions. When it comes to cloud, if outdated the cloud will make their IT department less relevant to the business.
misconceptions are not challenged, the business benefits that could The three in four who realise the reverse is actually true understand
Flexible capacity
help Europe out of an economic downturn could easily be overlooked. the impact the new technology is having in helping companies
Powering the recovery That is why it has been so vital to seek opinions from decision makers drive innovation and growth while improving margins and boosting
in 300 European organisations. efficiency.
Growth agenda
The main benefit of the cloud has traditionally been cost and there was The people towards the front of the adoption curve are realising that
Conclusion always a perception, whether real or not, that IT departments were although cloud initially appears to be about IT it is actually about
hostile to the new technology that looked too good to be true and business. It is about giving organisations the tools that will empower
could possibly run the risk of individuals’ roles being outsourced. them to move away from long term, risky, slow and expensive capital
expenditure projects. Instead, they can form a strategy around having
capacity they can simply dial up or dial down, as they see fit, and for
which they are only billed for what they use. What is more, the speed
CA Technologies is an IT this brings is already demonstrably helping organisations innovate and
management software and
solutions company with expertise bring new products and services to market quicker than before.
across all IT environments - from So, although the tools commissioned through cloud providers are
mainframe and distributed, to IT-based, the benefits and the driving force behind those decisions
virtual and cloud. now go beyond the IT department alone. They are clearly seen as
CA Technologies manages and
secures IT environments and integral to business strategies organisations are putting in place to fund
enables customers to deliver innovation and growth without taking speculative bets on internal IT
more flexible IT services. The resources which could be delayed and be out of date by the time they
majority of the Global Fortune are operational.
500 relies on CA Technologies to
manage evolving IT ecosystems
Furthermore, cloud technologies are helping organisations to be in a
http://www.ca.com
position to profit from innovation and growth without also having to
put too heavy a bet on improving market conditions. Organisations
wary of committing savings towards speculative growth can instead
be in the market and able to flex capacity up and down as sluggish
economies across the globe start to revitalise.