Cloud is Gaining Traction But On-Premise Will Stand Its Ground: Survey

Enterprises are increasingly embracing the cloud, but their love for on-premise infrastructure is not going to go away, according to a latest study by IBM.
“Almost every company is using the cloud, but not for everything,” says the report, estimating that 45% of workloads will remain on-premise for the near future.
The survey that polled more than 1,000 C-level executives reveals that 78% of enterprises have deployed a cloud initiative, an increase of 34% in 2012.
“Enterprises are moving to the cloud, especially hybrid cloud, faster than anyone expected, in order to support their digital transformation, drive business model innovation, and fuel growth,” said Marie Wieck of IBM.
Another key reason why hybrid cloud solutions are popular among these enterprises is that businesses believe hybrid can help them lower the total cost of ownership. A hybrid cloud is a blend of public cloud, private cloud, and traditional information technology (IT) platforms.
“As clients continue to reap the benefits of integrating their on-premises infrastructure with the cloud, we see them increasing their investments in new workloads on public clouds. Successful clients have integrated plans to place workloads where they fit best,” Wieck added.
Today, high capital investment, security & compliance risks, and the potential disruption to company operations following introduction of new cloud solutions are some of the issues holding back the cloud demand.
But IBM enterprises can get around these hurdles if they choose the right cloud solutions that maximize benefits and minimize risks. Before moving to cloud, organizations should decide which business and IT functions they will deliver through the cloud, and identify and address the challenges beforehand.
Those who successfully adopted cloud are are already reaping operational, financial, and innovation benefits.