Business execs like cloud more than IT leaders
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Survey finds that the arguments for cloud computing appeal more to business executives than their peers in the IT department
The putative benefits of cloud computing are more appealing to business executives than to IT leaders, a survey of over 1,000 executives has found.
The survey, conducted by independent analyst company Horses for Sources and the London School of Economics, presented respondents with a list of potential benefits of cloud computing. In almost every case, a greater proportion of business executives said the benefit appealed to them “as it pertains to [their] job” than of IT executives.
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This was especially true for proposed benefits including “We can implement business apps we need much quicker”, “Cloud empowers us to access best-in-class applications quickly”, and “Cloud enables us to focus on transforming our business, not IT”.
“As we suspected, the dynamics driving the future direction of cloud adoption within the business functions is going to come from the business function leaders who ‘get it’,” remarked Horses for Sources founder and former AMR and IDC analyst Phil Fersht.
This finding could be interpreted as evidence that IT executives are less excited about the prospect of cloud computing as it threatens the status quo in the IT department.
Alternatively, it could be taken as a sign that cloud computing vendors have had more success selling the vision of cloud to business execs than to IT professionals who, having typically experienced technology hype cycles first hand, tend to be more cynical.
Either way, the perception of cloud computing among executives should not be mistaken for evidence of its true merits, as few organisations have yet adopted cloud computing to any great extent.
Further findings from the Horses for Sources / LSE report are to soon be released.
More and more of what businesses and their customers do is closer to the technology than it has ever been before. The divide between an IT leader and a business leader is consequently much narrower.
The biggest difference between them being that the business leader doesn't worry about where the business solution happens, he is only concerned that it does what it needs to (cost effectively).
IT leaders will naturally be less inclined to accept the value of cloud solutions because the control over the solution lies elsewhere. That may be the biggest 'heart and mind' issue to overcome alongside the data security issues.
The outcome of this survey shouldn't really come as any surprise.
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