Technology & Innovation

Study finds only 7 Percent of IT and business executives believe cloud computing has reached its full potential

March 01, 2016

Global

A new report published today (March 1, 2016) by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), sponsored by VMware, finds that cloud computing will grow at a rapid pace to become a key driver in the digitization of major industries.

  • Cloud computing has strong growth potential, with only 7% of all surveyed IT and business executives believing it has reached its full potential
  • However, a diverse range of global executives predict rapid growth of cloud in five key industries: banking, retail, manufacturing, education and healthcare.  Approximately 70% of panelists predict the cloud will be a major factor across the survey industries within five years.  
  • Across all industries, the greatest challenges were seen to be ensuring data security (47% of all executives) and finding qualified personnel to build out and operate cloud systems (35%)  

, sponsored by VMware, is based on a global survey of 360 senior executives, with over half of them from the C-Suite. The respondents were segmented into sub-panels of 72 experts to provide targeted expertise in individual industries.  

74% of financial services executives predict cloud will become a major force in banking, with the largest impact on payments (68%) and lowering the costs of banking (60%). In retail, 70% of executives believe cloud will become a major factor, with the greatest impact in cost reduction (58%) and helping new companies to grow (49%).

71% of manufacturing experts believe cloud will become a major factor in the industry.  Production processes and supply chain will be impacted most at 60% and 54%. 67% of educators believe cloud will be a major factor in education. Higher education (51%) and continuing education (42%) are two areas that will be impacted. 61% of executives and care providers believe cloud will become a major factor in healthcare, with the greatest contribution in centralisation of health records (57%) and supporting preventative care (53%).

West Coghlan, the editor of the report said:
“Several patterns emerge. The first is the consensus that cloud will make its mark on all industries—no legacy industry is going to escape. The second is that the rate of adoption will be rapid—most of panelists predict that cloud will be a major factor in their business in just five years. 

“Still, challenges remain: data security and cyber-attacks are top-of-mind for senior executives.  A further challenge is finding the enough qualified personnel to build out cloud-based system.”

To download the full report, click .  To download summary reports on  and , click on these links. 

Press enquiries:

Economist Intelligence Unit 
 
Emma Runquist, marketing manager

West Coghlan, senior editor

Notes to editors

About The Economist Intelligence Unit
The Economist Intelligence Unit is the world leader in global business intelligence. It is the business-to-business arm of The Economist Group, which publishes The Economist newspaper. The Economist Intelligence Unit helps executives make better decisions by providing timely, reliable and impartial analysis on worldwide market trends and business strategies. More information can be found at  or .    

About VMware
Alex Goldsmith, director – business unit and technology PR
 

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