Cloud migration 'more trouble than it's worth' - survey

Report from NTT Com finds two fifths of IT bosses find migrating complex apps to cloud too hard

More than two in five ICT decision makers find managing cloud vendors confusing and challenging, according to the latest report from NTT Communications.

The report – Cloud Reality Check 2015 – surveyed nearly 1,600 ICT decision makers in the UK, USA, France, Germany, Spain and the Benelux region, and found that 41 per cent of respondents said dealing with cloud vendors was a difficult task.

The report also found that 41 per cent felt that migrating complex apps to the cloud is "more trouble than it's worth".

A further 38 per cent said cloud is not living up to its potential in their organisations.

The report said: "It seems clear from the survey results that for enterprises, cloud is entering what Gartner refers to on its Hype Cycle as the 'trough of disillusionment'."

Len Padilla, vice president of product strategy at NTT Com, said: "Our study shows the reality of cloud in 2015 is potentially as complex as the world it was supposed to replace. ICT decision makers harbour significant frustrations over cloud and there are no clear answers over which kinds of applications belong where.

"There needs to be a far smoother migration path from the datacentre to the cloud. A different kind of planning approach is required for companies to achieve the large-scale digital transformations business executives are demanding."

Despite the concerns about cloud adoption, the report found that by 2018 ICT budgets are expected to increase their cloud allocation by six percentage points to 28 per cent.

The report also found that the percentage of ICT decision makers assigning more than a fifth of their ICT budget to the cloud will rise from 57 per cent in 2015 to 77 per cent in 2018.