Cloud enters 'second wave' - IDC

New report claims more than half of IT pros expect cloud to drive revenues in next two years

Cloud has moved into its second wave of adoption, with 53 per cent of IT experts asked expecting it to drive increased revenue for businesses over the next two years, says IDC and Cisco.

The joint report claims cloud technology is crucial to an enterprise’s digitisation ambitions as it offers IT departments efficiency, speed and agility.

UK businesses are lagging behind the US, with only 27 per cent of them managing mature cloud strategies, compared with 34 per cent across the pond.

Further to that, 31 per cent of organisations in the UK do not have a cloud strategy at all, meaning they are potentially missing out on about $1.6m (£1m) in additional revenue from applications deployed on public or private cloud platforms, said the report.

Robert Mahowald, vice president of SaaS and cloud at IDC, said: “IDC studies have shown that organisations with advanced cloud adoption have better business outcomes including stronger business performance, better top-line revenue, improved strategic IT allocation, greater flexibility, reduced costs, and increased service performance.

“But most organisations are not very far along the adoption journey, and need to focus on the skills, methodologies, and best practices required to get themselves to the next level.”