Centrix Software,
a leading expert in workspace management, today revealed results of its
latest IT end-user report. The cloud-based application (app) usage
research shows that cloud-based apps are a reality in the enterprise,
with nearly 90 per cent of today's organizations using them. However,
it's also highlighted there's still much confusion around how the move
to the cloud should be prioritized, which app types are most suitable,
who pays for cloud apps, and what the top risks are.
Centrix
Software commissioned global technology market research business,
Vanson Bourne, to undertake an independent survey of 125 UK-based IT
directors and CIOs, across a number of commercial industry sectors and
the public sector.
The
research highlights that responsibility for selecting, purchasing and
managing cloud-based apps is increasingly shared between IT and business
users - completely changing the way end-user computing is delivered.
Business users are now involved in 53 per cent of cloud app decisions
(17 per cent are solely responsible for app decisions and 36 per cent
share responsibility with IT) - and hold direct responsibility for 33
per cent of the budget, with a further 27 per cent managed jointly with
IT.
These
findings are backed up by analyst firm Gartner, which states that
more than 25 per cent of IT spending is already outside of the control
of CIOs - and that's predicted to grow to 50 per cent by 2017. The
report confirmed CIOs are concerned that the diversification of cloud
responsibility raises data and content security and governance issues;
with 61 per cent saying that security of organizational content and data
was their top concern, and 82 per cent putting this in their top three.
This
report helps anyone trying to understand the challenges and
opportunities presented by cloud-based apps, and measure their own organization against the results. There were several more key findings,
including the following:
- Cloud usage is growing - over three quarters (78 per cent) of organizations have a pro-active plan for cloud adoption in 2015
- For
more than a third of all CIOs the growing cost of cloud subscriptions,
managing the increasing number of cloud apps in use, and duplication of
app functionality were in their top three concerns.
- Office
productivity is the top cloud app category in use across all types of organizations, whereas newer app categories are not widely adopted in
the cloud (for example, only 2 per cent ranked marketing automation as
their top solution and 6 per cent put it in their top three)
- Shadow IT was another worry, with 53 per cent of CIOs ranking this in their top three concerns
- Tracking
and measuring usage is a big challenge. 38 per cent of organizations
use the admin function of each separate cloud app to track and measure
their usage (meaning a typical 5,000 user organization would have to
log-on to between 65 and 130 apps to understand usage)
- The
financial services and government sectors are the furthest behind in
cloud app adoption, with 20 per cent of CIOs saying they had no
cloud-based app usage (and, 24 per cent of financial services CIOs not
planning to focus on cloud apps at all in 2015)
Commenting
on the results, Lisa Hammond, CEO of Centrix Software said, "Today's
business users, familiar with choosing, downloading and using apps on
their personal devices, can be just as cloud-aware as their more
technical colleagues. This is driving a radical change in the way that
end-user computing is delivered. The challenge for CIOs is how to manage
a cloud environment that's not in their control and that they regard as
a huge security risk."
Lisa
continued, "Today's IT leaders need to monitor, analyze, prioritize and
evaluate rates of cloud app adoption so they can understand cloud app
usage and consumption. It's only those who have accurate information
about cloud usage who will be able to spot cloud app trends, proactively
forecast demand and identify the business value of migrating apps to
the cloud or introducing new types of cloud apps. Usage-based business
intelligence analytics for IT has to be part of the solution to this
cloud confusion."
To discover more about the findings, download a full copy of the white paper:
‘The Centrix Software IT End-User Usage Report - Cloud Based Application Usage' (Winter 2015).