So when you got out of bed this morning and got ready for work, did the Cloud help you shave, tie your shoes, find your car keys and hand you a breakfast burrito on your way out the door? First of all, no because the Cloud doesn't have hands and can't hold a razor. (And please stop calling it "the Cloud" like that's a thing.) And second, also no because there's no such thing as a self-tying shoe app. (Yet.) Whether because we've all been watching too many bad movies, or because advertising has inflated our expectations, there's a general attribution of life-changing wizardry to cloud computing that the technology just doesn't support yet.
On the other hand, plenty of businesses believe that cloud computing is an important part of their future operations. That's one thing that's clear as a bright blue sky from CompTIA's newly released Fifth Annual Trends in Cloud Computing report. One of the most eye-catching statistics states that 90 percent of companies utilize some aspect of cloud technology already. Cloud computing isn't a wave that's about to wash over the business realm. It's already here, and a lot of firms have done more than just stick in the proverbial toe to test the temperature. For most businesses, it's not so much a question of whether cloud computing has a place, as what else they can use it for.
CompTIA reports that firms are using cloud technology to meet a variety of needs, with 59 percent of firms surveyed reaping data storage benefits, while 48 percent rely on cloud technology for business continuity and disaster recovery, and 44 percent are using cloud computing applications to provide increased security.
The Trends in Cloud Computing report further reveals that there are a number of different motivations driving cloud technology adoption. For businesses in the IT channel, the cloud itself is changing the game. Forty-one percent of those surveyed report that there are so many emerging possibilities that it's become impossibly to stay on the sidelines of cloud computing. Other factors in play include customer demand for new services (36 percent), new and more lucrative financial models (32 percent) and the always-potent fear of obsolescence (23 percent). After all, nobody wants to be the business that closed its doors because it was the last one on the block to get with the times.
The Fifth Annual Trends in Cloud Computing report is available free of charge. To gather its data, CompTIA surveyed 400 IT and business professionals in the United States "who are involved in IT decision-making for their organizations," as well as picking the brains of an addition 400 U.S. IT executives.
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