Cloud Cost Savings Not As High As Expected: Survey

The survey, performed by solution provider CSC via research firm TNS gauged the insight of more than 3,500 cloud computing users globally. One of the survey's main findings is that while the cloud is saving companies money, those cost savings aren't as massive as originally expected.

According to the survey, 82 percent of the organizations saved money on their last cloud adoption project. In the U.S., however, 23 percent of organizations said the cloud has not saved them money, while 45 percent of small businesses of 50 or fewer employees also reported no cloud savings. Among U.S. organizations, 35 percent reported savings of less than $20,000.

Brazilian companies are reaping the most cost benefit from the cloud, CSC's survey found, with 92 percent of Brazilian organizations saying they're saving money. Additionally, 70 percent of companies in Australia said the cloud is saving them dough.

Cloud computing also isn't leading to downsizing of IT operations, the survey found. According to CSC, just 14 percent of companies downsized their IT departments after adopting cloud, while 20 percent of organizations hired more cloud experts.

While the cloud is not resulting in humungous cost savings, businesses are seeing IT performance increases after adopting the cloud. The survey revealed that 93 percent of organizations saw at least one area of improvement in their IT department since adopting the cloud; 52 percent reported increased data center efficiency and utilization; and 47 percent said they witnessed lower operating costs. And those improvements are occurring within six months of moving to the cloud, 80 percent of survey respondents reported.

Security concerns also don't change dramatically after cloud computing is adopted. CSC found that 25 percent of organizations expressed more concern about data security after adopting. Meanwhile, 47 percent of companies in Singapore expressed more concern about security after cloud adoption, and 47 percent of Brazilian organizations said they are less concerned about security after switching to the cloud.

The survey also found that companies' reasons for adopting the cloud are changing.

Cloud computing adoption is being fueled mainly by users wanting to connect employees to data and apps through multiple devices, including tablets and smartphones. Thirty-three percent of respondents said accessibility to information through multiple devices was their most important reason for cloud adoption.

Access via multiple devices was followed by accelerating the speed of business, which 21 respondents said was a key cloud driver, and cutting costs, which 17 percent cited as the most important factor in their choice to move to the cloud. Meanwhile, in the small business, multi-device access to data and apps is driving a massive swell of cloud adoption, with 46 percent citing that as their most important reason for adopting cloud. Ten percent of small businesses said cutting costs was their key cloud catalyst.

Other key findings in CSC's cloud survey include 65 percent of respondents saying they chose cloud services subscriptions that last a year or more; 64 percent of organizations said adopting cloud has helped them reduce waste and lower energy consumption; 74 percent of small businesses said no one in their company resisted the move to the cloud; and 48 percent of U.S. government agencies moved at least one workflow to the cloud as part of the federal government's cloud-first policy.