Cloud Computing Defined as Future Model for Mid-Market IT with Adoption Increasing, Evolve IP Survey of 1,100+ IT Professionals Concludes

WAYNE, Pa., July 11, 2013 Cloud computing is regarded as the future model for IT by nearly nine of ten respondents, according to a mid-market business survey conducted by Evolve IP. The survey also shows that while companies in the cloud are experiencing benefits like disaster avoidance, scalability and flexibility, IT managers are less enthusiastic about deploying than executives and IT directors. Executives and IT directors believe more deeply in the value of the cloud, feel more educated on cloud services and expect to spend more on them than IT managers. The survey of more than 1,100 individuals involved with IT at mid-Market companies in North America revealed insight into cloud adoption trends as well as current cloud deployment. For a full synopsis and analysis of results, a complimentary white paper, "Cloud of Dreams – Adoption of the Cloud by North American Mid-Market Businesses," can be downloaded at www.evolveip.net/Cloud-Survey.  

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According to the survey results, 70 percent of c-level, vice president and IT director-level respondents consider themselves "cloud believers" while 53 percent of IT managers describe themselves that way. According to Evolve IP thought leaders, the survey data shows that while cloud services are a hot topic for mid-market companies, more education and proofs of concept will be required to settle internal battles between premise advocates and cloud believers.  

"The survey data reflects what we see in our business every day," said Guy Fardone, general manager and chief operating officer of Evolve IP. "Most businesses already have at least one hosted service running but in some organizations not everyone is in complete alignment regarding putting multiple services in the cloud. Executives want the cost and disaster avoidance benefits while security, privacy and compliance are typical initial concerns brought up by the managers responsible for implementation."

Services in the Cloud
Regardless of who is a cloud "believer," mid-market businesses are already deploying cloud services, according to the survey results. However, they are less likely to plan cloud deployments of complex enterprise systems.

• Mid-market companies report having on average 2.5 services in the cloud. Adoption, as expected, is higher among "believers" at 3.1 hosted services. The unconvinced still average 1.3 cloud services and the undecided have 1.1 services deployed in the cloud.
• Among all respondents, 75 percent plan on adding new or additional cloud services in the next three years. Even among those unconvinced of cloud benefits or undecided about cloud value, more than half (52 percent) expect to migrate some cloud services by 2016.
• Of those in the cloud, 70 percent have realized improved flexibility and scalability while six in ten have experienced disaster avoidance/business continuity benefits.
• The top services respondents expect to deploy in the next three years are servers/data centers (27.5 percent), Microsoft Exchange (22 percent), co-location/backup infrastructure (22 percent), phone systems (17 percent) and Microsoft Office (17 percent).
• More complex enterprise systems such as financial applications/ERP systems have lower expected cloud deployment projections (12.5 percent).

Cloud Implementation Strategies
The survey shows that cloud computing budgets continue to rise, though fewer managers expect a budget increase than IT directors and executives. Companies are beginning to consider methods and resources for deployment while evaluating barriers.

• Budgets for cloud services are increasing year over year with 43 percent of respondents noting a budget increase in 2013 and 61.5 percent expecting an increase in 2014. Of those with an increase in 2013 over 80 percent expect to increase spending again in 2014.
• 69 percent of executives plan on spending more on cloud services while only 52 percent of IT managers expect to see a budget increase.
• When evaluating planning strategies, 54 percent of respondents believe that their IT staff is able to implement a cloud strategy independently yet only 31 percent will choose to do so on their own.
• Barriers to adoption still exist with security topping the list as a concern among 55 percent of respondents. Related concerns, legal/compliance issues (38.5 percent) and privacy (37 percent), also rank as barriers. Concerns about the effectiveness of the cloud were relatively low with reliability/availability (33 percent) and performance (33 percent) rounding out the top 5 barriers. 

Survey Methodology
Evolve IP conducted a blind, web-based survey during May and June 2013 with 1,181 IT/cloud decision maker respondents. Seventy-nine percent of those surveyed were from organizations with reported revenue between 1 million dollars and 500 million dollars; 76 percent of the respondents came from organizations with between 50 and 5,000 employees, largely defined as mid-market. Evolve IP customers were excluded. For full results of the survey, please visit www.evolveip.net/Cloud-Survey.

About Evolve IP
Evolve IP is The Cloud Services Company™. Designed from the beginning to provide organizations with a unified option for cloud services, Evolve IP enables decision-makers to migrate all or select IT technologies to its award-winning cloud platform. Evolve IP's combination of security, stability, scalability and lower total cost of ownership makes its services fundamentally superior to outdated legacy systems and other cloud offerings. Today, tens of thousands of users primarily in the U.S. and globally depend daily on Evolve IP for cloud services, including virtual servers, virtual desktops, disaster recovery, unified communications, contact centers and more. Visit www.EvolveIP.net or http://blog.EvolveIP.net.

Company Contact:​
Mercedes Carrasco
Schwartz MSL for Evolve IP
781-684-0770
[email protected]

SOURCE Evolve IP