Global Study Reveals Cloud is Gathering Momentum, but Tech Pros Struggle with Optimal Strategy

Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning have changed the way businesses operate and what it takes to thrive in a digital economy. An independent survey of IT leaders in more than 9,000 businesses spanning twenty-four countries across the US, EMEA and Asia Pac found that digital solutions drive around half of revenue (47% on average) for organizations, whether through customer facing applications or more back-office functionality.  It's clear that digital transformation is no longer just a buzzword, it's actually happening.

But despite this growth, technical complexity and strategic uncertainty from an infrastructure standpoint have prevented businesses from truly becoming digital. Public, private and hybrid cloud, SaaS and traditional on-premises all have momentum, but businesses still lack confidence in where to place specific workloads:

• On average, businesses are running 41% of applications with traditional on-premises IT – higher than both public cloud (26%) and private cloud (24%).
• Public cloud is poised to grow in the next 18-24 months (61% say their use will increase). Alongside this, a combined 87% of respondents see their use of either private cloud (52%) or traditional on-premises (35%) accelerating.
• Despite strong indications of public cloud growth, a significant number of companies that ran workloads in public cloud environments have actually moved some or all of those workloads back on-premises (43% of businesses in North America have done so). In EMEA, 65% say they have reduced use of public cloud in the last 12 months because of security concerns.
• Businesses run approximately one in five applications via SaaS currently (22%), and more than half (51%) see their use of SaaS increasing over the next 18-24 months.

"Emerging technologies have started to drive true digital transformation, but businesses remain in a cycle of lure and regret when it comes to public cloud," said Scott Dietzen, CEO of Pure Storage. "Rather than being viewed as competing options, companies should embrace cloud and on-premises storage as complementary offerings. By doing so, storage infrastructure becomes agile and future-proof, which drives the data advantage that enterprises seek."

For more on this year's Evolution survey, check out our blog and the full survey results here.

Methodology
Research was conducted by three separate research agencies – Maru / edr in the US, Madbox in Asia Pac and Insight Avenue in EMEA.  9,302 interviews were conducted in total with IT decision makers in businesses with 500+ employees in EMEA and the US, and 100+ employees in Asia Pac.

About Pure Storage
Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) helps companies push the boundaries of what's possible. Pure's end-to-end data platform - including FlashArray, FlashBlade and our converged offering with Cisco, FlashStack – is powered by innovative software that's cloud-connected for management from anywhere on a mobile device and supported by the Evergreen business model. The company's all-flash based technology, combined with its customer-friendly business model, drives business and IT transformation with solutions that are effortless, efficient and evergreen. With Pure's industry leading Satmetrix-certified NPS score of 83.5, Pure customers are some of the happiest in the world, and include organizations of all sizes, across an ever-expanding range of industries.

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