CIOs Are Driving Corporate IT Resource Migration to the Cloud

CIOs Are Driving Corporate IT Resource Migration to the Cloud

Chief information offers (CIO) are the ones pushing corporate IT resources to the cloud. A new survey reveals that, in nearly three-fourths (72%) of all enterprises, the CIO is the person leading the charge in order to reduce costs and get faster access to computing capacity.

The study, published by Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based IT company Unisys, found that CEOs, CFOs, or the board of directors are the ones championing cloud migration in just 13% of cases.

The CIO’s main motivations for advocating the cloud are saving money by reducing operational costs, having computing capacity on demand, freeing up their internal IT staff to focus on more-critical functions, and creating competitive advantage.

“This study shows that far-sighted CIOs have a clear view of the competitive, operational, and economic benefits of cloud computing, and are taking energetic action to realize them for their organizations,” said Steve Nunn, vice president of cloud and infrastructure services at Unisys. “At the same time, those decision-makers are clear-eyed about the need to secure both existing IT and new cloud resources in order to protect vital business assets.”

The biggest downside to wider cloud adoption remains security. While encryption, best practices, and other advances in cyber-security in recent years mean that it is more trustworthy than ever, the concerns persist. There is simply a lot of fear — both real and imagined — whenever a company puts its resources into the hands of a third part, which leaves security as “an issue more than a decade after cloud computing gained widespread recognition,” according to Unisys.

With CIOs pushing for more cloud migration, most expect this to become the new normal. Two-thirds of those surveyed believe that at least half of their IT resources will live in the cloud within two years. Nearly half (44%) think that 75% of IT resources are heading that way.

The study was conducted for Unisys by Gatepoint Research. The firm surveyed 200 IT and business executives in the United States.

Related Posts