IT Cloud consumption report by Cisco and Intel says more than four out of five Indian IT decision makers (respondents) believe that Cloud will positively impact their organizations.
According to the Cisco-Intel study surveyed 4,226 IT leaders in 18 industries across nine key economies including 600 from India, IT leaders in emerging nations like India, Brazil and China are more upbeat about cloud given its transformational and innovative potential; in developed markets it is mostly seen as a tool for cost-cutting.
India respondents cited a high level of satisfaction with their existing cloud providers. About 83 percent of respondents In India were very satisfied and another 13 percent somewhat satisfied, representing a total 96 percent positive rating.
Given such high ratings, cloud providers in India are well positioned today, though they must be prepared to operate in an increasingly demanding marketplace.
“As cloud adoption in India is becoming mainstream, it is interesting to see that a number of cloud adoption decisions are being initiated by the business heads. IT departments need to increasingly re-model the way in which they partner with business. This will involve acting as a broker, or intermediary, of cloud services, orchestrating the planning and procurement process for LOBs across internal and external clouds,” said Neeraj Arora, director, Cloud Computing, Cisco Consulting Services, APJC.
Cisco suggested that cloud providers will need to offer end-to-end solutions while orchestrating an ecosystem of partners. Accordingly, high ratings for cloud providers in our survey come with high demands: for security capabilities, custom solutions, and guarantees on service levels.
For enterprise CIOs, security and privacy issues are top of mind and seen as a clear inhibitor to cloud growth. Robust security and data protection capabilities are also seen as the most critical factors for cloud service providers. In India, complexity of managing third parties was seen as a major limitation.
Cisco says companies will need to formulate an approach that enables them to meet the overarching goals for their organization. IT leaders should consider how best to partner with key stakeholders, such as LOBs and third-party providers, with an approach that is tailored for their unique needs.
IT decision makers — especially those in emerging markets like India, China and Brazil — believe that IT will maintain a centralized and well-funded role, managing cloud solutions with consistent policy and security solutions.
Respondents in India, China and Brazil are nearly twice as likely to project an increase in the size of their IT organization than were their counterparts in Europe and North America.
Over 90 percent of respondents in India feel that the influence of LOBs will extend across all IT lifecycle stages and create unprecedented complexity for IT organizations as they grapple with security and technical support. As IT transforms to an “as-a-service” model, the interlocks and relationships between IT and the LOBs will need to change.
