In May 2024, we launched our annual cloud research report: “Tough times, but innovation springs internal” with the subtitle of “How cloud is the key technology enabler helping businesses innovate in a turbulent period.”
In this year’s survey, 82% of respondents said that the current global economic climate had had at least some impact on their IT plans. There have been significant layoffs in the tech sector over the last year, but we’ve also experienced a surge in innovation, with new ideas and thinking fuelled by the explosion of generative AI and access to large language models.
Here are some other highlights from the report:
- 100% of surveyed organisations said they are accessing cloud-based services with AWS, Azure, IBM, Google Cloud, Oracle, Salesforce, Alibaba and OVHcloud all being mentioned by our sample.
- Almost every one of our survey respondents have AI in their plans, but nearly two-thirds are already using it, representing probably the fastest speed of adoption of new enterprise tech ever!
- As expected the most common motivation for using cloud is its potential to offer greater flexibility of IT spend at 33%, while 32% of organisations cited cloud’s ability to make them more agile as a business.
- 37% of businesses said that between 40-60% of their IT infrastructure is hosted in the cloud while 29% of respondents reported that they host 60-80% of their IT assets this way.
- As you might expect 42% of respondents reported that they consider AI among their most important IT projects, just ahead of security and sustainability both at 40%.
Our Cloud Industry Forum Chair, Ian Jeffs of Lenovo closes the report saying:
“While 2023 was the year of the generative AI explosion, the rest of 2024 will no doubt see it continue to take centre stage, but there is also a clear openness from businesses to invest time in exploring the rewards of other technologies such as machine learning, data analytics, IoT and the metaverse. By continuing to innovate, and dedicating time to fulfilling the potential of new technologies, businesses will be well equipped to not just survive, but thrive in the coming years.”
– Ian Jeffs, Lenovo
