CHICAGO, Nov. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The dust has settled after the explosion in cloud investment at the beginning of COVID, but new data from SPR, a technology modernization firm, released today shows while many leaders are optimistic about their organization's cloud maturity, line-of-business IT employees are less enthusiastic.
Titled Cloud Report: What Businesses Need for Resilience in 2021 and Beyond, the report surveyed 400 IT decision-makers and 400 line-of-business IT workers to uncover how IT teams perceive their businesses' cloud resiliency strategy for 2020 and beyond.
According to the report, nearly half (47%) of IT decision-makers strongly agreed that COVID accelerated their cloud maturity compared to only 29% of line-of-business IT employees. And when asked to rate their cloud's maturity, 39% of decision-makers said "very mature," with only a quarter of line-of-business IT workers agreeing.
"While many organizations are chasing a mature cloud strategy, they're all operating under different definitions of cloud maturity," said Kevin McMahon, executive director of cloud enablement at SPR. "Further, internal IT teams are misaligned on what cloud maturity means for their company, and their priorities are muddled as a result. Once IT leaders and frontline employees understand how mature their cloud is, they can develop a resilient and scalable architecture that allows them to remain competitive and innovative during these uncertain times."
Additional findings from the report highlight the misalignment between decision-makers and line-of-business IT employees, with 38% of decision-makers believing shadow IT is extremely common at their companies compared to only 17% of line-of-business employees. Additionally, over a quarter (27%) of decision-makers rated their cloud governance as "very mature," compared to only 16% of line-of-business employees. Likewise, 1 in 3 decision-makers rated their cloud security as "very mature" versus only 23% of line-of-business.
Other key findings from the report include:
- Over one third (36%) of line-of-business IT employees said a company's cloud maturity will be "extremely important" when looking for their next job.
- More than two-thirds (69%) of decision-makers are at least somewhat likely to switch or add additional cloud providers in the next 12 months, despite 63% stating they were "extremely satisfied" with how their current cloud provider supported them throughout the pandemic.
- Over a quarter (27%) of decision-makers rated their cloud governance as "very mature," while only 16% of line-of-business employees agree. Further, 1 in 3 decision-makers think their company's cloud security is "very mature" with only 23% of line-of-business in agreement.
- The top reason (47%) companies are accelerating their cloud initiatives right now is simply to facilitate remote work, with the top initiative accelerated being migrating on-prem IT infrastructure to the cloud.
- While 3/4 of decision-makers see shadow IT as a common problem, they're off the mark with how to fix it according to line-of-business IT employees. A majority (55%) of decision-makers want to offer additional training on tools, but only 15% of line-of-business employees see a lack of training on how to use authorized tools as the issue. Their top issue, rather, is employees not understanding the security risks of using shadow IT.
"Our findings show that IT teams must start making security, governance and best cloud practices a priority if they want to achieve true cloud maturity," said Kevin McMahon. "Decision-makers serious about true cloud resiliency must understand where they are in their cloud journey and continually work toward goals in tandem with what they are hearing on the front lines."
To download a full copy of the Cloud Report: What Businesses Need for Resilience in 2021 and Beyond and learn more about how SPR is working with IT teams to realign their cloud priorities, visit https://spr.com/spr-cloud-report/.
About SPR
Growing companies know the right technology implementation is a balancing act: Address users' expectations today while planning for tomorrow's demands. As a technology modernization firm, SPR helps businesses strike that balance. We build or adapt modern technology, specializing in custom software development, cloud, data, digital workplace, and user experience solutions. Using a blended-team approach, we integrate our experts with yours to deliver a modernized foundation that accelerates business growth. SPR's promise: To deliver beyond the build by providing proactive advice, sharing knowledge, responding to change in an agile way, and investing time to deeply understand our clients' business. For more information on how SPR delivers beyond the build for its customers, visit http://www.spr.com.
Media Contact
Katy Hoeper, SPR, 3526609497, [email protected]
SOURCE SPR
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