Customers who want to make their first cloud services investment will look to build business cases that encompass longer-term IT and business value.
Meanwhile, vendors will need to work with customers grappling with issues related to proper management and support of hybrid cloud environments as well as the continuing quest to leverage the connections between cloud, mobility and data/analytics.
This is according to Ovum’s latest cloud services report, which explains that adoption of cloud services has moved from a nice-to-have component of corporate IT to a strategic imperative.
John Madden, IT services practice leader and author of the report said, “The rate of cloud adoption is quickly accelerating; cloud breaks through in virtually every customer conversation. This accelerated activity applies not only to private or virtual private cloud models which remain the dominant method of deployment, but increasingly public and hybrid cloud management models as well.”
In the report, the analyst identified four key trends that will impact cloud services in 2014.
Cloud services adoption in 2014 will still be cost-driven, but business value and transformation will take higher priority.
How vendors support cloud services deployments is emerging as an important decision-making factor for customers.
Customers lagging behind on well-defined strategies for cloud management, governance and compliance procedures need to make investments or face failure in meeting business expectations.
Hybrid cloud management and service integration will emerge as major differentiators for IT services and outsourcing providers.
“More customers in all regions are taking their first steps toward broader cloud services investments, usually with initial forays into infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) or software-as-a-service (SaaS) and an eye toward other projects if successful. All signs point to an even more accelerated investment timeline for customers throughout 2014,”Madden said.
Cloud based solely on cost will in the long run deliver limited benefits for corporate customers, and cloud services investments in 2014 need to be built on a solid bedrock of business values. This cloud-based transformation is increasingly occurring hand-in-hand with changes in how enterprise customers want to engage with IT services providers, as customers in all industries are looking to consolidate the number of strategic suppliers they work with.