Multinationals' Deployment of Cloud Services Soars

LONDON, May 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A survey of more than 100 global multinational corporations (MNCs) across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific by Ovum for Cable&Wireless Worldwide reveals that adoption of cloud services is picking up pace among large organisations, with telecoms providers well positioned to take advantage. Cloud services adoption is up 61 per cent from April 2010 with 45 per cent of MNCs already using cloud sourcing for at least some elements of key IT services.

Asia-Pacific MNCs are reporting the greatest cloud interest, with 63 per cent uptake across all cloud services categories; networking, communications, applications, corporate IT systems, as well as data management, security and backup.

Across the globe enterprises have already moved significant resources to the cloud and are ready to move more application services. The dominant areas of cloud services uptake are in data backup and storage, at 51 per cent of respondents, with an additional 33 per cent reporting their intention to procure cloud data backup and storage services in the next 24 months. Cloud uptake is permeating all sectors. Finance and insurance multinationals have adopted cloud services for some elements of corporate IT systems (56 per cent), whereas manufacturing is embracing cloud components for networking and data management (63 per cent and 59 per cent, respectively).

Sectors are also placing different applications in cloud environments. Professional services single out Customer Relationship Management (CRM) (50 per cent) while finance and insurance places strong emphasis on document management (50 per cent). Manufacturing places most value on messaging (41 per cent) and CRM (41 per cent).

Evan Kirchheimer, Practice Leader, Enterprise Services, at Ovum comments: "We believe the majority of MNCs are currently between 'early' and 'adolescent' adoption phases of cloud-based services, with broader and deeper adoption being contemplated. Greater adoption is dependent on the resolution of security, governance and reliability and once these concerns are addressed through standardised, tested offers from service providers, more large enterprises will feel comfortable positioning cloud as a preferred procurement option."

Seventy-five per cent of MNCs rate scalability of capacity and matching capacity to fluctuating demand as the main benefits from the use of cloud services, with increased speed of provisioning coming in a close third (72 per cent). Cost transparency is regarded as least important with only 24 per cent citing this as a major benefit. Retail respondents topped the poll in viewing scalability and matching capacity to demand as major benefits (50 per cent), while finance and insurance came out top in seeing improved employee productivity as a major attraction (50 per cent). Manufacturing views cost transparency as far more important than other verticals (38 per cent vs average of 24 per cent).

Commenting, Matt Key, Managing Director of Enterprise at Cable&Wireless Worldwide said: "Our Flexible Computing product enables enterprises to flex their IT infrastructure up and down very quickly in order to match demand; this tallies with the research findings that suggest MNCs see this as the number one benefit of the cloud. Flexible Computing has two distinct benefits; it enables IT agility and is cost effective.

"As an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) proposition it is an extension of C&W Worldwide's data centre management and virtualised hosting services portfolio that is used by many enterprise and UK Government customers. Flexible Computing is delivered across our next-generation network (NGN), essentially placing it within the enterprise's own Wide Area Network. This gives enterprises full control and complete confidence over all their applications and data. Cloud is featuring in every customer conversation, and we believe we are ideally positioned to meet a growing demand for cloud services given our network and strong managed hosting capabilities."

According to the research, telecommunication providers are emerging as trusted partners and credible suppliers for cloud services, increasing from 37 per cent in 2010 to 49 per cent in 2011. Evan Kirchheimer, Practice Leader, Enterprise Services, at Ovum comments: "Telecommunications providers' control of the network over which cloud services are delivered is becoming a compelling advantage, as it allows them to offer end-to-end service level agreements (SLAs). This allays many of the security concerns enterprises have expressed over use of the public internet to access cloud services and general security, data governance and loss of control."

Methodology

Ovum analysts interviewed CIOs, telecoms managers and/or IT directors with global responsibility for communications services (fixed, mobile, voice, data, IT) at 102 multinational corporations during April and May 2011. For more information on Flexible Computing please visit www.cw.com/cloud.

About Ovum

Ovum provides clients with independent and objective analysis that enables them to make better business and technology decisions. Our research draws upon over 400,000 interviews a year with business and technology, telecoms and sourcing decision-makers, giving Ovum and our clients unparalleled insight not only into business requirements but also the technology that organisations must support.

About Cable&Wireless Worldwide

Cable&Wireless Worldwide is a leading global telecoms company providing a wide range of high quality managed voice, data, hosting and IP-based services and applications to large multinational companies, governments, carrier customers and resellers across the UK, Asia Pacific, India, Middle East & Africa, Continental Europe and North America. Established in the 1860s, Cable&Wireless Worldwide helps more than 6,000 organisations deliver their goals. The Group's vision is to be the first choice for mission critical communications. Reaching 20,500km in length, Cable&Wireless Worldwide owns the UK's largest fibre network dedicated to business users of telecoms, and provides ubiquitous nationwide access through a combination of fibre, digital, microwave, radio and leased circuits. The network has presence in over 400 towns and cities in the UK, with more than 850 unbundled exchanges covering 55% of the population. Internationally, Cable&Wireless Worldwide's global next-generation network (NGN) stretches to more than 500,000km, including interests in 69 global cable systems, enabling connectivity to 153 countries. The Group's IP-based Multi-Service Platform operates across the NGN, offering a single environment on which voice and data applications can be converged to drive business efficiencies. Cable&Wireless Worldwide's network is uniquely designed with inbuilt resilience. With more than 6,200 colleagues globally, Cable&Wireless Worldwide is committed to delivering exceptional customer service and developing long term partnerships with its customers. To find out more, please visit www.cw.com.

    
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