Hybrid Cloud Becomes a Strategic Imperative, According to an Insight-sponsored Report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Ser...

Cloud computing is no longer a decision made solely for tactical reasons like cost savings or ease of implementation. Key strategic business demands—the need for greater business agility, data capabilities, and better customer and user experiences—are compelling companies to embrace cloud systems, according to the Insight-sponsored report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services.

Respondents are nearly split when it comes to hybrid and private cloud adoption, while total public cloud usage captures only a fraction of the market:

• Hybrid approach with systems hosted in both the public and private clouds (42 percent)
• Host most of their systems in a private cloud (40 percent)
• Host most in the public cloud (13 percent)

The types of systems most likely to reside in the cloud, include:

• Email and communication tools (54 percent)
• Billing and invoicing (29 percent)
• Business intelligence (29 percent)
• Payroll (26 percent)
• Customer service (24 percent)
• Project management (24 percent)

Cloud improves company performance

“A company’s IT environment should work for them by enabling them to both run and innovate. Large and small to mid-sized companies need to focus on managing and modernizing their IT infrastructure, so that it becomes a transformative part of their business that can directly improve results,” said David Lewerke, Director, Hybrid Cloud Consulting Practice at Insight. “While we knew there were a number of benefits, we wanted to better understand from respondents exactly how cloud systems were impacting their business outcomes.”

The benefits of cloud adoption are even more pronounced among small to mid-sized companies:

	Large companies	Small to mid-sized companies
Time to market	15 percent	47 percent
Business/revenue/profit growth	17 percent	38 percent
End customer experience	32 percent	48 percent
Ability to manage security	26 percent	39 percent
Ability to mitigate risk	28 percent	39 percent

For all respondents, nearly half (49 percent) say cloud or hybrid cloud systems have significantly improved collaboration, followed by business agility and flexibility (45 percent), their ability to manage, analyze, act on and share data (43 percent) and their ability to empower employees and create a better user experience (42 percent).

Methodology

A total of 347 respondents were drawn from the Harvard Business Review audience of readers (magazine/ enewsletter readers, customers, HBR.org users). Twenty-nine percent of respondents were executive management or board members, 28 percent were senior management; 31 percent were middle management; 12 percent came from other grades.

To learn more about future-proofing your IT environment through hybrid cloud, view our Livestream on Microsoft Azure Hybrid Cloud Solutions.

For more information on Insight, visit www.insight.com or call 1.800.INSIGHT.

About Insight

From business and government organizations to healthcare and educational institutions, Insight empowers clients with Intelligent Technology Solutions™ to realize their goals. As a Fortune 500-ranked global provider of hardware, software, cloud and service solutions, our 6,000 teammates provide clients the guidance and expertise needed to select, implement and manage complex technology solutions to drive business outcomes. Through our world-class people, partnerships, services and delivery solutions, we help businesses run smarter. Discover more at insight.com. NSIT-M

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