Cloud in the Boardroom

Accenture Survey:
“Cloud in the Boardroom”

Copyright © 2016 Accenture. All rights reserved. 2
Accenture Finds that Vast Majority of Companies are Embracing the Journey
to the Cloud but Alignment to Business Strategy Lags
Accenture’s “Cloud in the Boardroom” study found that although there’s a significant uptick in cloud adoption at the
enterprise level, companies are missing the full benefit of their cloud adoptions by not factoring their IT
implementations into their overall business strategy.
Accenture conducted an online survey, fielded between January and February of 2016, of 1,879 C-level executives of
companies across 15 industries in 13 countries. Some key findings include:
• More than 95 percent of respondents have a five-year cloud strategy already in place, however
only 38 percent have aligned these plans with overarching business goals.
• Four of five executives reported that less than half of their business functions are currently
operated in public cloud, but noted increasing intent on moving more of their operations to the cloud in
the coming years.
• 89 percent of respondents agree that implementing cloud strategies is a competitive advantage
which allows their companies to leverage innovation through agility.
• While half of respondents cite security as their biggest concern with the public model, more than 80
percent believe public cloud security is more robust and transparent than what they’re able to
provide in-house.

3
“Our research confirms that enterprise clients are overwhelmingly
recognizing the value of a Cloud First agenda—leveraging the cloud
to bring applications, infrastructure and business processes together
and be delivered as-a-Service—as a driver of digital innovation, and
they are upfront about the guidance they need in order to move even
faster on their journey to the cloud. By taking steps to align their cloud
and business strategies and to involve IT more directly in cloud
decision-making, companies will be better positioned on their journey
to the cloud as the as-a-Service economy matures.”
- Jack Sepple, senior managing director, Accenture Cloud
and Accenture Operations group technology officer

While 95% of respondents report that their company has a five-year strategy for cloud
adoption, only 38% have taken steps to integrate their cloud and business strategies.
41%
38%
20%
1%
Our Cloud strategy influences our
business strategy.
Our Cloud strategy is a pivotal part of
our business strategy.
Our Cloud strategy is independent of
our business strategy.
We do not have a Cloud strategy.

5
Copyright © 2016 Accenture. All rights reserved.
Nearly 90% of respondents say that 50% or less of all business needs are supported
by Xaas. Accordingly, 83% operate 50% or less of services in the public cloud.
12% 71% 15% 2%
Less than 25% 25%-50% 51%-75% More than 75%
What percentage of your service
capabilities are public Cloud-based today?
4% 38% 45% 10% 2%1%
Less than 15% 15%-30% 31%-50% 51%-75% More than 75% Don't know
What percent of your enterprise business needs are supported
by an Everything as a Service (XaaS)-based delivery model?
4

27%
26%
24%
22%
Private (on
premises)
Hybrid
(integration of
private and
public Cloud)
Hosted private
(off premises)
Public
30%
27%
24%
20%
Hybrid
(integration of
private and
public Cloud)
Private (on
premises)
Hosted private
(off premises)
Public
Considering Platform as a Service (e.g., Microsoft
Azure, Force.com, Cloud Foundry), which of
these does your organization use today?
Considering Platform as a Service, which of
these will your organization use in three years?
Survey results indicate that Hybrid PaaS usage will jump from 26% to 30% by 2019.

When asked whether they believe that cloud helps their business stay at the forefront of innovative
tech adoption, 89% of survey respondents agreed, with 41% indicating that they strongly agreed.
35%
35%
41%
43%
34%
39%
39%
31%
48%
48%
48%
47%
47%
49%
49%
49%
16%
15%
10%
9%
16%
12%
12%
15%
1%
2%
2%
1%
1%
4%
Cloud will foster major innovations in our business
that were otherwise not possible.
Cloud-based new entrants are challenging our
traditional business and industry models.
Cloud helps our business stay at the forefront of
innovative technology adoption.
Cloud is enabling agility and scalability of our
business.
Public Cloud security model is more robust and
transparent than what we can self-provide.
Our governance model is prepared and ready for
Cloud adoption.
My people are prepared and ready for Cloud
adoption.
Our regulatory concerns around Cloud have been
eliminated.
Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree
Please indicate your
agreement with each of
the following statements:

Survey results show a dip in anticipated public PaaS and IaaS usage over the next
three years, from 22% to 20%.
27%
26%
24%
22%
Private (on
premises)
Hybrid
(integration of
private and
public Cloud)
Hosted private
(off premises)
Public
30%
27%
24%
20%
Hybrid
(integration of
private and
public Cloud)
Private (on
premises)
Hosted private
(off premises)
Public
Considering Platform as a Service (e.g., Microsoft
Azure, Force.com, Cloud Foundry), which of
these does your organization use today?
Considering Platform as a Service, which of
these will your organization use in 3 years?

51% cite “security concerns” as their biggest issue with public cloud, yet 81% agree that public
cloud security is more robust and transparent than what they’re able to provide independently.
Which of the following are concerns when using public Cloud?
51%
44%
44%
43%
40%
37%
37%
Perceived security in the
cloud
Regulatory concerns
Inadequate knowledge of
service provider options
and their differentiators
Lack of control and
transparency
Location of data
Lack of suitable proof
points in my industry
Lack of awareness and
understanding of the
cloud
35%
35%
41%
43%
34%
39%
39%
31%
48%
48%
48%
47%
47%
49%
49%
49%
16%
15%
10%
9%
16%
12%
12%
15%
1%
2%
2%
1%
1%
4%
Cloud will foster major
innovations in our business that
were otherwise not possible.
Cloud-based new entrants are
challenging our traditional
business and industry models.
Cloud helps our business stay
at the forefront of innovative
technology adoption.
Cloud is enabling agility and
scalability of our business.
Public Cloud security model is
more robust and transparent
than what we can self-provide.
Our governance model is
prepared and ready for Cloud
adoption.
My people are prepared and
ready for Cloud adoption.
Our regulatory concerns around
Cloud have been eliminated.
Please indicate your agreement with each of the following statements:

80% agree that their regulatory concerns around cloud have been eliminated.
35%
35%
41%
43%
34%
39%
39%
31%
48%
48%
48%
47%
47%
49%
49%
49%
16%
15%
10%
9%
16%
12%
12%
15%
1%
2%
2%
1%
1%
4%
Cloud will foster major innovations in our
business that were otherwise not possible.
Cloud-based new entrants are challenging our
traditional business and industry models.
Cloud helps our business stay at the forefront
of innovative technology adoption.
Cloud is enabling agility and scalability of our
business.
Public Cloud security model is more robust
and transparent than what we can self-provide.
Our governance model is prepared and ready
for Cloud adoption.
My people are prepared and ready for Cloud
adoption.
Our regulatory concerns around Cloud have
been eliminated.

78% of respondents agree that their IT organization may lack the skills necessary to be involved in XaaS purchases,
despite an overwhelming consensus – 88% - that IT organizations should be involved in these transactions.
35%
39%
35%
39%
35%
43%
49%
43%
50%
49%
21%
11%
15%
10%
14%
2%
6%
1%
2%
1%
Our IT organization provides
valuable business relevance that
third-parties cannot provide.
Our IT organization protects the
security of our information and
systems, and as a result needs to
be involved in all XaaS purchases.
Our IT organization is juggling
priorities between old and new and
may lack the necessary skill sets
for XaaS.
Our IT organization is very
proactive in exploring and vetting
new solutions including XaaS.
Our IT organization is shifting from
a traditional service provider to
more of a Service Broker and
offering XaaS solutions.
Please indicate your agreement with each of the following statements:

92% of organizations have or are planning to establish a formal IT service broker role to
help facilitate XaaS purchases and better integrate IT organizations.
48%
44%
5%
3%
We are planning to have formal IT
Service Broker roles, but they are
not yet established.
Yes, our IT organization has formal
IT Service Broker roles.
No, we do not have formal IT
Service Broker roles, nor do we plan
to have them.
We are still assessing industry
trends and movements.
Do not know
Has a formal IT Service Broker role been created in your IT organization to source XaaS?

Despite the current skills gap, few respondents – only one in five – believe that cloud
will shift more than 50% of their workforce.
11% 68% 18% 3%
Less than 25% 25-50% 51%-75% More than 75%
How large do you expect the workforce shift to be as a result of moving to a cloud model?

Cloud in the Boardroom

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (17)

Similar to Cloud in the Boardroom (20)

More from Accenture Operations (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Cloud in the Boardroom