The FINANCIAL — A new IDC Energy Insights survey reveals that 74% of utilities indicated that public cloud is their dominant, long-term platform strategy to meet IT needs. More insights are revealed in an IDC Energy Insights’ study, Taking Cloud in Utilities to the Next Level that discusses survey results from IDC’s 2014 CloudView Survey, which interviewed 38 international senior utility executives.
The study provides context for understanding why cloud remains an area of heightened attention at the highest levels of utility organizations. The study will help utilities update their cloud road maps and ensure investments benefit the business, as well as providing insight into current and future cloud computing applications, according to IDC.
Utilities are often at the conservative end of the spectrum when it comes to changes in information systems infrastructure, including change caused by the emergence of new technologies. This holds true for cloud computing as well, as utilities have certainly not been among the pioneer adopters of the technology. With utilities’ focus on reliability and security, the industry has felt the need to scrutinize the technology in spite of its obvious benefits. But the mood is changing, and more and more utilities, large and small, are considering cloud computing as a viable option to face the ongoing industry transformation.
Key findings of the survey include:
87% of utilities recognize the value of cloud services to provide better business continuity and disaster recovery than traditional technology.
82% of utilities consider total cost of ownership as the single most important consideration for choosing a cloud service.
“IT skillsets not up to speed with new cloud standards/methodologies/topologies” is the most difficult management challenge utilities face in terms of their cloud strategies.
74% of utilities believe they will need a third-party professional services firm for expertise to build a public cloud strategy.
63% of utilities indicate that ceding control to a cloud provider is a barrier to their organization’s adoption of cloud.
76% of utility survey respondents recognize that cloud providers can offer better security than that offered by their own organization’s IT security team.
Survey results indicate that utilities are very optimistic about their future regarding cloud — in fact they expect to make a significant leap in their cloud strategy maturity in the next 24 months.
“The utilities industry can no longer afford to deny the advantages of ‘going into the cloud.’ As security concerns are further debunked, utilities expect to see a significant push in their cloud strategy maturity in the next 24 months, so much so that they expect to make up lost ground and even supersede other industries,” said Gaia Gallotti, research manager, IDC Energy Insights.
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