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KPMG survey: Executives have their “heads in the Cloud”

By annie shum | February 21, 2011

by Rob Starr, Big4.com Staff Reporter February 20th, 2011

According to results of a survey by KPMG LLP, business and government executives expect their organizations to use Cloud computing within the next two years. In fact, 79 percent of executives, middle managers and staff said the Cloud is an option to make enterprises more agile and cost competitive and 74 percent said organizations adopting it can experience long-term competitive advantages.

KPMG’s report consisted of 174 executives, middle managers and staff from business, government and academia who completed surveys at the Oracle OpenWorld 2010 trade show in September.

When asked to rate four factors driving a company or organization to pursue Cloud-based activities, 84 percent of those surveyed rated factors like scalability and security as important or extremely important, while 78 percent viewed “economics” like cost savings, shifting capital expenditures to operational expenditures as important or extremely important, and 76 percent placed “functional” items like capabilities and accessibility in that category, with 66 percent rating “strategic” factors such as business process transformation, speed to market as important or extremely important.

Steve Hill, KPMG’s National Innovation Leader highlighted the Cloud’s importance to business.

“The survey results reflect wide acceptance of Cloud-based services among executives, who are increasingly recognizing the Cloud’s strategic, business value,” he said. “Those surveyed also said that experimentation will be required to fully understand the value of Cloud-based operations, and this approach, they noted, will bring challenges that need to be addressed.”

Topics: Cloud Computing, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

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