Rackspace Hosting reported in a study released today that 88 percent of cloud users point to cost savings. In addition, 56 percent of respondents agree that cloud computing has helped them boost profits.
The study, conducted by Rackspace Hosting with support from Manchester Business School and Vanson Bourne, found that 88 percent of U.K. and U.S. business respondents using the cloud have saved money. 62 percent are re-investing these savings back into the business to do things like increase headcount, boost wages and drive product innovation. Sixty eight percent also say the use of open source cloud is on the increase.
The study of 1,300 organizations in the U.K. and U.S. also revealed:
· 56 percent have been able to increase profits through using cloud services.
· 49 percent have been able to grow their business through use of the cloud.
· 60 percent say that cloud computing has reduced the need for their IT team to maintain infrastructure, giving them more time to focus on strategy and innovation.
The survey also indicates that the U.S. is leading the way in the deployment of open cloud (70 percent) compared to the U.K. (42 percent), while both see open standards as an increasing factor when deploying cloud computing. Seventy four percent of the U.S. organizations are seeing their use of open source cloud on the rise (57 percent in the U.K.), while 86 percent feel that open standards are boosting their ability to innovate, compared to 79 per cent of U.K. respondents.
Importantly, the majority (62 percent) of these firms are re-investing the money saved through cloud computing back into the business. One priority for reinvesting this cash is improving and expanding product and service innovation (stated by 48 per cent). However, 25 per cent of respondents also reinvested money into boosting wages and bonuses (34 per cent in the US; 15 per cent in the UK). The survey points to a potential boon for jobs with 22 per cent employing more people with the cash saved from cloud computing.
Aside from the cloud’s ability to increase savings, nearly half of the U.K. and U.S. businesses surveyed (56 percent) agreed that cloud computing has directly helped to boost profits. Furthermore, 49 percent stated that cloud computing has been a key factor in enabling their company to grow its business (58 percent in the U.S.; 40 percent in the U.K.).
The study also pointed to powerful cloud benefits for startup businesses. A massive, 90 per cent of businesses that have started in the last three years say the cloud has made it easier to set up their business. Furthermore, over half of the startups surveyed (52 percent) said they wouldn’t have been able to afford on-premise IT resources at the time they wanted to launch.
