$258 Million a Year: The Cost to Enterprises Which Lack Cloud Computing Expertise, Says Rackspace
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
SAN ANTONIO, TX--(Marketwired - September 21, 2017) -
* Big businesses losing $258 million -- or 5 percent of global revenue --
annually due to lack of cloud expertise
* 65 percent of IT pros believe they could be bringing greater innovation to
their organization with the right cloud insight
Large enterprises across the world are losing out on $258,188,279(1) a year due
to a lack of cloud expertise, according to a new report commissioned by
Rackspace® in collaboration with LSE academics. The study also found that the
cloud skills gap is stifling creativity, with two thirds (65 percent) of IT pros
saying they could bring greater innovation to their organization with the right
cloud insight*.
Nearly three quarters (71 percent) of IT decision makers report that their
organizations have lost revenue due to a lack of cloud expertise. Beyond
innovation and growth, four in ten (42 percent) IT decision makers believe a
lack of skills is causing a lag in their organization's ability to deploy cloud
platforms. The majority (71 percent) also believe they need to invest more in
their workforce to meet the developmental challenges of cloud computing.
John Engates, chief technology officer at Rackspace, said: "While the rise of
Artificial Intelligence and automation may cause some to think that human
insight is less important, our report shows that this is not the case. With
technology and the cloud now underpinning business transformation, the growing
technology skills gap means organizations must have a strategy to access the
expertise needed. Those that don't will struggle to be competitive and
innovative."
The Cost of Cloud Expertise report looks at the wider implications of the cloud
skills gap and provides a route for businesses to tackle the realities of modern
IT and the resulting skills gap. Consisting of research amongst 950 IT decision
makers and 950 IT pros -- as well as in-depth conversations with IT leaders --
in large enterprises around the world, the study uncovers current and future
trends in cloud expertise.
The realities of modern IT
IT decision makers are seeing the benefits of moving all or part of their IT
estate to the cloud. Around half (48 percent) of respondents say their
organization has already seen a positive return on investment (ROI) on using the
cloud, with a further 39 percent expecting the cloud to deliver positive ROI in
the future.
Despite the benefits, both IT pros and IT decision makers appear frustrated at
not being able to use the cloud to its full potential:
* Almost half (44 percent) of IT pros are spending more time than they
expected managing daily cloud operations
* Around half (49 percent) of IT decision makers acknowledge that a lack of
expertise is holding their business back
* The majority (84 percent) of IT pros said that deeper cloud expertise within
their organization would help it increase the cloud's ROI
Most in-demand cloud skills
Nearly half of IT decision makers (46 percent) find it hard to recruit the right
talent to help manage their organization's clouds. Migration project management
(36 percent), cloud security (35 percent) and native cloud app development (34
percent) are the skills IT decision makers find hardest to recruit. The top
barriers to recruitment were:
1. Industry competition (33 percent)
2. The inability to offer a competitive salary (30 percent)
3. The inability to offer sufficient training to prospective recruits (25
percent)
Looking at what IT pros seek in a new role may provide some pointers to
businesses in the competition for workers. While salary and benefits are the top
priority (71 percent), having the opportunity to progress in the company (49
percent) and training and learning opportunities (35 percent) were also highly
rated, showing that businesses must think broader than pay rates to secure top
talent.
However, with more than two thirds (69 percent) of IT decision makers looking to
increase their organization's cloud usage in the next five years, and more than
half (56 percent) saying that retaining talent is a concern, the challenges
associated with recruitment are likely to increase. This will only be heightened
with the majority of IT decision makers (80 percent) saying that it takes "a
number of weeks or more" to train new hires, and nearly a third (32 percent)
stating that "months" of training and on-boarding are required.
Will Venters, assistant professor of information systems at LSE, said: "Put
simply, cloud technology is a victim of its own success. As the technology has
become ubiquitous among large organizations -- and helped them to wrestle back
control of sprawling physical IT estates -- it has also opened up a huge number
of development and innovation opportunities. However, to fully realize these
opportunities, organizations need to not only have the right expertise in place
now, but also have a cloud skills development strategy to ensure they are
constantly evolving their IT workforce and training procedures in parallel with
the constantly evolving demands of cloud. Failure to do so will severely impede
the future aspirations of businesses in an increasingly competitive digital
market."
Navigating the cloud expertise challenge
As part of the report, Rackspace and the LSE academics have provided advice on
how organizations can navigate cloud expertise skills gaps in their business:
Splitting the IT function into separate streams -- Conceptually dividing IT
functions into two parts will allow businesses to focus on the dual priorities
of business-focused digital innovation and operations focused innovation -- both
essential to helping an organization accelerate in a technologically led market.
Developing a cloud skills strategy -- Every enterprise IT executive should adopt
a Cloud Skills Strategy, which will map current skills in the organization, map
future innovation trajectories and changes (both within the business and in
cloud), and match these with realistic market analysis of the available talent
pool.
Full assessment of the cloud ecosystem -- Organizations should adopt an
ecosystem approach to the provision of basic cloud services (for example pooling
risk by relying on providers). As a result, the dual challenge of both
constantly improving and significantly innovating can be greatly improved by
relying on a balanced pool of skills and competencies both within and beyond the
organizational boundary.
Mariano Mamertino, EMEA economist at global job site Indeed, commented:
"Finding, attracting and retaining tech talent is critical to business survival,
and yet it is increasingly competitive for companies to find the technical
talent they need as demand surges for such skillsets. Our data shows there is a
global mismatch between the cloud roles advertised versus those being searched
by IT professionals, which could accelerate the growth of a cloud skills gap. As
this new report spotlights, there is both a financial and innovation gap to be
plugged here for businesses globally."
For additional analysis and insights, please read the full 2017 Cost of Cloud
Expertise Report: http://go.rackspace.com/costofexpertise.
* This is based on those using public, private and hybrid cloud
About the research:
This research report was conducted by Rackspace in collaboration with LSE
academics and sponsorship from Intel.
With the support of the independent research house Vanson Bourne, we conducted
1,900 interviews with respondents from the UK, U.S., Germany, Benelux,
Switzerland, Mexico, Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong between the months
April-May 2017. The respondent pool comprised of 950 IT decision makers and 950
IT pros from organizations that used the cloud. All respondent organizations had
more than 1,000 employees from both the public and private sectors.
A breakdown of the exact demographics is below:
US = 300 IT decision makers and 300 IT pros
UK = 250 IT decision makers and 250 IT pros
Germany = 100 IT decision makers and 100 IT pros
Benelux = 50 IT decision makers and 50 IT pros
Switzerland = 50 IT decision makers and 50 IT pros
Mexico = 50 IT decision makers and 50 IT pros
Singapore = 50 IT decision makers and 50 IT pros
Australia = 50 IT decision makers and 50 IT pros
Hong Kong = 50 IT decision makers and 50 IT pros
In addition to the survey, a team of LSE academics conducted extensive research
into the current debate within academia, and the trade press, on cloud
computing, process automation, and digital skills. They also, during June-July
2017, conducted a series of interviews with eight global enterprises within the
target demographic for the project. A further 10 interviews were conducted by a
consulting company. Enterprises were given the option of anonymity to allow more
candid responses.
About Rackspace:
Rackspace, the leading multi-cloud managed services company, helps businesses
tap the power of cloud computing without the complexity and cost of managing it
all on their own. Rackspace engineers deliver specialized expertise, easy-to-use
tools, and Fanatical Support® for leading technologies including AWS, Google,
Microsoft, OpenStack, Oracle, SAP and VMware. The company serves customers in
150 countries, including more than half of the FORTUNE 100. Rackspace was named
a leader in the 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Public Cloud Infrastructure
Managed Service Providers, Worldwide and has been honored by Fortune, Forbes,
and others as one of the best companies to work for. Learn more
at www.rackspace.com.
About Intel:
Intel knows the Future of the Cloud because they are building it. The Intel®
Xeon® Scalable platform offers the next generation foundation for cloud services
that can support your data-intense, latency sensitive workloads with hardware-
enabled security. Intel Xeon Scalable processors offer businesses 1.65x higher
system-level performance over prior generation, and for growing workloads like
Artificial Intelligence, 2.2x performance over prior generation. From emerging
new opportunities in AI and virtual reality to next-level media and transaction
workload demands, running your cloud on Intel architecture provides the speed
and responsive services you need on a trusted, agile platform.
(1) Calculation: (Average global revenue of respondent organizations ÷ 100) X
Average percentage of global annual revenue lost due to a lack of cloud
expertise
Calculation in numbers: (5,254,875,750 ÷ 100) x 4.91330891330891 = $258,188,279
Image
Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2017/9/21/11G145727/Images/213
7_Rackspace_Cloud_Expertise_CB-v3-RC-01-010842105a29a72ba6a92ebab67ef486.jpg
CONTACT INFORMATION
Media Contact:
Brandon Brunson
210.312.1357
brandon.brunson(at)rackspace.com
This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Rackspace Hosting via GlobeNewswire
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
Datum: 21.09.2017 - 07:01 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 560749
Anzahl Zeichen: 12333
contact information:
Town:
San Antonio, TX
Kategorie:
Business News
Diese Pressemitteilung wurde bisher 343 mal aufgerufen.
Die Pressemitteilung mit dem Titel:
"$258 Million a Year: The Cost to Enterprises Which Lack Cloud Computing Expertise, Says Rackspace"
steht unter der journalistisch-redaktionellen Verantwortung von
Rackspace Hosting (Nachricht senden)
Beachten Sie bitte die weiteren Informationen zum Haftungsauschluß (gemäß TMG - TeleMedianGesetz) und dem Datenschutz (gemäß der DSGVO).
