As workers embrace productivity apps on their smartphones and in the cloud it has emerged that 72pc of CIOs and IT managers now believe that on-premise applications are too bloated.
A survey by Damovo indicates that many find that some functionality of on-premise applications is unnecessary for their needs and only adds to the cost of upgrading to the latest version.
As a result, they are turning to the cloud in order to regain control over the make-up of the software packages they deploy; with 62pc of IT directors saying that cost reduction is the main driver behind cloud adoption.
However, despite these benefits, over three quarters (77pc) of IT directors believe that public cloud services can be ‘vanilla’ and don’t offer as much flexibility as they’d like for customising applications.
Integrating cloud services with existing on-premise applications can also create a challenge, with 60pc of IT directors claiming that such concerns have delayed their decision to move to the cloud.
When asked about which applications they feel most comfortable putting in the cloud, 78pc of IT directors pointed to basic office applications such as Microsoft Office and Google Apps; whilst 72pc indicated email.
The second most highly ranked option was telephony and contact centres, indicated by 73pc of IT directors; businesses are beginning to feel more comfortable using this deployment model following recent improvements in cloud-based telephony and contact centre technology.
Vanilla skies
However, it would appear that there are lingering concerns over security; 60pc of IT directors indicate payroll as the application they feel least comfortable putting in the cloud.
“Organisations are increasingly finding they have a whole host of application functionality that goes unused,” said Alex Williams, operations director, Damovo UK & Ireland. “Unfortunately, businesses end up paying for this functionality when they upgrade to the latest version, whether they want it or not. Cloud services are the natural remedy, giving businesses back control over which functions they buy and cutting down the bloat in on-premise applications.
“However, whilst they do offer cost savings and greater flexibility in some respects, the limited ability to customise public cloud services can make them unsuitable for businesses with more specific requirements; leaving them in a position where they’re trying to force a square peg into a round hole,” Williams said.
Cloud apps image via Shutterstock
