A recent study commissioned by Citrix explored with 750 IT decision makers in companies with 250 or more employees across the UK, and 1,000 young people aged 12-15 to understand the contrasts in attitudes and to identify the next generation’s perspective on cloud.

Of the IT business leaders surveyed, 31% of respondents were not confident that a public cloud set-up could handle their organisation’s data security. Larger organisations  were more confident when it came to private cloud – 88% stating that they were quite confident or highly confident that a private cloud set-up could handle its organisation’s data securely.

Cloud is Dead?

The Citrix cloud survey also highlighted that the term ‘cloud’ could disappear from the technology lexicon. 26% said they expected the term to become obsolete by 2025, stating that cloud technologies would be so pervasive in their enterprise that it shouldn’t be a standalone industry anymore.

This was echoed by the younger generation polled, where 30% don’t recognise what the term means in isolation despite over 80% responding that they understood cloud to be where they stored their photos, music and other digital content.

“Much like BYOD before it, this research indicates that cloud as a term may soon have had its day and be relegated to the buzzword graveyard,“ said Darren Fields, Regional Director, UK & Ireland at Citrix.

Gaps in Cloud Strategy and Execution

The biggest drivers cited for cloud adoption in the Citrix cloud survey were “improved productivity, lower costs, better security, improved performance — and as part of a digital transformation agenda.”

According to the report, almost 90% state cloud is extremely or quite important to their organisation, with the number rising above this among larger organisations with annual turnovers above £500m.

However despite the apparent confidence in motives for moving to a cloud strategy, real world execution doesn’t reflect this perception.

Only 37% of IT leaders are happy to describe their cloud strategy as fully detailed and aligned to business objectives, whilst less than half of respondents are more cautious, saying they have a cloud strategy in place but that it isn’t very detailed.

Fields added “Arguably a level of mistrust and misunderstanding still holds back UK businesses. And it is clear a cultural and educational shake-up is needed for cloud and digital transformation to deliver on its potential. Once this awareness stems from IT to the board and beyond, there should be fewer barriers to hold cloud adoption back.

“This also leaves approximately one in six of surveyed IT decision-makers of sizeable companies with no cloud plan of any sort in place yet.”

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