Tata Consultancy Services’ latest survey of senior business leaders has revealed that cloud remains a long-time investment priority of 70% of major corporations, despite current macro economic headwinds and the recent slowing of growth among global cloud providers.

Titled Connected Future: How Cloud Drives Business Innovation, the global survey of 972 senior executives reveals that innovation is a major driver of cloud investment, with 59% reporting that cloud is “crucial” as a catalyst for innovation for their organisation’s future.

Further, 59% of respondents say that they have “faith” in cloud’s potential for innovation.

However, cloud appears to come with its own challenges: 30% of respondents say that their cloud implementations have been more “challenging or frustrating technically” than expected.

This appears to have sparked doubts in cloud investment, with 36% of businesses saying they over-invested in the infrastructure, though only 20% say they regret “hasty” investment decisions in cloud services over the past few years.

Reaching a positive Return of Investment (ROI) in cloud is also a concern, with 23% of respondents feeling increased pressure and scrutiny to justify their cloud decision-making. A further 25% are considering changing their entire cloud strategy over ROI concerns.

Despite these headwinds, confidence in cloud remains high in the long term, with 70% saying they intend to staying on course for the long-term investment.

Recommended

• Roundtable | What Can Be Learned From Estonia’s Tech Success?
• Sunak: Ten Ways the UK Is the ‘Best’ for Tech Businesses
• Report: Complex Cloud Storage is Leading to Rise in Data Breaches

Outside of cloud, investment in data-intensive technology remains high, especially in AI, with 78% of respondents planning on investing in the next two years.

It does appear that companies have a long way to go on their cloud journey, with only 27% of respondents saying their organisation has reached full cloud maturity.

38% have achieved most cloud-based goals for critical apps and workload, with 29% saying they have only achieved some of these goals.

Alison McIntyre, UK Ambassador, FinOps Foundation, who spoke at DIGIT’s Cloud First Summit this year, commented on how to justify a cloud decisions to a company’s C-suite.

First of all, she emphasised that “if done right, [cloud] can cost less.”

On convincing a chief financial officer, it’s not exactly only about the money, “it’s more about knowing the value of what your infrastructure is. You have to know your c-audience.

“I would recommend going from the point of view of removing legacy [technology], emphasising agility and transparency of costs.”