Four in every five enterprises set to increase their cloud budgets in 12 months: EY-Nasscom survey

Cloud has emerged as the primary driver of business growth amid the current uncertain environment with four in every five enterprises set to increase their cloud budgets over the next 12 months, according to the latest EY-Nasscom survey based on responses from 504 C-suite executives.

In addition to remote working, the other top reasons for increased cloud adoption are changes in product/service delivery, new channels for connecting/reaching customers, changes in organizational processes and maintaining a competitive edge, the survey revealed.

Although the covid-19 pandemic altered many paradigms of conducting business in new ways, majority of the respondents ranked business growth and transformation as the top drivers for cloud adoption. Cloud also played an integral role in helping enterprises to sustain despite lockdown scenarios and IT infrastructure inconsistencies, enabling them to innovate faster thereby enhancing speed to market, agility, and responsiveness.

According to the survey, while 67% of the large enterprises accelerated cloud adoption, 39% of medium-sized companies and 38% of small companies embarked on their cloud journey. However, 92% of small enterprises and 80% of medium enterprises faced gaps in how they manage security related risks. To address the acute shortage of digital talent, organizations focused on new talent acquisition efforts (73%) as well as embarked on automation initiatives (66%) to augment the skill gap.

The survey also highlighted the core benefits of cloud adoption like the amount of flexibility it offers when it comes to different aspects of cost, allowing organizations to explore multiple strategic options. The different cloud models and cloud service options are not only offering organizations with alternatives to implement cloud in different ways but also enabling them to plan their technology budgets.

“Boards and CEOs are increasingly viewing cloud as a strategic imperative for growth and business transformation. They have realized that simply lifting and shifting workloads for cost reduction and resilience will not automatically transform their businesses and are therefore adopting cloud for benefits such as flexibility, agility, and innovation. They value being able to leverage data and AI on the cloud, enable richer insights and real-time decisions that improve performance and facilitate market differentiation in a secure and trusted environment,” said Nitin Bhatt, Technology Sector Leader, EY India.
 
“With increasing investments in building cloud infrastructure across industries, demand for a digitally skilled ecosystem has emerged as top CEO priority. India today has the potential to become the leading hub for cloud-based talent globally. For this, we would need to balance the right cloud skillsets coupled with collaborative ecosystem enablement to encourage industry-wide reskilling across the country,” said Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president and chief strategy officer, Nasscom.

As enterprises continue to explore various cloud models, private cloud is the most preferred option but there is an increased openness to adopt hybrid and public cloud models with 68% of the small enterprises preferring public cloud owing to its cost advantages.

Owing to the pandemic and rising dependencies on remote working, healthcare, and digital payments, 78% ITeS companies and 53% healthcare and BFSI companies reported a steep spike in cloud adoption. 84% of large enterprises reported adopting software-as-a-service (SaaS).