Surveys: Cloud Computing Helps Ease IT Budgets

IT spending is expected to stay flat or even constrict throughout 2016, according to Gartner. How can CIOs, CTOs, or CFOs make their IT budgets go further while still delivering the applications and services their users have come to expect? Gartner, IDG, and others suggest the answer may lie in the cloud.

Gartner reports that IT spending will drop 0.5% worldwide this year.  John-David Lovelock, Gartner Research VP, suggested Infrastructure-, Platform-, or Software-as-a-Service as ways IT departments can balance legacy IT, new initiatives, and static budgets.

Wrote Lovelock, "Is it time to move some of the things you're doing to a platform as a service offering, so rather than BI get a BI platform. Is it time to rebalance licensed software with cloud or subscription software?"

Service providers help keep budgets even keeled because they are easier to scale up and down, according to the report. They are a unique way to optimize costs without an upfront capital expense. However, they can become more expensive over the long term. Projecting which resources will remain steady for years to come, measuring their utilization, and crafting selective on-site environments tied to a hybrid cloud environment is one way enterprises can truly maximize their IT spending.

Other recent reports also suggest cloud remains a cost saver over in-house IT infrastructure. A Cisco study from mid-2015 reported a 77% IT cost reduction from companies using the cloud, at a rate of $1.2 million per cloud application. One reason might be the organizations are better able to intelligently allocate resources as needed.

Meanwhile, an IDG and EMC survey found that the average IT savings for those using hybrid cloud stood at 24% compared to their legacy systems. 39% of them are using those savings to re-invest in new initiatives, making hybrid cloud an attractive way to really wring the most from shrinking IT budgets.

Of course, these surveys are mostly from vendors, with the exception of Gartner. Have you found cloud to be a cost saver? Does it make it easier for you to allocate resources where and when you need them? Is your cost:benefit ratio different in the long term vs. short term? Sound off @greenhousedata!