Cloud computing will grow at a rapid pace to become a key driver in the digitization of major industries, according to a new report published by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
Sponsored by VMware, the report notes that cloud computing has strong growth potential, with only 7% of all surveyed IT and business executives believing it has reached its full potential
However, a diverse range of global executives predict rapid growth of cloud in five key industries: banking, retail, manufacturing, education and healthcare. Approximately 70% of panelists predict the cloud will be a major factor across the survey industries within five years.
Across all industries, the greatest challenges were seen to be ensuring data security (47% of all executives) and finding qualified personnel to build out and operate cloud systems (35%)
Seventy-four percent of financial services executives predict cloud will become a major force in banking, with the largest impact on payments (68%) and lowering the costs of banking (60%). In retail, 70% of executives believe cloud will become a major factor, with the greatest impact in cost reduction (58%) and helping new companies to grow (49%).
Seventy-one percent of manufacturing experts believe cloud will become a major factor in the industry. Production processes and supply chain will be impacted most at 60% and 54%. Sixty-sevent percent of educators believe cloud will be a major factor in education.
Higher education (51%) and continuing education (42%) are two areas that will be impacted. 61% of executives and care providers believe cloud will become a major factor in healthcare, with the greatest contribution in centralisation of health records (57%) and supporting preventative care (53%).
“Several patterns emerge. The first is the consensus that cloud will make its mark on all industries—no legacy industry is going to escape. The second is that the rate of adoption will be rapid—most of panelists predict that cloud will be a major factor in their business in just five years,” says West Coghlan, the editor of the report.
“Still, challenges remain: data security and cyber-attacks are top-of-mind for senior executives. A further challenge is finding the enough qualified personnel to build out cloud-based system.”
