A new report from Lero, Ireland's National Software Engineering Research Centre, has revealed previously undocumented business benefits of implementing cloud computing including increased innovation and collaboration. The study, carried out by Lero researchers at NUI Galway, also reported the first empirical evidence globally of the benefits of cloud computing.
The cloud computing market, whereby business applications are accessed via the Internet rather than through on premise software or servers, is growing rapidly. According to Gartner, the worldwide market for public cloud services is expected to increase by 19% to $109 billion in 2012.
Dr Kieran Conboy at the Cairnes School of Business in NUI Galway, who is leading the SFI-funded Lero research said: "Despite the huge growth in cloud computing, research to date has largely been based on anecdotal evidence. NUIG conducted an in depth, evidence based study across a number of Irish based organisations to see if the perceived benefits stood up."
As well as supporting previous industry claims of cost and time benefits, the research also found that cloud introduces a positive shift in the way companies interact with external sources such as customers and in the way employees communicate with each other.
"The move away from perpetual capital expenditure to operational expenditure was also seen as a significant cost benefit of adopting cloud computing especially in the current economic environment where the Central Bank has highlighted the shortage of traditional loan finance for Irish business," said Dr Lorraine Morgan, of NUI Galway.
A critical finding of the research was that organisations often view adoption in overly simple terms - either they should adopt the technology or not. Dr Conboy said. "We found too many organisations were making the decision based on an initial ‘go' or ‘no go' basis and were failing to realise that various people and parts of that organisation were making different decisions - often with very negative consequences.
"The tech sector has a history of hyping the next big thing. In the case of the cloud, our study suggests that many of the claims stand up. In view of this it is important to explore the barriers to more widespread adoption amongst business and this will be the subject of our follow up study."
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Pictured: Dr Kieran Conboy, Dr Lorraine Morgan, NUI Galway