Cloud to overtake mobile as transformer, CIO UK study shows

The cloud is poised to overtake mobile as the second largest driver of transformation for CIOs, a study of our readership supported by Intel shows, while data analytics will remain the leader for business transformation agendas for another year.

Data and analytics were the largest drivers of business transformation to date according to 48% of respondents of the CIO Priorities survey, with 31% responding mobile had been the biggest driver, and 18% the cloud. Only 3% responded social technologies had driven the largest transformation at their organisation – and this trend is set to continue.

Data and analytics were revealed to have driven the largest transformation in every industry except finance and government, where mobile was more important.

Moving to the cloud

However, despite analysts touting this as the mobile era, the survey of IT executives by CIO UK revealed a big shift towards the cloud.

Leading the shift to the cloud are the education, finance and government sectors, which all responded with large swings towards cloud computing, although mobile is set to lead transformation in the health industry.

Companies of more than 1,000 staff reported a shift away from data and analytics to the cloud as the largest leader of transformation, while mid-size businesses expected a move away from mobile and towards the cloud and analytics.

Efficiency and cost the silver linings

Respondents to the CIO UK survey revealed that managing and reducing costs, and increasing efficiency were their top priorities in the coming year, a clear correlation with why they expected the cloud to take over from mobile as the biggest driver of transformation.

Developing new products and expanding into new markets were not considered priorities.

This is further supported by evidence from the study which revealed IT budgets at only 31% of companies would increase in the next 12 months, with 69% responding their IT budget would either decrease or remain the same.

The CIO Priorities study, conducted in association with Intel, surveyed over 150 senior IT executives in the UK. To learn more about the CIO Priorities survey, visit here.