6 Takeaways From Enterprise IT Survey About The Cloud

Public Cloud Prices Are Dropping, But Spending Is Only Going Up

Amazon, Google and Microsoft have all drastically cut prices of their public cloud offerings over the past year. The price wars, however, are not simply about vying for an existing base of customers, but also expanding the market to bring more enterprises overall into the cloud.

And it's working. IT directors from large and midmarket companies are committing to even more spending this year on cloud infrastructure, according to a two-week survey conducted in mid-April by 2nd Watch, a Washington state-based cloud computing consultant and an Amazon Web Services Premier Consulting Partner.

More than a hundred IT directors were asked about what they were paying attention to in the cloud market, what plans they had for migration, and the impact of price reductions on their companies. Here’s what CRN learned.

Some Intensely Monitor Price Points, Others Don’t

Daily focus on pricing was split. Of the respondents, 41 percent said they monitor cloud pricing changes ’all the time." Just about the same number, 42 percent of those questioned in the survey, said they look at their cloud infrastructure bills ’occasionally.’ Another 42 percent said their cloud infrastructure bill typically fluctuates between 10 percent and 20 percent monthly.

But That Doesn’t Mean Most Companies Aren’t Paying Attention

A large majority, about 80 percent, of IT directors responding to the 2nd Watch survey are up-to-date on developments in the price wars, aware of the major price reductions occurring in the cloud infrastructure market. More than 60 percent said Amazon offered the best price and 70 percent said Amazon offered the best price-to-value. Google finished a distant second in price-to-value at 8 percent, followed by Microsoft at 4 percent.

It's Not All About the Benjamins

Yes, price cuts grab headlines, and it seems like there's a major announcement from a major cloud infrastructure provider about a major decrease just about every month.

But a majority of the survey's respondents -- 62 percent -- said features and performance were more important to their enterprises than price when choosing a vendor.

Enterprises are Spending on Cloud Services

Of the IT directors surveyed, 60 percent said they spent at least $10,000 last year on cloud infrastructure. Nearly 25 percent spent more than $100,000.

One-quarter of respondents also said they planned on spending 25 percent more this year on cloud infrastructure than they did last year, and 20 percent said that year-to-year increase would be between 25 percent and 50 percent.

And They are Migrating

Thirty-seven percent of companies, according to the poll of IT directors, will move more applications to the cloud this year than last year and 35 percent will do more experimentation with cloud projects.

Many say they are willing to experiment with migrating more applications because of the decreasing cost of running business applications remotely.

Spending Happens Around the New Year

This one probably has something to do with budgeting. Or the spirit of the New Year. Companies spent the most on cloud infrastructure -- nearly 35 percent -- between October and December last year. The next busiest period was between January and March, which saw 23 percent of spending happen.