'Change is the new normal' Accenture cloud study finds

In its recent cloud continuum report, Accenture outlined the current pace and status of cloud migration, across the world’s businesses. 

The findings represent a global survey of around 4,000 global business and IT leaders, and detail the benefits that they have seen from investing in cloud technologies. 

The key findings of Accenture’s cloud continuum report 

“Change is the new normal. It’s why so many organisations are reimagining their businesses and migrating systems and applications to the cloud,” Accenture states in its report. 

Within the report, Accenture evidences that, although moving to the cloud represents a huge time investment (and a considerable state of flux for business operations) its extensive benefits are well worth the effort. 

One of the most pressing results of the report was that 65% of respondents saw average cost savings of up to 10%, as a result of their move to the cloud. 

Accenture also defines organisations that are working to build on cloud capabilities, and investing heavily in the cloud continuum, as ‘Continuum Competitors’. Such work, Accenture explains, is proving critical in the development of a future-proof technology foundation. 

“We call these companies Continuum Competitors because they are using cloud not just as a single, static destination, but as a future operating model,” the report explains. 

Their initiatives are driving transformations across customer interactions, partner relationships, marketing, IT systems, data management and analysis, and computing power. 

As a result, according to the report, Continuum Competitors: 

• See 1.2x-2.7x increased cost reduction than migration players
• Are 2-3x more likely to innovate and re-engineer knowledge work
• Are 3x more likely to use the cloud for at least two sustainability goals
• Follow at least four out of five best practices 
• Adopt between 25% to 80% more technologies, while delivering far better outcomes

The main challenges for cloud adoption, and Accenture’s tips for a successful cloud strategy

Accenture’s also revealed the top pain points that are posing obstacles to cloud adoption. 

These are: 

• The complexity of business and operational change (expressed by 42% of respondents)
• Security and compliance risks (42%)
• Misalignment between IT and business (35%)
• Legacy infrastructure and/or application sprawl (34%) 
• Data sovereignty concerns or regulations (32%) 

To help mitigate these challenges and build a successful, secure cloud adoption plan, Accenture outlined its four keys to unlocking the potential of the Cloud Continuum: 

1. Know where you want to go 
2. Establish cloud practices to augment your technologies 
3. Accelerate innovation to deliver exceptional experiences 
4. Keep committing to strategy 

It advises that, to successfully achieve the full potential of your enterprise in cloud, a Continuum strategy needs to include a vision that clearly states the core values and future aspirations; an identification of competitive vulnerabilities and shortcoming; and a clear classification of capabilities, which clearly outlines an organisations path from its current state right the way through to its future aspirations.