Tata Consultancy Services’ Connected Future: How Cloud Drives Business Innovation report reveals that cloud remains a long-term investment priority for 70% of major corporations, despite current macro headwinds and the recent slowing of the growth of global cloud spending.
Innovation is a significant driver of cloud investment, with 59% reporting that the cloud is crucial as a catalyst for innovation for their organisation’s future.
This appears particularly true for artificial intelligence (AI): 75% of respondents invested in AI and machine learning capabilities over the past two years, while 78% plan to do so over the coming 12-24 months. Both technologies are highly dependent on access to large amounts of data and scalability through the cloud.
Interestingly, 37% have made progress in their goals for cloud-enabled innovation in the form of new business models, underlining the growing power of the cloud to drive new revenue.
The study also finds 67% are using cloud technologies to achieve sustainability goals. However, 43% report difficulty in understanding the carbon footprints of cloud service providers.
This suggests that while most respondents see the cloud as an important—and thus far successful—part of their sustainability strategy, and increasingly use cloud tools to assess their own carbon impact, they now demand the same visibility from their cloud service providers.
Despite significant progress in recent years, the study reveals that businesses still have a long way to go to unlock the full power and potential of the cloud.
Other key findings include:
Industry clouds or ‘vertical clouds’ are rapidly emerging as a fast path to acquiring greater business expertise and capabilities, with 73% reporting that they are already assessing, adopting, or using them in business today.
Companies want to participate in digital ecosystems, but most are still far from realising their full value: 66% of businesses are still in the earliest stages of transition towards mature digital ecosystems.
Critical skills shortages continue to affect businesses in the cloud space, with up to 52% of respondents reporting a lack of full cloud proficiencies in-house.
Krishnan Ramanujam, president of the enterprise growth group at TCS, says the study strongly affirms that there is no business strategy without a cloud strategy. He adds the desire for greater efficiency, resilience, and flexibility drove early cloud adoption, and these remain critical factors.
“Cloud is a frequent source of short-term ROI anxieties, but growth and transformation is a long game. Reconciling these two realities is a challenge and a necessity, but fully achievable with the right strategy and planning."
Krishnan Ramanujam
"This is critical because the cloud is now the unifying digital fabric of every enterprise, fuelling powerful technologies—from generative AI to edge and quantum computing—and is ushering the next wave of innovations now and into the future,” concluded Ramanujam.
