​Dell: Cloud, mobility, security and Big Data investment = 50 per cent growth

Organisations actively using Cloud, mobility, Big Data or security technologies are experiencing up to 53 percent higher revenue growth rates than those that have not invested in these technologies.

So says Dell’s second annual Global Technology Adoption Index (GTAI 2015), which claims that despite this strong link between technology use and revenue growth, cost was cited as a main barrier to implementation or expansion of these technologies.

“We’re enthused to see more organisations recognising the strategic importance of technology investments,” says Paul J. Walsh, CIO, Dell.

“We believe this new research will help companies see the correlation between technology use and revenue growth, improved efficiencies and organisational growth.”

In releasing the global results of the survey, Dell - who recently announced its intentions to merge with EMC for US$67 billion - claims four major global trends emerged from the first wave of findings.

Revenue growth

Perhaps unsurprisingly given recent analyst rhetoric and forecasts, findings suggest investment in cloud, mobility, big data and security is correlated with revenue growth.

“Organisations that have invested in technology are growing faster, recognising the advantages of security and are becoming more strategic in their security-related investments,” the report states.

Globally, organisations actively using big data, cloud and mobility have up to 53 percent higher growth rates than organisations not investing in these technologies.

More specifically, those organisations using big data experience 50 percent higher growth rates, on-premises cloud have 46 percent higher growth rates while off-premises cloud have 51 percent higher growth rates.

Also, BYOD show 53 percent higher growth rates, mobile applications show 44 percent higher growth rates.

Meanwhile, companies globally are recognising the advantages of security and are becoming more strategic in their investments.

On average, 54 percent of an organisation’s security budget is spent on implementing security plans rather than simply reacting to threats.

In fact, organisations with ‘better security’ as a business goal are more likely to have security plans in place for some or all types of security incidents (69 percent versus 58 percent of their counterparts where ‘better security’ is not a business goal).

Company benefits

These technologies also fuel company benefits, including efficiency and organisational growth goals, the study reports.

The GTAI 2015 found a link between these technologies and organisational efficiency and growth goals.

For mobility, improved efficiency is the biggest benefit (39 percent) while other efficiency-related benefits include business process improvement (21 percent) and reduction in paperwork (21 percent).

For cloud, the top three benefits are also efficiency related, including cost savings (42 percent), getting things done faster (40 percent) and better allocation of IT resources (38 percent).

However, for big data, the report claims the key benefits are related to driving competitive advantage and customer growth and retention, including better targeting of marketing efforts (41 percent - one of last year’s top three goals as well), optimisation of ad spend (37 percent) and optimisation of social media marketing (37 percent).

In a similar vein, for security, the ability to more quickly respond to market conditions is a key benefit (77 percent of organisations with fledgling IT security programs, and 78 percent of organisations with established security solutions).

Cost concerns

Finding show that cost joins security as a chief barrier to technology adoption, use and expansion.

The 2014 report found that security was by far the biggest barrier to adoption of these technologies but this year, cost became a more pressing concern globally.

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For big data, cost is the biggest obstacle for organisations not yet using big data and also those currently using it.

For organisations that have big data but are not yet using it, the primary barriers are not knowing if the benefits are worth the cost (20 percent), the cost of IT infrastructure (18 percent) and the cost is too high to outsource analysis or operations (17 percent).

Meanwhile, for organisations that are currently using big data, the cost of IT infrastructure is the primary barrier (29 percent).

However, for organisations that are currently using big data, security is the second biggest concern (28 percent).

Interestingly, survey respondents with business (i.e., non-IT) titles see the challenges differently. For them security is the top barrier (31 percent) while cost is secondary (25 percent),

For cloud adoption and usage, cost and security are both large barriers - the top barrier depends on the perceived security level of the cloud type.

Higher costs are most frequently top risks of adopting private cloud, with 28 percent of organisations citing short-term cost risks and 23 percent citing long-term cost risks.

On the other hand, managed private cloud, with 28 percent of organisations citing short-term cost risks and 23 percent citing long-term cost risks and hybrid cloud, with 30 percent of organizations citing short-term cost risks and 24 percent citing long-term cost risks.

Security is the biggest barrier to adoption of public clouds (44 percent) and SaaS (38 percent) but in general, 42 percent of the small portion of organisations not formally using cloud yet said security issues were the reason - far more than any other reason named.

For mobility, security concerns are the number one barrier to mobility expansion, but cost is the second biggest barrier.

Findings claim that security and fear of data breach is the most frequent barrier to expanding mobility (42 percent of organisations) while limited budget is the second most frequent barrier to expansion (34 percent of organisations).

Other barriers include limitations of current IT infrastructure (24 percent), too many IT platforms/‌operating systems to support (23 percent) and limited technical/‌IT resources (23 percent).

Cost concerns and security challenges seem to go hand in hand however, with the study findings that an organisation’s IT budget greatly impacted its level of security planning and implementation.

Below the US$100,000 IT annual spend level, fewer than one in five organisations have comprehensive security plans and below the $25,000 IT annual spend level, fewer than half have formal security plans of any kind.

Alarmingly perhaps, below the US$10,000 IT annual spend level, findings claim that nearly one in five companies have no security policies at all - not even informal guidelines.

Partnering

At present, business leaders are the drivers for big data and mobility adoption, but they partner with the IT team for cloud and security.

Organisations globally named business teams as leading the adoption of big data and mobility much more frequently than IT teams.

According to the report, this might explain why business decision makers in organisations surveyed were more likely than their IT counterparts to feel their organisations took good advantage of big data.

Business teams lead adoption of big data 18 percent more often than IT teams but they lead adoption of mobility 42 percent more often than IT teams.

However, both business and IT leaders are equally likely to lead adoption of cloud and security, suggesting these teams partner more closely on these initiatives.