We questioned over 400 IT professionals and this is what they had to say…

Last week we released our fourth annual Data Health Check report, and the results paint a very interesting picture of IT in the UK in 2013. Firstly, it's worth noting that despite the negative press that has often surrounded cloud services, according to the 400+ IT professionals we questioned, in reality adoption is up and results are positive.

Adoption levels have continued to rise significantly on last year's figures, with 64% of organisations now using at least one cloud based service, up from just 47% in 2012. Not only are more people using cloud services, but they also seem to have a better understanding of it. In backup, we saw a big reduction the number of companies solely using tape based backup – preferring now to use a combination of different methods to suit their needs. 91% of companies could also now confidently state their ideal RTO (Recovery Time Objective), which suggests better understanding and a realistic approach to disaster recovery.

We've heard a lot over the last few years about how cloud computing will be the end of in-house IT teams, and that mass redundancies are imminent. Our results show, however, that very few people have seen job losses in their company due to cloud adoption (17%) and in fact the bigger the IT team, the more effectively they are handling cloud based services.

There were some statistics that struck us as worrying, though. As you can see from the infographic opposite, despite the fact that nearly two thirds of respondents now have cloud services implemented in their organisation, only a mere 7% would rate their cloud competence as excellent. The majority rate their skills as poor or very poor.

A distinct lack of knowledge regarding data sovereignty and security was also apparent. Only a third of respondents correctly identified who should be responsible for the integrity of data according to the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office), with over half unable to state how much data they are legally allowed to hold and where they can move it to within the EU.

So, with this lack of confidence and experience in cloud computing, 2014 will see a big rise in the number of employees partaking in cloud-specific training, right? Wrong. Over half have absolutely no plans for training in the next 12 months. Employers will need IT professionals with the skills to make the most of the new services available.  IT Directors and CIOs need to be investing in their teams and if they are not – IT professionals need to invest in themselves to keep skills up to date.

To read the full Data Health Check report, click here.

Save