A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Canonical

Accelerate Your Cloud Expansion With

A Cloud-Optimized Platform

GET STARTED

FORRESTER.COM
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Canonical

Accelerate Your Cloud Expansion With A Cloud-Optimized Platform

OVERVIEW SITUATION APPROACH OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS

Get More From The Cloud With The Right Platform Approach
As enterprises expand their use of cloud platforms for increasingly complex workloads such as big data
and analytics, speed is key to driving business results. A cloud platform that offers a more flexible, elastic
approach for scale-out, supported by reliability, high performance, and the ability to scale up to support
increasing volumes of data will help them get there.
In December 2015, Canonical commissioned Forrester Consulting to explore enterprise cloud platform
trends and adoption. Forrester aggregated existing data from its global Business Technographics®
surveys and conducted an auxiliary custom survey among a similar audience to create this profile.

THE CUSTOM SURVEY INCLUDED:

100% in
IT roles

100 infrastructure technology
decision-makers at US (59%)
and UK (41%) companies with
1,000 or more employees,
across industries
14% C-level executive
10% Vice President
31% Director
45% Manager/supervisor
63% work at companies with
5,000 or more employees
Enterprise cloud customers:
All custom survey respondents
work for firms that already use
or are planning to implement
cloud platforms.

FORRESTER.COM
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Canonical

Accelerate Your Cloud Expansion With A Cloud-Optimized Platform

OVERVIEW SITUATION APPROACH OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS

1 2

Cloud Is Integral To The 2016 Enterprise

Infrastructure Agenda
Cloud has graduated from an emerging technology to a core
business platform. Companies see the value that cloud provides for
a wide variety of enterprise-scale use cases. Forrester’s Global
Business Technographics Infrastructure Survey, 2015, showed that:
› Two-thirds of enterprises have cloud strategy development
on their 2016 agenda. Enterprises understand that it is time —
perhaps past time — to prioritize cloud in their IT infrastructure
plans. Developing a comprehensive cloud strategy is a high or
critical priority for 68% of US and UK enterprises. This is on top
of the 79% that expect to have cloud in place by the end of 2016.
› More than half have specific cloud deployment options in
mind. Deployment options include internal private cloud, hosted
private cloud, and public cloud. Each model has benefits and
tradeoffs; for example, public clouds offer significant economies
of scale, but internal clouds can provide greater security and Two-thirds of enterprises are
resiliency. Many will opt for a hybrid approach to capture the best prioritizing cloud strategy, and
of both worlds, and indeed, Forrester’s data shows that many over half have specific cloud
already have multiple types of cloud in production. deployment options in mind.

FORRESTER.COM
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Canonical

Accelerate Your Cloud Expansion With A Cloud-Optimized Platform

OVERVIEW SITUATION APPROACH OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS

1 2

Eight In 10 Companies Will Use The Cloud

By The End Of 2016
Cloud is an essential platform for growing businesses. Forrester’s
data reveals that:
› Seventy-nine percent of enterprises will deploy infrastructure-as-a-
service (IaaS) and/or platform-as-a-service (PaaS) by the end of
2016. This includes companies that have already implemented
cloud, are expanding current deployments, or have plans to deploy.
› Internal private cloud is the most popular deployment model.
Forrester defines internal private cloud as IaaS in a company’s
data center or in a colocated data center. While only 40% use
internal private cloud today, adoption is set to rise to 64%
during 2016.
› Many companies will have multiple deployment models in place.
Forrester’s data shows that internal private, hosted private, and
public cloud deployment models are not mutually exclusive.
Forrester uses the term hybrid cloud to describe a combined
deployment of two or more out of the three types. Overall, 61%
of US and UK enterprises will have a hybrid cloud environment
by the end of 2016.

FORRESTER.COM
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Canonical

Accelerate Your Cloud Expansion With A Cloud-Optimized Platform

OVERVIEW SITUATION APPROACH OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS

1 2 3

Cloud Offers The Promise Of Flexibility,

Scalability, Agility, And Low TCO
The vast majority of firms are either already using the cloud in their IT
environments today or will do so in the next 12 months. What’s driving
cloud adoption? What potential benefits helped firms get cloud
projects funded? Infrastructure decision-makers are looking for:
› A flexible and scalable infrastructure. The top two drivers of
cloud investments are improved infrastructure manageability and
on-demand capacity/scalability.
› Ways to improve IT efficiency. Three out of four enterprises
(74%) said that lower total cost of ownership (TCO) was important
in the decision to implement a cloud platform.
› Developer-focused tools. More than 70% of infrastructure
decision-makers want cloud tools to enable developers to work
faster and smarter — getting new software to market quickly.

The top drivers for cloud

investments include desire for
flexibility, scalability, fast rollout,
and lower TCO.

FORRESTER.COM
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Canonical

Accelerate Your Cloud Expansion With A Cloud-Optimized Platform

OVERVIEW SITUATION APPROACH OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS

1 2 3

Enterprises Plan To Do More In The Cloud

Whether they are early in the adoption cycle or seasoned cloud
users, enterprises are looking to expand their use of cloud in a
variety of ways. This speaks volumes to the success of early
deployments and the potential of cloud platforms to drive
competitive advantage. Enterprises plan to:
› Build and migrate applications in the cloud. Two-thirds (65%)
indicated they plan to build more applications in the cloud — e.g.,
mobile, web, eCommerce, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) apps — as
well as migrate more core business applications to the cloud.
› Use cloud platforms for new and expanded purposes. Key
digital imperatives including big data, security, and the Internet of
Things are focus areas as businesses expand their use of the
cloud. Forty percent or more expect to increase their use of these
technologies and workloads in the cloud.

Two-thirds of enterprises plan

to build more applications in the
cloud and/or migrate more core
business applications to cloud
platforms.

FORRESTER.COM
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Canonical

Accelerate Your Cloud Expansion With A Cloud-Optimized Platform

OVERVIEW SITUATION APPROACH OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS

1 2 3

Top Concerns Revolve Around Security, Performance, And Costs

As technology leaders look to expand their cloud usage over the next few years, they must ensure that Top concerns about cloud
their cloud infrastructures are secure, reliable, and cost effective. Half or more of respondents cited expansion revolve around
concerns with security/privacy, inconsistent performance, and cost increases. security/privacy, performance
consistency, and cost increases.
In addition to concerns about expansion, firms face internal challenges with executing their vision for more
robust cloud capabilities. About 40% worry that their staff and existing infrastructure are not equipped to
support cloud expansion plans. It’s clear that cloud expansion demands a cloud-optimized infrastructure
platform, one that scales without sacrificing security or performance — or breaking the budget.

FORRESTER.COM
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Canonical

Accelerate Your Cloud Expansion With A Cloud-Optimized Platform

OVERVIEW SITUATION APPROACH OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS

Ease Of Use, Low TCO, Scalability, And

Agility Are Cloud Platform Must-Haves
More than a third of our survey respondents (35%) worry that
complexity will increase as their use of cloud expands, so it’s not
surprising that businesses value ease of use. Nearly nine out of 10
(88%) need cloud platforms that are easy to expand and upgrade,
and 82% said the same about easy configuration.
Low total cost of ownership, scalability, and rapid solutions
deployment are also essential. More than 75% of respondents rated
these recurring themes as important.
As enterprises look to the future, 77% said that a platform with open
infrastructure is important to ensure that their cloud infrastructure
investment would meet the evolving demands of the business over
time. Support for big data, IoT, and mobile is also critical (76%) as
firms embrace these emerging technologies.

Infrastructure professionals
need their cloud platforms to be
easy to configure and expand,
scalable, and have low TCO.

FORRESTER.COM
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Canonical

Accelerate Your Cloud Expansion With A Cloud-Optimized Platform

OVERVIEW SITUATION APPROACH OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS

Conclusions
Cloud has entered the mainstream, and enterprises are expanding their use of cloud platforms with more
complex applications and workloads. Cloud expansion requires a secure, reliable, and cost-effective
platform to help firms drive business results quickly. Infrastructure professionals need the ability to deploy
new solutions quickly and easily, at scale, with a platform that meets their needs today and in the future.

METHODOLOGY
› This Technology Adoption Profile was commissioned by Canonical.
› To create this profile, Forrester used data from its Global Business Technographics Infrastructure
Survey, 2015. Forrester Consulting supplemented this data with a custom survey among infrastructure
decision-makers and influencers at US and UK enterprises with 1,000 or more employees.
› The auxiliary custom survey was completed in December 2015.
› For more information on Forrester’s data panel and Tech Industry Consulting services, visit
forrester.com.

ABOUT FORRESTER CONSULTING

Forrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders succeed in their
organizations. Ranging in scope from a short strategy session to custom projects, Forrester’s Consulting services connect
you directly with research analysts who apply expert insight to your specific business challenges. For more information, visit
forrester.com/consulting.

© 2016, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on
best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester ®, Technographics®,
Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective companies. For additional information, go to forrester.com. 1-PSC1LT

FORRESTER.COM