AMD Announces Results of Global Cloud Study

By DE Editors

AMD has announced the results of a global research study on adoption, attitudes and approaches to cloud computing, surveying IT decision makers in public and private sector organizations across the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The findings reveal both global and regional trends in cloud computing adoption and usage, according to AMD, highlighting the importance of both infrastructure and workloads in considering a cloud computing model.

Findings include:

• Cloud computing is maturing rapidly, with 70% of respondents indicating they are either using or currently investigating cloud computing for remotely hosted applications or to store data.
• Of those organizations that have deployed cloud solutions, 60% reported that they are already seeing business value.
• Among current cloud users, 92% stated that infrastructure was an important part of their decision to move to a cloud computing model.
• Seventy-four percent of US organizations are using or investigating cloud solutions, followed by 68% in Asia and 58% in Europe.
• Nearly 1 in 10 organizations in the US estimate they store more than $10 million worth of data in the cloud. However, 63% of global respondents still view security as one of the greatest risks associated with the model.
• For those currently using the cloud, 75% had the necessary IT skills to implement the solution versus only 39% of those who are currently investigating cloud today.
• Cloud users are able to access their services primarily via a PC (90%), followed by smartphone (56%), tablet (37%) and thin client (32%).

“Based on the findings of this global study, AMD believes it is time for the industry to re-shape the way we think about cloud technology,” says Patrick Patla, general manager and vice president, Server and Embedded Divisions. “The findings point to the fact that while the era of cloud computing has arrived, there are radically different attitudes, approaches, concerns and levels of maturity depending on business environment.  As an industry, we must provide clear guidance about how to optimize hardware and software for all types of clouds, focusing on custom parts for specific workloads that are prevalent in the cloud and the appropriate balance of performance, power and cost efficiency they require.”

As cloud adoption continues to increase, so does the value of the data that lives in the cloud. Sixty-three percent of those using the cloud to host data estimated they store more than $250,000 worth of data in the cloud, and by evaluating this survey field alone as a sample of the industry at large, it can be estimated that billions of dollars in active data currently lives in the cloud.

Ninety-two percent of respondents currently using the cloud stated that infrastructure was important in their decision to adopt cloud computing, dispelling the myth that cloud customers do not care to know about the physical servers housing and running their data. Global private sector respondents also identified the workloads they believe most suited potentially for cloud computing as email, finance/accounting and Web serving, in that order.

The full report, which includes a breakdown of data by region, sector and size of organization, can be found here.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.