Skip to main content

Majority of Companies Leveraging the Cloud to Drive Business

Organizations are eager to adopt cloud based architectures in an effort to support their digital transformation efforts, drive efficiencies and strengthen customer satisfaction, according to a new online cloud usage survey conducted by Denodo.

According to the study, the vast majority of those polled (76%) acknowledge using cloud with almost half stating they use Amazon AWS (47%), followed by Microsoft Azure (20%), and Google Cloud Platform (13%). Half of respondents are implementing a virtual private cloud, with cloud provider preferences closely aligned with those stated above.

Participants cited using cloud analytics most frequently for both AWS (49%) and Azure (59%).

“Cloud storage” was the second-most frequent use case on AWS (45%), whereas “cloud data warehouse” was the second most frequent use case on Azure (41%).

Rounding out the top three use cases was “cloud data warehouse” on AWS (40%), and “cloud storage” along with “hybrid integration” on Azure (29% for each use case). Interestingly, “cloud CRM” was an unpopular use case among both AWS and Azure platforms as only a mere 5 percent said they use the cloud for this purpose.

Almost half of all respondents (45%) are leveraging a hybrid cloud model, while 40 percent leverage private cloud/on-prem hybrid, 36 percent leverage public cloud/on-prem hybrid, followed by 23 percent who use a private cloud/public cloud hybrid. One-third of those surveyed acknowledged storing sensitive data in the public cloud, and about the same proportion use cloud security services to protect their data in the cloud. More than half (56%) of survey participants are planning a cloud initiative for 2018.

As organizations move to deploy cloud technology at rapid-fire speed, adopting this approach is not without challenges. With a mix of on-premises and cloud-based data sources, many businesses are turning to data virtualization (DV) solutions to take advantage of the agility and flexibility that the cloud provides, and to ensure business professionals can apply the data found in these growing mixed environments. DV is a real-time, agile, data integration methodology that provides a logical view of all enterprise data without having to replicate information into a physical repository, which costs time, money, and resources.

More specifically, data virtualization is being used to support:

■ Cloud Modernization: Data virtualization facilitates the transition from legacy, typically monolithic applications and application suites deployed on-premises, to specialized SaaS applications in the cloud.

■ Cloud Analytics: Data virtualization enables analytics in the cloud by facilitating the movement of data from on-premises operational systems to an analytics platform, and by providing seamless access to all data.

■ Hybrid Data Fabric: Data virtualization provides a hybrid data fabric by seamlessly integrating data across applications on-premises and in the cloud.

“While transitioning to cloud can be disruptive, data virtualization can help minimize the impact on business by isolating the changes,” said Ravi Shankar, CMO, Denodo. ”Without a proper hybrid integration layer, cloud apps and databases can become siloed. Data virtualization can open these silos and allow users to access all their data and take advantage of cloud modernization, analytics, and hybrid data fabric.”

About the Study: The online survey was conducted in December 2017. The results analyzed in this report were gathered from 109 executives and IT professionals from a diverse group of technical people, including enterprise architects, data architects, IT heads of department, such as Head of Analytics or BI Director, and some VP/CTO level respondents.

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

Majority of Companies Leveraging the Cloud to Drive Business

Organizations are eager to adopt cloud based architectures in an effort to support their digital transformation efforts, drive efficiencies and strengthen customer satisfaction, according to a new online cloud usage survey conducted by Denodo.

According to the study, the vast majority of those polled (76%) acknowledge using cloud with almost half stating they use Amazon AWS (47%), followed by Microsoft Azure (20%), and Google Cloud Platform (13%). Half of respondents are implementing a virtual private cloud, with cloud provider preferences closely aligned with those stated above.

Participants cited using cloud analytics most frequently for both AWS (49%) and Azure (59%).

“Cloud storage” was the second-most frequent use case on AWS (45%), whereas “cloud data warehouse” was the second most frequent use case on Azure (41%).

Rounding out the top three use cases was “cloud data warehouse” on AWS (40%), and “cloud storage” along with “hybrid integration” on Azure (29% for each use case). Interestingly, “cloud CRM” was an unpopular use case among both AWS and Azure platforms as only a mere 5 percent said they use the cloud for this purpose.

Almost half of all respondents (45%) are leveraging a hybrid cloud model, while 40 percent leverage private cloud/on-prem hybrid, 36 percent leverage public cloud/on-prem hybrid, followed by 23 percent who use a private cloud/public cloud hybrid. One-third of those surveyed acknowledged storing sensitive data in the public cloud, and about the same proportion use cloud security services to protect their data in the cloud. More than half (56%) of survey participants are planning a cloud initiative for 2018.

As organizations move to deploy cloud technology at rapid-fire speed, adopting this approach is not without challenges. With a mix of on-premises and cloud-based data sources, many businesses are turning to data virtualization (DV) solutions to take advantage of the agility and flexibility that the cloud provides, and to ensure business professionals can apply the data found in these growing mixed environments. DV is a real-time, agile, data integration methodology that provides a logical view of all enterprise data without having to replicate information into a physical repository, which costs time, money, and resources.

More specifically, data virtualization is being used to support:

■ Cloud Modernization: Data virtualization facilitates the transition from legacy, typically monolithic applications and application suites deployed on-premises, to specialized SaaS applications in the cloud.

■ Cloud Analytics: Data virtualization enables analytics in the cloud by facilitating the movement of data from on-premises operational systems to an analytics platform, and by providing seamless access to all data.

■ Hybrid Data Fabric: Data virtualization provides a hybrid data fabric by seamlessly integrating data across applications on-premises and in the cloud.

“While transitioning to cloud can be disruptive, data virtualization can help minimize the impact on business by isolating the changes,” said Ravi Shankar, CMO, Denodo. ”Without a proper hybrid integration layer, cloud apps and databases can become siloed. Data virtualization can open these silos and allow users to access all their data and take advantage of cloud modernization, analytics, and hybrid data fabric.”

About the Study: The online survey was conducted in December 2017. The results analyzed in this report were gathered from 109 executives and IT professionals from a diverse group of technical people, including enterprise architects, data architects, IT heads of department, such as Head of Analytics or BI Director, and some VP/CTO level respondents.

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...