[oc_spacer height=”15″]The cloud is soaring worldwide – and this includes Germany. Here you can discover more about which hopes German companies have regarding cloud use, what advantages they would like to gain from it and which business units will be mostly influenced by the cloud.
With regard to cloud use, German companies have already caught up with the pioneers: 90% of companies interviewed have already developed a cloud strategy according to the results of an IDC survey. Another survey by Forcont Business Technology and the Berlin School of Economics and Law proves: The number of companies, which use cloud computing, is constantly increasing. In 2017 even 4 out of 5 medium-sized companies relied on the data cloud.
And they seem to be doing a lot for it as expenditure for digital projects has grown significantly. According to a survey by Bitcom Research on behalf of Tata Consultancy Services, German companies invest 4.9% of their turnover in digital technologies.
The Potential of Cloud Usage is Being Recognised
Cloud Computing is the ultimate front runner of digital technologies. With a utilisation rate of 76% it leaves other technologies far behind, as determined by Bitcom. Big data analytics, for example, was in 2018 used by comparatively lower 41% of German businesses.
The strong rise of cloud can most likely be traced back to the fact that the effects of digitalisation are being recognised much clearer. After all, for many business units the cloud provides the answer to the changed requirements of the digital age.
In the past two years, companies interviewed indicated that they have felt a “rather large“ or “very large“ impact of digitalisation in business divisions marketing/sales, employees, business processes and models, as well as products/services. Here the front runner were marketing and sales – the perceived changes increased to 64%, compared with only 42% two years ago. The cloud creates real added value in this area, for example through the provisioning of agile tools for customer communication.
And exactly this meets the requirements of businesses: Bitcom Research discovered, on behalf of Tata Consultancy Services, that customer service improvements and optimised customer acquisition have the largest perceived potential of digitalisation. Companies also see big opportunities with the development of new products and services.
Expectations on Cloud Usage
Cloud usage in German businesses can be described as established. But what expectations are there regarding cloud usage? What motivates businesses to make this step into the cloud?
“Companies associate high expectations with cloud computing.”
Diethelm Siebuhr, Easynet Global Services
Named in first place is the possibility of cost savings, as well as a more flexible IT as per a Europe-wide survey (25% of them German businesses) by Vanson Bourne on behalf of service provider Easynet. Companies hope to achieve considerable streamlining and increased dynamic of their IT due to cloud usage, furthermore 55% of those surveyed assume that cloud usage will reduce costs.
A relatively new development is the extremely increased importance of mobile working as an argument for cloud usage. In the past three years, mobile working as a reason for cloud computing has increased from 57% to 90%, according to the Forcont survey.
How do German Companies Benefit from Cloud Use?
The Cloud Monitor 2018 of the Bitcom Research Group on behalf of KPMG concerned itself with the question how German companies benefit from the cloud and which added values of cloud usage they notice. 557 senior staff in IT or members of the management from companies in all of Germany’s federal states were interviewed for this survey.
75% public cloud users confirm an improvement when accessing their IT location remotely. A total of 66% of those surveyed could notice quicker scalability of their own resources. Half (50%) indicated that security of their data through the public cloud improved. Every fifth businesses stated that administration work has decreased (21%) or that IT costs have decreased through cloud usage (18%).
Therefore, the benefit of the cloud meets the expectations of companies. The cloud’s future prospects also look promising: due to its numerous added values the cloud will attract more users.
The Cloud Grows with its Users
The figures of the “Big Three“ of cloud computing – Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud as well as Microsoft Azure – also prove that the cloud has arrived. In the first quarter of 2018 the three companies could increase their growth by 4 percentage points to an incredible 58%. In the case of Amazon, a total of 56% of operative profit is being generated in the cloud.
The increasing intensity of cloud usage has become noticeable in the growth of data volumes in the cloud: according to figures by venture capital company KPCB, worldwide generated data volume of 12 zettabyte in 2015 is to multiply within ten years to 163 ZB. You think one terrabyte already sounds large? One billion terrabytes fit into one zettabyte.
Conclusion
Nowadays in Germany cloud use booms as much as in pioneering countries. The expectations German companies have of the cloud include cost savings, more flexible IT structures as well as the foundation for mobile working. Reasons for the cloud’s popularity are proven added values such as: improved location-independent access to IT, better scalability of resources, improved data security as well as lower administrative cost. It can therefore be concluded that the cloud meets the expectations of German businesses in every respect, which suggests a growing increase of cloud use also in the future.
Sources:
- https://www.channelpartner.de/a/was-fuer-cloud-computing-spricht,2385345
- https://www.cloudcomputing-insider.de/zwei-von-drei-unternehmen-nutzen-cloud-computing-a-724472/
- https://www.xing.com/news/insiders/articles/deutsche-unternehmen-geben-mehr-geld-fur-digitalisierung-aus-1805050
- http://blog.wiwo.de/look-at-it/2018/01/24/vier-von-fuenf-mittelstaendlern-nutzen-bereits-cloud-computing-vor-allem-cloud-speicher/
- http://blog.wiwo.de/look-at-it/2018/06/05/big-bang-im-cloud-computing-wachstumsrate-von-aws-microsoft-google-legt-wieder-zu/
- http://blog.wiwo.de/look-at-it/2018/10/11/cloud-computing-die-reise-in-die-wolke-kommt-auch-in-deutschland/
Image sources:
- Image 1: Samuel Zeller @unsplash.com
- Image 2: Samuel Zeller @unsplash.com
