Executive Summary

Cloud services continue to make significant strides in the enterprises. Buyers now leverage cloud services for mission-critical workloads.

However, buyers aspire to move beyond typical cloud services value drivers of cost, flexibility, and agility. They want to evolve their cloud service ecosystem from an “IT opportunity” to a “strategic differentiator”.

This journey is not easy and buyers realize the significant gap in their skills and talent to be able to adopt cloud services. These buyers look towards service providers to fill this gap and offer services that assist them in transforming their cloud adoption from a technology lever to a business enabler.

This report discusses this evolution and the skill-related challenges buyers witness, while fine-tuning their cloud strategy. The report analyzes:

• Cloud adoption: Existing and expected state of cloud services within an enterprise ecosystem
• Criticality of cloud: How cloud services have evolved from being a “quick fix” solution to reduce cost and increase flexibility for peripheral enterprise workloads, to a platform for all business-critical requirements. This increasing criticality is resulting in higher spending on cloud initiatives
• Talent/skill challenge: As cloud evolves and becomes a business enabler, buyers realize the significant gap in their in-house skill sets. The analysis includes insights on this skill gap and the assistance that buyers require to adopt cloud services
• Road ahead: The strategic importance of cloud services for enterprises will continue to increase. Buyers will demand more help from service providers, however, not all service providers are capable to offer value to the clients

This report also discusses the key success factors that the service providers should imbibe, to remain relevant. The analysis includes insights from the buyer survey conducted by Everest Group along with Cloud Connect in early 2014.