Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 01 | Page 103

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// FINAL WORD Decisions are made in the cloud, now we must act Cloud technology is providing businesses with an advanced level of efficiency through its development, with many respondents now adopting a ‘cloud-first’ approach. L ate in 2017, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced plans to appoint a Chief Digital Officer tasked with making London the world’s leading smart city. Khan referenced how technology is being used to enable organisations to make faster, better decisions and the truth is, most of that decision-making process is taking place in the cloud. You only have to look at the recent financials from the likes of Amazon and Microsoft to see how rapidly cloud adoption is taking hold. AWS revenue has increased more than 55% year on year, while Azure is expected to deliver around $20 billion in 2018. In the UK, both cloud giants have recently brought data centres online which, less than a year since the Brexit referendum sparked industry fears over tech giants investing in the country, suggests digital transformation initiatives are continuing unabated. Indeed, recent research conducted by Computing and Colt proposes that it’s difficult to overstate the momentum of the move to the cloud. Historically speaking, when the research was first conducted in 2013, more than two-thirds of respondents were not using the cloud at all. But by 2016, 63% had partial cloud adoption and, in 2017, 20% are now pursuing a ‘cloud-first’ strategy. By 2019, www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 103