Feb 15 2013   9:00AM GMT

Irrefutable link between BYOD and cloud computing

Posted by: Heather Clancy
Bring Your Own Device, Channel, Cloud, cloud computing services, cloud infrastructure

Perhaps the most intriguing data point from CDW’s latest “State of the Cloud Report” isn’t the fact that more than half of businesses are migrating at least a portion of their infrastructure to the cloud, it’s the revelation that close to three-quarters of them are doing this because of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement.

Indeed, 73 percent of the 1,242 IT professionals surveyed for CDW’s new study pointed to their employees’ use of mobile devices and consumer-focused cloud services as a significant influence on their organization’s cloud computing plans. About two-third of them are using their own personal experiences as a guidepost for their company’s cloud decisions.

“By aligning cloud services with critical applications and preferences of employees that use mobile devices, organizations can better capture business value that includes cost savings, increased efficiency, improved employee mobility and an increased ability to create innovative new products and services,” said Stephen Braat, generation manager of cloud solutions for CDW.

Even though lots of businesses are thinking about adding cloud services or infrastructure, according to the CDW report, the adoption rate is far less, at about 39 percent. That’s up big time, though, from 28 percent in 2011.

There’s one obvious reason why: the cost savings involved.

Most of those surveyed by CDW anticipated saving 13 percent off their current IT budgets by using cloud computing, compared the 10 percent expected by those surveyed for last year’s report.

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