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The cloud as a vector for innovation
The aim of this white paper is to present the maturity of the French market in terms of cloud services adoption and, following initial feedback, to understand the main challenges and opportunities encountered.
Introduction to the study
Companies seeking innovation through the adoption of cloud services are significantly influenced by the success of public cloud providers. Whether via SaaS software solutions, access to IaaS/PaaS infrastructures, or with the three leading American hyperscalers: AWS, Microsoft Azure and GCP. Over 50% of surveyed companies use AWS and Microsoft Azure, while GCP is utilised by 30%.
Despite the public cloud's popularity, the current trend leans towards hybrid models, combining public and private clouds. According to our findings, 69% of respondents use such hybrid architectures, whereas only 22% have committed to a fully public cloud strategy.
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© Pac, 2023 | Cloud France survey
The main elements highlighted by the study
The study highlights 6 main factors related to the adoption of the Cloud in France.
A very unequal maturity in terms of cloud adoption
This study shows that the maturity of the French market in terms of adoption of cloud services is very uneven. While a minority of companies, 21% of our panel, have already aggressively adopted a “cloud first” strategy and migrated more than 50% of their application park to the cloud, a majority of them (54%) are only at the beginning of this transformation and have, today, even less than 20% of their application park in the cloud.
Growth driven by innovation
The cloud was originally seen as a way to pool IT resources and therefore reduce operational costs. This financial vision of the cloud is now over. Businesses now see cloud services as catalysts for innovation, allowing them to accelerate their digitalisation.
The cloud as a vector for reducing CO 2 emissions
In addition to operational innovations, the cloud is also seen as a valuable asset for corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies. It contributes to reducing CO2 emissions in two ways: directly, by making the electricity consumption of IT systems more efficient and environmentally friendly, and indirectly, by transforming and optimising business operational processes.
Not just one, but several clouds: a decidedly hybrid public/private world
Companies seeking innovation through the adoption of cloud services are significantly influenced by the success of public cloud providers. Whether via SaaS software solutions, access to IaaS/PaaS infrastructures, or with the three leading American hyperscalers: AWS, Microsoft Azure and GCP. Over 50% of surveyed companies use AWS and Microsoft Azure, while GCP is utilised by 30%.
A complexity that leads to consumption and costs that are sometimes poorly controlled.
These hybrid public, private, and sovereign cloud environments, along with the rapid development of the Edge Cloud, are bringing new difficulties, especially in terms of measurement and management of different environments. Today, 76% of businesses report that using the cloud costs more than initially anticipated.
NSEs have an important role to play
The initial feedback from experience is clear: Cloud environments are hybrid, complex, and often more expensive than originally estimated. It marks the end of 'lift & shift,' where companies migrated their applications to the cloud as is. Now, it's the innovation brought by cloud services that is in demand. However, this requires businesses to transform so they can fully take advantage of the added value offered by cloud services.