You asked for them, and here they are. Headlines from the AWS Global Summits Report presented by Dimensional Research.

The goal of the AWS global survey was to capture hard data on the pace of moving to the cloud. It also provided insight on how companies are tracking the value of the cloud. A total of 279 IT professionals participated.

Things are moving faster

That’s the top takeaway from the report. Migration is accelerating and hybrid deployments are the clear winners.

Survey data revealed that 90% of companies see the cloud as a part of their future IT strategy. Hybrid cloud solutions figure into 31% already deployed. More than half (51%) will pursue hybrid strategies for future deployment.

• 63% have at least 25% of their services in the cloud
• 37% have a quarter or more
• 8% have 51% or more

Why the cloud?

Two benefits proved to be the two reasons for this migration. A quarter of the respondents each see it as a way to reduce costs or to improve IT efficiency.

• 18% see it as a way to speed innovation and optimize IT services
• 17% believe it will align IT with business goals
• 15% see cloud adoption as a way to improve capacity management

92% of companies are pursuing the cloud

When asked to characterize their adoption maturity, the breakdown showed:

• 5% Advanced
• 27% Intermediate
• 20% Novice
• 30% Evaluating
• 8% No adoption

53% of cloud strategies are hybrid

A third of the respondents are moving in that direction.

• 31% Hybrid cloud
• 22% Hybrid IT
• 6% All public cloud
• 18% 3rd party private cloud
• 23% on-premise private cloud

Regardless of the type of cloud in use, the ability to forecast usage is an important part of the decision. 41% of the public cloud users want that data to make vendor choices.

What’s on everybody’s minds

Almost three quarters of those surveyed voiced the same concern. They want accountability. That means having the ability to track cloud usage and costs.

Less than half (45%) believe their ability to track cloud metrics are good or excellent. Without meaningful data, it’s not possible to prove two important questions:

1. Are they improving IT efficiency?
2. What are the quantifiable benefits?

Cost reduction also ranks high as a concern. They’re looking for ways to measure consumption and data usage to use a forecasting tool.

• 72% believe tracking cloud usage and costs is extremely or very important
• Only 45% rated their ability to track cloud usage and costs as very good or excellent

There was an interesting finding about participants who hadn’t yet begun a cloud migration. “How much is this going to cost, and can we justify it?” is an important concern for them. More so than those already at the evaluation stage.

Forecasting Wish List

What would they do with the data if they could track all that consumption across the enterprise? Almost 60% of the survey participants put the ability to improve IT forecasting at the top of the list.

• 39% would use it to compare costs across different delivery platforms and vendors
• 37% would use it for chargeback/showback purposes
• 34% would use it to expand on-demand or self-service access to the cloud
• 30% would use it to do a better match with allocation versus usage
• 28% would use it to educate business leaders on cost/benefit issues

Cost tracking and allocation requirements differ by company. Even if participants could track the data, it’ll continue to challenge chargeback/showback strategies.

Microsoft cloud technology usage

Microsoft Office 365 was the clear winner, with 58% of respondents saying it was in use.

• 35% have deployed Hyper-V
• 34% have deployed System Center
• 32% have deployed Azure Public Cloud
• 14% have deployed Azure Pack for Windows Server
• 15% have no Microsoft cloud technologies deployed

The takeaway

Enterprise computing is in the cloud and more of it is on the way. Everyone wants to track the return on investment. Companies still searching for solutions want it the most.

That’s the biggest challenge. Almost a third (27%) who have a cloud strategy give themselves failing grades for tracking usage and costs. It’s the only way to answer the cloud’s biggest question: How do we use data to prove its real benefit?