InformationWeek Analytics New Research Finds IT Pros Expect Public Cloud Services Will Have Limited Impact on Employment

SAN FRANCISCO, June 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- InformationWeek Analytics, the leading service for peer-based IT research and analysis, today announced the release of its latest research report; A Hazy Outlook: Changing Role of IT as Services Ascend, including exclusive vendor preference data across five markets. Over 800 business technology professionals weigh in on the percentage of IT services delivered by the cloud in 24 months, predicted impact of cloud use on IT budget and predicted impact of cloud use on IT staffing levels.

Research Summary:

Cloud computing is still in its infancy, but the buzz from business executives, IT professionals and industry analysts is all about how it will change the way we work and do business. In this report, we analyze the results of our poll of 828 information technology pros, divided among strategic IT managers, tactical IT managers and IT staff at North American companies, to determine the current and anticipated impact of cloud computing on IT staffing levels, required job skills and specialties and to explain how to adapt to this new paradigm.

Findings:  

• 39% of IT staff says their companies have no plans to use or evaluate public cloud services compared with just 12% of strategic IT management who say the same.
• The No. 1 type of service in use among respondents is SaaS, cited by 55% of strategic IT management respondents.
• When asked how adoption of cloud services has affected their company's IT staffing levels, 66% say they've seen no change as yet.
• Data security is cited as the No. 1 IT role in respondents' companies that will see demand increase in the next 24 months, followed by vendor/service provider assessment and monitoring.

For full access to the research data, download now:  http://analytics.informationweek.com/abstract/5/3435/Cloud-Computing/research-cloud-it-staffing.html

"One interesting perspective from poll respondents we spoke with is that for the first time, enterprise IT groups no longer hold monopoly status when it comes to providing IT services to their companies," said Lorna Garey, content director for InformationWeek Analytics. "Cloud providers represent some real competition. The question is, will CIOs and their teams rise to the challenge?"

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