Cloud growth in Germany (and Europe) to be driven by Collaboration and CRM

We’ve been talking about the cloud for years now. And yes, providers have done plenty to hype it too. But frankly, most customers have been very wary about it, especially in Europe. There are many reasons for that, from fear of job losses in IT to information security. People in many IT departments are far from thrilled about the cloud, of course – they are afraid it might make them obsolete. And their concerns are understandable, especially when you think of the outsourced projects of the past few years that moved more than a couple of IT departments (or parts of them) to external service providers within Europe or even outside of the continent. Cost cutting was the most common rationale. But did this always result in improved quality, better service levels, greater flexibility, and faster response times to user requests? That’s a very controversial question.

The cloud also raises information security concerns. “Where exactly is my data being stored?” is one of them. The Patriot Act has created additional uncertainty and concern, as it allows authorities in the U.S. to access the cloud data of European businesses. This worry is usually paired with the demand that cloud providers store their cloud data in Europe, out of the reach of the U.S. government. All global cloud providers have to deal with this issue, and they are all familiar with the demands for a European data center and a guarantee that data will only be processed in Europe. So it’s no wonder that IBM is opening a new data center for social business in Ehningen, Germany, headquarters of IBM Deutschland. The move is intended to dispel these security concerns.

User companies gradually seem to be changing their views on the cloud. The Analysts from Experton Group say that cloud computing has long been a fact of life, and it sees social collaboration as the critical driver of cloud growth. It forecasts that cloud spending will increase from €313.5 million to over €2.2 billion in 2017. One of the reasons for this, says Dr. Carlo Velten, a senior advisor at Experton Group, is that providers (such as IBM) are pushing social business and collaboration so much. It’s interesting to note that Experton Group predicts spending on ERP in the cloud will fall slightly. Does this mean that companies think ERP is too sensitive for the cloud?

In the study „Cloud Monitor 2013“ – unfortunately only available in German language – the German industry association BITKOM, KPMG, and PAC are also predicting strong cloud growth. In addition, the study sheds light on the mixed feelings and polarized attitudes that companies have about the cloud. Private clouds still enjoy greater acceptance than public clouds, but now more companies endorse public clouds and are willing to use them. The study also identifies collaboration (and customer relationship management, or CRM) as key drivers for public clouds. The advantages offered by public cloud solutions are particularly suited to these tasks, it says.

All these studies suggest that the cloud will more rapidly gain a stronger foothold in the market as time goes on. In my opinion, the first services to move to the cloud will be those where cost savings and greater efficiency make the case. E-mail is one example, and collaboration is another. The solutions will be highly standardized and will have very clearly defined functions. However, customized solutions are hard to run in a public cloud. These will continue to run inside companies or in a private cloud where it is easier to make adjustments. IBM Notes and Domino are two very good illustrations. There is no reason not to use a cloud for e-mail components and calendars. Custom-developed Domino-based solutions, on the other hand, are better off running in the company data center, in a private cloud, where they are easier to modify and maintain. The result is a hybrid structure, with one part of the IT running in a public cloud and another part running in an organization’s own infrastructure or in a private cloud. This hybrid model is probably what many companies will end up choosing.

It also looks very likely that more and more services, especially those involving social collaboration, will move to the public cloud. This will in particualr give give small and medium-sized companies the chance to use advanced social software without having to run these solutions themselves.

The „Cloud Monitor 2013“ shows where solutions are used in a Public Cloud Dark blue represents in use, middle blue planned and light blue in discussion.