Australia ahead of the cloud maturity curve

Australia is tracking well ahead of the global average in terms of cloud maturity, according to new research published by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

A survey of senior executives worldwide found that 81% of Australian enterprises report having achieved most, if not all, of their cloud-based goals for critical apps and workloads, compared to just 65% globally.

The survey also found that 81% of Australian enterprises have increasing their cloud investment in AI and machine learning technologies in the past 12–24 months, against 75% globally.

Australian enterprises are using the cloud to achieve sustainability goals (70%), enable new ways of working to improve employee engagement and productivity (58%), and unlock new business models, operating processes and workflows (49%).

But the survey also found that many Australian enterprises are facing barriers holding back cloud-enabled innovation. These can include the complexity and rigidity of existing business processes and operations (53%), difficulty understanding the carbon footprint impact of their cloud service providers (40%), and the potential for disruptions and unplanned downtime (35%).

Many Australian organisations also lack full proficiency in critical cloud skills, including both FinOps (51%) and DevOps (43%). Meanwhile there remains disagreement about which department should take responsibility for cloud decision-making, with respondents evenly split on whether responsibility should sit with IT only, believing it should be a 50/50 split between IT and business leaders, and believing the responsibility should lie mostly IT but partly with business leaders.

TCS Country Head for Australia and New Zealand Vikram Singh said the findings show that Australian organisations recognise the value of the cloud.

“This latest global study strongly affirms that there is no business strategy without a cloud strategy. A desire for greater efficiency, resilience and flexibility drove early cloud adoption, and these remain critical factors,” he said.

“Businesses now more fully understand how cloud drives business growth and innovation for the long term, and for most the journey is only just getting started.”

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