The UK’s cloud-powered companies are confident of a strong return on investment (ROI), according to a new PwC survey of more than 400 business and technology executives in the UK.
Cloud-powered organisations are those that have gone ‘all-in’ on cloud, with adoption scaled throughout the business. However, only 16% of UK organisations consider themselves to be cloud-powered. The remaining ones are urgently seeking to adopt cloud to modernise core technology, with two-thirds of organisations believing they will have all operations in the cloud within two years.
Of the respondents that are cloud-powered and have scaled it through their business, 58% expect enhanced customer experience, 57% expect both enhanced stakeholder trust and improved cyber resilience, 55% expect a faster time to market, and 54% expect cost savings.
The PwC report accompanying the survey said: “Levels of cloud adoption vary significantly across organisations and industries. Some have been slow to adopt, while those in industries such as banking, insurance and media have driven adoption hard. Wherever businesses are in their tech transformation, the speed at which technologies are evolving means there is now an urgent need to accelerate strategies. Those that do not have a fit-for-purpose cloud and data strategy will get left behind, unable to grasp the benefits of new technologies such as AI and GenAI that depend on cloud.
“While 35% of respondent organisations might be ‘leading adopters’, exploiting cloud services for IT modernisation, just 16% are considered to be truly ‘cloud-powered’. These organisations have gone ‘all-in’ on cloud, with adoption scaled throughout the business – from customer-facing applications and revenue-generating services to back-office and infrastructure. As a result, they are more likely to achieve measurable value: faster time to market, increased innovation, better customer experiences, cost savings, and more.
“And that value gap looks set to increase as those with people, processes, data and applications running on modern cloud platforms move faster and capture greater value through innovative tech such as AI and GenAI. Organisations that have already moved these technologies to the core of their business will see even greater success.”
Warren Tucker, Cloud and Digital Transformation Leader, PwC UK, said: “Organisations that drive their modernisation agenda with conviction and clear cloud-powered commercial strategies will create competitive advantage. They will achieve value faster, create flexibility for the future and most importantly create value from new tech-enabled IP and data.
“Ultimately, that can lead to a sustainable advantage in continuous innovation, whether through flexible operational processes or ongoing business model reinvention.”
“Organisations that drive their modernisation agenda with conviction and clear cloud-powered commercial strategies will create competitive advantage. They will achieve value faster, create flexibility for the future and most importantly create value from new tech-enabled IP and data.
Warren Tucker, Cloud & Digital Transformation Leader, PwC
