Accenture Cloud Outcomes Research: A Lot of Pandemic Fallout to Address

Cloud computing represents a critical aspect of almost any organization’s priorities, yet its value can come off as “insufficient” if not done with long-term strategies in mind. That’s just one of the takeaways from Accenture’s new report, “The Race to Cloud: Reaching the Inflection Point to Long-Sought Value: Cloud Outcomes Research 2022.”

In fact, this marks the first time since 2020 that Accenture has published its Cloud Outcomes Research.

Much has changed since then. And much of that change, of course, stemmed from the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2020, organizations around the world have turned to cloud computing to help them stay afloat, or even thrive, in a time of uncertainty and fear. As a result, remote work likely will remain a go-to model for many entities, and so will ongoing cloud adoption.

One of the outcomes from the pandemic-led deployments is that more business leaders understand how cloud is fundamental to achieving strategic goals, Accenture notes in its Cloud Outcomes Research. To that point, over the past two years alone, more than 86% of companies have increased the scope and volume of their cloud initiatives, Accenture says.

Indirect Channel’s Role

Another outcome lies in ever-greater reliance on the indirect channel. One of Accenture’s Cloud Outcomes Research findings speaks directly to the benefit of teaming with cloud managed service providers. Read more about that in the slideshow above.

That data point leads to another observation. Accenture discovered that less than half of respondents (42%) say they’re getting full expected value from their cloud initiatives. Others feel stuck in a so-called “cloud transformation limbo.” And almost 70% of respondents say their cloud journeys remain incomplete. Now they’re looking for value from their investments. As a result, cloud channel partners are, and will continue to be, vital to helping clients get the most of out of those deployments.

How? Read on for more insights from Accenture’s latest Cloud Outcomes Research report. It contains responses from 800 business and IT leaders from around the world.