Enterprise outlook: partly cloudy with a chance of fear

The world of enterprise is still on the cautious side when it comes to new technologies, according to a survey conducted at the recent Oracle Collaborate 2016 conference in Las Vegas.

Analyst Joe McKendrick wrote in ZDNet that while almost all businesses at the event knew about big data, cloud, IoT, and mobile and its advantages, most of them were proceeding with caution, if at all.

Forty percent of the 690 members use Salesforce.com’s cloud services, but only 20 percent of members move their enterprise resource planning (ERP) or core suites outside the premises. The main worries, amongst the members, are security, loss of control, integration of data, and migration issues.

That shows a commitment to testing the cloud services, but a lack of interest in large migration. McKendrick points out that instead of going all-in on the cloud, 25 percent of members “intend to acquire at least some of their ERP functionality through subscription-based cloud services.”

Numbers on cloud database usage is even more fickle. Nineteen percent use a subscription-based cloud service and 22 percent are considering it — the rest are uninterested in the area. Internet of Things has even less interest, with six percent of members currently using an IoT system.