Cloud Platform Buyer’s Journey

Major platform providers don’t just offer point solutions but entire Platform-as- a-Service or Infrastructure-as-a-Service tools. This enables tech leaders to outsource significant amounts of their IT operations, such as data storage and networking, to a third party provider. With such an integral product tied to business success, how are decision makers choosing a cloud platform that will meet their goals?

Pulse surveyed 228 tech leaders to understand:

Which cloud platform they use and how satisfied they are with their choice The key stakeholders who make the decisions What factors are most important when evaluating a cloud platform provider

Data collected from Mar. 5 - Apr. 8, 2021 Respondents: 228 Tech leaders

MICROSOFT AZURE AND (AWS) ARE THE MOST WIDELY USED PLATFORMS

Microsoft Azure (76%) is the most used cloud platform, followed by AWS (72%).

What cloud platforms does your organization have in place?

Microsoft Azure 76%

Amazon Web Services 72%

Google Cloud Platform 27%

Salesforce 26%

VMware 16%

Oracle 12%

IBM Cloud 8%

SAP 7%

Rackspace Cloud 4%

Other 3%

Alibaba Cloud 1%

71% of tech leaders say CIOs are the key stakeholders involved in the selection of their organization’s current cloud platform.

Which key stakeholders were involved in the selection of your current cloud platform?

CIO 71%

IT team 59%

CTO 43%

CISO 33%

VP Engineering/ 25% R&D

CEO 24%

Development team 22%

CFO 19%

Line of business 8% team

LEADERS TURN TO PEER RECOMMENDATION FOR CLOUD PLATFORM EVALUATION, WITH PRICE BEING THE MAIN DEAL-BREAKER

68% of tech leaders rely on peer recommendations for conducting cloud platform evaluation.

Which key resources did you use when conducting your cloud platform evaluation?

Peer 68% recommendation

Technical white papers 50%

Case studies 45%

Research firm report 43%

Vendor outreach 40%

Thought leadership blogs/content 31%

Web search 25%

Customer logos and 23% testimonials

Trade shows/ 22% conferences

Webinars 15%

Online ads 4%

Other 4%

And, when making a cloud platform purchase decision, the top 3 factors that organizations considered were price (56%), ease of use (47%), and security and compliance (46%).

What were the top 3 factors in your organization’s cloud platform decision?

56%

47% 46%

33% 28%

22% 21% 21% 21%

4%

Price stack

reliability Solution /

Ease of use/ Security and compliance Service Level deployability Interoperability Technology Uptime Sales experience Agreement (SLA) Technical support

comprehensiveness

MOST TECH LEADERS ARE SATISFIED WITH THEIR CURRENT CLOUD PLATFORM—BUT ARE WILLING TO SWITCH IF THE TRANSITION IS SMOOTH

87% of tech leaders are satisfied with their current cloud platform.

How satisfied are you with your current cloud platform?

70% Satisfied

17% 13% Very satisfied Neutral

But given a chance, more than half (56%) of tech leaders would consider switching to AWS if the transition is painless.

If you could painlessly switch your cloud platform, which of the following would you consider switching to?

56% 35% Amazon Web Services Cloud Platform

12% 6% VMware Oracle

43% 6% Microsoft Azure 4% 11% Rackspace Cloud IBM Cloud 4% Other 3% SAP 1%

ABOUT PULSE

RESPONDENT BREAKDOWN

REGION

North America 79%

APAC 7%

EMEA 14%

TITLE COMPANY SIZE

Director

40% 10,001+ employees <1,001 employees C-Suite 26% 33% VP 25% 21% Manager 5,001-10,000 employees 19% 14% 1,001-5,000 22% employees

Insightshttps powered://home by .pulse.qa/