Over the past 35 years, we’ve been tracking the ways in which technology and digital transformation are impacting the companies we work with. In that time, we have never seen a technology impact business faster or more pervasively than cloud technology.

Gartner predicts that by 2020, a “corporate ‘no-cloud’ policy will be as rare as a ‘no-internet’ policy is today. The leading tech research firm goes on to assert that the cloud is “the most disruptive force in IT since the beginning of the digital age.”

Given the cloud is where tomorrow’s technology will be built, one would expect every organization would be racing to capture the benefits of the cloud to grow their business and avoid disruption. And yet, survey results from the 2018 Tech Insights Report show that 32% of midsize organizations still don’t have any plans to move mission-critical applications to the cloud.

With the latest advancements in cloud technology, the ability to modernize for the future is easily within reach of organizations of all sizes. So why isn’t every organization capitalizing on the speed, scalability, and economic value of the cloud? The second and third charts shown above are a good indication of the two primary problems:

• A shortage of skilled cloud professionals to lead the charge: 74% of companies still don’t have any plans to hire more cloud expertise.
• Lack of strategy: Only 21% of midsize businesses are in the process of planning their cloud migration strategy.

Accelerate Your Cloud Migration in 2018 and Beyond

The needs of the midmarket are changing – and a lot of that has to do with the increasing maturity of the cloud. While there are many opportunities on the horizon, midmarket organizations will have to learn how to deal with some of the challenges that come with operating in a cloud-first world.

To succeed in the digital age, businesses need to be faster, more responsive, and meet rigorous security criteria and a higher expectation for accessibility from anywhere on any device. Constant assessment and re-prioritization of efforts is needed to capture new opportunities in the cloud while avoiding common pitfalls.

To gain a broader strategy, our framework for Modern IT Management is designed to help organizations manage the ever-present change, risk, and opportunities before them. We’ve also developed a Modern IT Roadmap to help you scale your cloud migration approach in manageable increments.

Want more data-backed insights? Download the full Tech Insights Report for free to discover how midsize businesses are utilizing technology to achieve their business goals.