CIOIN

Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) will play an increasingly vital role in driving cloud transformation, according to a global, independent research study, The PPM Cloud Accelerator Report 2011 commissioned by CA Technologies. Additionally, the survey revealed that over the next two years, there will be a 13 percent increase in demand for PPM among organizations to plan and execute successful cloud initiatives―the highest increase of any software category used to manage public cloud-related projects.

The survey of 530 organizations in nine countries―Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States―also found that 41.5 percent of respondents expect public cloud use to increase IT project complexity. Part of the reason for this, the survey reveals, is that the proportion of public cloud investment bypassing the control of IT will rise by six percent during the next two years. By adopting PPM solutions, organizations will be uniquely positioned to manage successful cloud initiatives, increase business agility and innovation, and provide visibility and control over their cloud services portfolio.

“CIOs need to retain visibility and control to ensure the transformative value of cloud computing does not come at a high cost,” explains Helge Scheil, senior vice president, CA Technologies. “The report reinforces the view that PPM solutions are an increasingly important weapon in helping enterprises handle public cloud investments, application migration and governance. With PPM, organizations can begin to align resources, requirements and schedules to continually improve the innovation lifecycle. Moreover, they can determine what is needed, accelerate time-to-value for every investment and clearly demonstrate the transformational value of cloud computing investments.”

Other highlights of The PPM Cloud Accelerator Report 2011 include:

• Use of Cloud-based services is increasing: the proportion of IT budget invested in public Clouds will rise to 19 percent by end of 2013.
• Cost savings are the primary reason for applications to be moved to and/or sourced from the Cloud.
• Europe and North America could be neck and neck in public Cloud adoption by 2013: Europe will allocate 17.9 percent of their IT budgets to public Cloud-based services by the end of 2013, compared to 17 percent in North America.
• Enterprises currently not using PPM solutions recognize the strategic value PPM could provide in terms of Cloud adoption decision making, and they anticipate adopting PPM solutions in the future.
• Large-scale application migration will be hard work for at least 50 percent of all applications―hence the need for solutions such as PPM.