Cloud

Newbie IT Leaders Drive Cloud Adoption

Millennial IT leaders use more cloud services on average than their older counterparts.

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Wylie Wong is a freelance journalist who specializes in business, technology and sports. He is a regular contributor to the CDW family of technology magazines.

Young IT leaders, millennials in particular, have embraced the cloud more than their older counterparts.

That’s the data revealed in a recent IDC survey. Medium-sized firms led by millennial IT leaders — aged 35 or younger — run an average of 10 cloud applications, which is two more than the overall average, notes IDC’s “State of the SMB Cloud: 2016 U.S. Small and Medium-Sized Business Cloud Adoption Survey.”

When deploying IT, 35.7 percent of millennials in medium-sized businesses say they prefer cloud over on-premises solutions, compared with 28.9 percent of Gen Xers and 13.2 percent of baby boomers.

Millennial IT leaders prefer using cloud apps or services because there’s an opportunity for immediate return on investment, says Chris Chute, research vice president for IDC’s global SMB cloud and mobility practice.

Instead of spending nine weeks installing an in-house tool that provides 95 percent of what they want, they are comfortable with getting an 80 percent fit if it means they can go live in nine days, he says.

“They value speed, and this need is more acute than for other generations,” Chute says. “Their broader goal is to use IT to get company products or services to market quicker.”

For more on how organizations are using the cloud, see our feature, "Get Ready for Cloud: How to Make Sure You Have the Staff and Smarts You’ll Need."