LITTLE ROCK, Ark., July 21, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new study of cloud technology, adoption and value conducted by Oxford Economics and released today by Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN ), a leading provider of advanced network and cloud communications, shows that the cloud is having a significant and fast-growing strategic impact on U.S. companies.
The study, which was based on primary survey data collected from 350 senior technology and business executives, was conducted nationally during the second quarter of 2014.
"Cloud services are an important part of Windstream's product portfolio, and, as such, we felt it was imperative that we understand our audience and what motivates them to move to the cloud," said Matt Preschern, senior vice president and enterprise chief marketing officer at Windstream. "We teamed with Oxford Economics, a leader in global forecasting and quantitative analysis for business, to make sure the integrity and credibility of the data was of the highest caliber and we'll use the findings to help advise our customers on their best cloud path."
The survey uncovered four major themes surrounding cloud adoption.
- Cloud technology is driving business strategy. More than half of survey respondents identified that cloud will be critical to their business' innovation strategy in two years while 57 percent said it will enable their company to move into new geographic markets.
- Cloud technology is driving business value. According to survey results, roughly two-thirds of respondents expect the cloud to support innovation and customer service delivery within two years. Moreover, 88 percent of large companies surveyed said that cloud would enable more collaboration among business units.
- Cloud security is a concern among adopters. When asked, 76 percent of survey respondents noted cloud security as their primary concern with migration, while platform compatibility and privacy ranked highly with just over half of respondents. Healthcare organizations ranked significantly higher than the overall survey set with data security concerns.
- Trailblazers are realizing cloud benefits ahead of their peers. Trailblazers, or those organizations that adopted cloud technology early on, have higher profit margins and are more likely to be profitable than other respondents.More than half of trailblazer organizations stated that cloud was critical for innovation, compared with 33 percent of non-trailblazers.
In addition to these findings, the Path to Value report provides insight into business' cloud migration strategy and planning, application and business function migration strategies, cloud success metrics and cloud decision-making ownership. The survey data has been visually depicted in the Path to Value infographic .
"The survey findings illustrate a compelling snapshot of the cloud environment today," said Edward Cone, managing editor and senior analyst for thought leadership at Oxford Economics. "The conclusions drawn in this report provide vital information to anyone interested in cloud computing."
To find out more about the Path to Value survey results, please contact Tanja Jameson to speak with a Windstream cloud expert or a research expert from Oxford Economics.
About Oxford Economics
Oxford Economics is a world leader in evidence-based thought leadership, economic analysis, and forecasting for business and government. Founded in 1981 as a joint venture with Oxford University, Oxford Economics is headquartered in the UK and has offices around the world, including its thought leadership hub in New York. For more information, visit http://www.oxfordeconomics.com .
About Windstream
Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN ), a FORTUNE 500 and S&P 500 company, is a leading provider of advanced network communications, including cloud computing and managed services, to businesses nationwide. The company also offers broadband, phone and digital TV services to consumers primarily in rural areas. For more information, visit www.windstream.com .
Windstream Contact: Tanja Jameson 501.748.7236
