The power of the cloud.

• Position: CLOUD COMPUTING - Technology effectiveness survey - Brief article

They came to the cloud to save money; they stay because of its potential to change their business. More precisely, almost half (49%) of the enterprise executives who participated in the 2014 Cloud Computing Survey conducted by KPMG, "Elevating Business in the Cloud," said the biggest benefit of using the cloud is its cost efficiency. However, an increasing number are using it to enact large-scale change at the business-unit level as well as enterprise-wide.

The transformative effect of the cloud is being realized by using it to better enable a flexible and mobile workforce; improve alignment and interaction with customers, suppliers, and business partners; and better leverage data for more "insightful" decision-making.

"Cloud has become almost a business imperative because the benefits seem to outweigh the risks," said KPMG's Rick Wright, principal and global cloud enablement leader. The survey participants reported that the cloud has helped them improve business performance (73%), improve levels of service automation (72%), and reduce costs (70%)...