The Big AWS Survey

It’s well documented that Amazon Web Services (AWS) are by far the largest public cloud platform by a country mile. With 55% year-on-year growth and a customer base that pulls in more than 1 million active users a month, Rackspace thought it was time to see what made these businesses turn to AWS. The result was a major survey, asking nearly 500 UK companies using Amazon Web Services about their adoption of AWS.

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From energy companies to education, from telecoms to transport, the results revealed a quiet revolution happening out there. Over half of businesses told us AWS was either ‘very important’ or absolutely ‘critical’ to their future business strategy. And that’s not all, over three quarters believe AWS has increased innovation in the business. One reason perhaps, that usage of AWS (and spending on it) is set to soar over the next twelve months.

"Over three quarters of companies believe AWS has increased innovation in their organisation."

The survey revealed 85% of businesses run production workloads in AWS. Big data, websites, e-commerce, testing and development and a move towards serverless computing all figured to a greater or lesser degree with those questioned. But while businesses definitely recognise the value of cloud, they also recognise there’s a choice of cloud providers. That’s why expertise in areas like security and compliance, and other factors like global reach (and that old chestnut – cost) will be a big influence in choosing a cloud provider. AWS maybe brand leader, but businesses aren’t afraid to employ multiple cloud platforms.

It’s not surprising that data protection is the top Security priority for any business considering cloud. Businesses are moving towards more future-proof solutions too. AWS users stated that 77% of them invested significant time keeping abreast of the providers functionality and innovation.

So far so good. But one of the biggest numbers revealed in the Rackspace survey was this one; 86% of businesses are finding it something of a challenge to recruit certified AWS expertise. Whilst that’s great news for Rackspace (the skills gap means demand for managed services like our Fanatical Support® for AWS will continue to deliver customer value), it could remain a big factor for companies, holding up the decision to migrate to the cloud.

"86% of businesses are finding it challenging to recruit certified AWS expertise. " For us, though, it merely highlights the benefits of outsourcing cloud management, including migration, security, optimisation, solution architecting and support. These are all new areas for many companies, but ones for which the burden can be lifted. That’s why the transition to cloud is not a case of ‘if’, but ‘when’ and ‘how’.

But that’s enough about us. What you’re here for now is the revealing results of our AWS Future Insight survey. You’ll find it here, at the heart of our AWS Insight hub. You’ll also find expert-authored articles by AWS evangelists, not just from Rackspace but the wider industry. Once you’ve digested the survey figures, you can also benchmark yourself against other AWS users in the UK.

Whatever your results, we believe there are even more ways we could help with your AWS strategy.