Execs express concern over cloud sprawl

While companies are adopting cloud computing at an ever faster rate, company executives are wondering whether it's been too fast for comfort, according to research.

Some 60 per cent of leaders surveyed by Avanade are worried about the level of "cloud sprawl" (unauthorised software) within their organisations, a problem that's been compounded by a rate of cloud adoption of 25 per cent over the past two years.

Nic Merriman, Avanade UK's head of cloud, said that the findings should be a warning to IT departments to work with the business. "From my perspective, this is not a matter of stopping user needs but building an IT strategy around those needs," he said.

He pointed out that IT managers did have some factors to bear in mind. "That's not to say that IT departments don't have legitimate concerns, particularly around issues likes compliance, security and product life-cycles," he added but "IT departments should be understanding what user requirements are and start creating a product roadmap for their organisations. People in the business are doing this because they have a real need to and IT departments should start embracing that."

Merriman, whos previously worked in the banking industry, saw some parallels with his former profession. "The banking industry was full of technologies that went under the radar of the IT services." He said this had to change. "IT departments would say no' to something because of the IT risk without considering the business advantage or the business risk of not adopting a particular technology," he added.

The Avanade research, which surveyed 600 chief information officers (CIOs) worldwide, found that one in five workers was downloading apps without telling IT.

However, in the UK, this figure was just one in 10, suggesting that we're more in thrall to the IT managers. Despite this, UK executives are even more concerned about cloud sprawl with 66 per cent of managers expressing worries on this issue, according to the research.