Cloud vs. On-premises: Finding the right balance

Greg Downer, senior IT director at Oshkosh Corp., a manufacturer of specialty heavy vehicles in Oshkosh, Wisc., wishes he could tip the balance of on-premises vs. cloud more in the direction of the cloud, which currently accounts for only about 20% of his application footprint. However, as a contractor for the Department of Defense, his company is beholden to strict data requirements, including where data is stored.

“Cloud offerings have helped us deploy faster and reduce our data center infrastructure, but the main reason we don’t do more in the cloud is because of strict DoD contract requirements for specific types of data,” he says.

In Computerworld’s Tech Forecast 2017 survey of 196 IT managers and leaders, 79% of respondents said they have a cloud project underway or planned, and 58% of those using some type of cloud-based system gave their efforts an A or B in terms of delivering business value.

Downer counts himself among IT leaders bullish on the cloud and its potential for positive results. “While we don’t have a written cloud-first statement when we do make new investments we look at what the cloud can offer,” he says.

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