This archived TechRepublic Premium report, originally published in September 2013, is available for free to registered TechRepublic members. For all the latest research reports, 100+ ready-made policies, IT job descriptions, and more, check out TechRepublic Premium.

From the report:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a growing solution for many organizations, as shown in an April 2013 TechRepublic research report. About 60 percent of respondents were either planning or had already implemented cloud infrastructure services. This tracks with Gartner’s 2013 forecast that IaaS will continue to be the fastest- growing market segment, expected to grow 18.5 percent in 2013. Why the growth? Why are organizations moving to cloud hosted infrastructure?

In a July 2013 survey, TechRepublic Premium reached out to business and IT professionals to get their take on expected and actual IaaS benefits. Less than one-half of respondents using IaaS expressed positive results after placing their hardware under someone else’s control. Further, expectations of those planning to integrate IaaS into their business processes differ significantly from actual benefits realized by current subscribers. This suggests a disconnect between expectations (hype?) and reality.

Another important finding is that IT staffing remained the same in most IaaS subscribing organizations. However, a shift began to move IT focus from maintaining infrastructure to meeting business process needs. This was accompanied in many cases by a commensurate shift in IT budget. In other words, instead of simply removing the cost associated with pre-IaaS infrastructure management, organizations shifted resources to areas where they add better business value.