Oracle users want more information about which particular cloud solution is right for them, and how the Oracle cloud can co-exist with their on-prem deployments.

At their just-concluded COLLABORATE 17 event in Las Vegas, the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) announced the result of an OAUG user community survey on Oracle Cloud adoption. The mission of the organization, founded in 1990, is to serve as an advocate to Oracle for companies and partners around their application products, and to provide education, networking and support.

“One of the clear things we saw is that a high percentage of the respondents want more education about cloud,” said Alyssa Johnson, president of the OAUG. “That was the takeaway for us. Companies are moving to the cloud, and it’s part of the enterprise road map, but they want to be better informed about it.”

84 per cent of respondents were interested in information on how Oracle SaaS can co-exist with their on-premises implementations. 79 per cent said they are interested in how Oracle PaaS can extend on-premises functionality and deliver innovation faster. 74 per cent were interested in how Oracle can host their on-premises implementations using Oracle Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) to reduce their operational expenses.

Alyssa Johnson, president of the OAUG

“We see this as indicating they are looking for an understanding of how they would utilize the different cloud components,” Johnson said. “It’s easy to say ‘tell me about the cloud – but is SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, or event Data-as-a-service which is now also out there – which best fits their needs. There are so many different cloud components, and everyone has their own perception of it.”

81 per cent of respondents also said that learning about cloud solutions will maintain or enhance their career development.

“That number is pretty high,” Johnson said. “It highlights and emphasizes that people understand they have to be knowledgeable from technical or business perspective. People now are really clamoring to be able to support the technology of the future.”

Survey respondents overwhelmingly selected user experience stories as the most helpful information which would help support their evaluation or implementation of Oracle Cloud solutions, followed by information on the path to cloud, hybrid co-existence, and end-user networking and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.

In terms of planned adoption, the data indicate that 70 per cent of respondents who have plans to adopt Oracle Cloud solutions will do so in the next three years. 35 per cent are planning to implement Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to run with their existing Oracle on-prem installations. 29 per cent are planning to use Oracle Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) services to accelerate Development and Testing efforts in the next 12 months.

“It’s clear that a combination of on-premise and cloud will be the dominant combination for the next several years,” Johnson said. “The survey gives us an additional data point, and the response to the survey will help refine that message through the user community. Our user members want to know more about cloud, and the message about hybrid cloud is one we will continue to hear.”

The survey was based on 454 responses, with respondents self-identifying their roles. 29 percent of respondents were from technology management, 13 percent from business analysts, 13 percent from finance and accounting, and 10 percent from database administration.