Almost two-thirds of manufacturing firms have at least two applications residing in public or private clouds, and say they will pursue “cloud-first” or “cloud-also” strategies in the future, according to a new study from International Data Corporation (IDC).

The study, Worldwide Cloud Adoption in the Manufacturing Industry, is based on data from surveys such as IDC’s 2014 CloudView Survey, which quizzed 593 manufacturers in 17 countries.

In the study, IDC found that while manufacturers were on average spending less on IT than before, both decision makers and their IT leaders were seeing cost and speed benefits from deploying IT resources in the cloud. In addition, it found that organizations were increasingly looking at the cloud as a solution for areas specific to manufacturing, such as business processes, product development and introduction, and supply chains.

“Traditional IT spend is clearly on the decline, and manufacturers must update their cloud road maps to ensure their investments benefit the business,” noted Kimberly Knickle, IDC’s Manufacturing Insights research director.

As for the most common types of applications deployed in the cloud, these include Email, financial and accounting ERP, and CRM for marketing and sales automation. A surprisingly low 29 percent of respondents said they had already adopted cloud-based email, but 48 percent said they planned to move their email systems to the cloud within two years, which is more in step with enterprise trends, the report said.

The public cloud is most popular in the Asia/Pacific, a region which many manufacturers are prioritizing, says IDC. The main benefit of the public cloud is it allows remote manufacturing facilities to enjoy modern IT and communications without the need for a large onsite IT team.

In Europe IDC says private cloud adoption is higher, which indicates a willingness to enjoy the benefits of the cloud while still retaining control over the operating environment. However, IDC believes hybrid and public cloud computing will eventually surpass the private cloud in Europe due to the cost advantages it provides/

More generally, IDC sees a trend towards either cloud-first or cloud-also strategies across all regions. IDC defines “cloud also” as a strategy where the cloud is considered alongside traditional IT options as well, and says that 61.6 percent of manufacturers will take this approach when considering new IT services, and 56.8 percent would do the same when replacing existing IT services.

In its report, IDC also spoke of the emergence of so-called “3rd platform” technologies that will be used to bridge the gap between areas such as Big Data, cloud, mobile and the Internet of Things, and will drive significant changes in the manufacturing industry.

“Manufacturers are in the midst of a digital transformation, in which 3rd platform technologies are absolutely essential to the way they do business and in the products and services they provide to their customers,” Knickle wrote. “Consequently, a strategic approach to adopting cloud is absolutely essential.”

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