Featuring:

Kate Leggett, VP & Principal Analyst

Show Notes:

Are industry clouds the perfect solution for firms looking to transition to the cloud faster? Or are they a short-term blip on the enterprise cloud radar? In this episode, VP and Principal Analyst Kate Leggett shares her insights on the past, present, and future of industry clouds.

The episode starts with Leggett defining exactly what industry clouds are — cloud solutions designed specifically for the needs of a particular industry vertical. Leggett gives a short history of how industry clouds emerged within the enterprise market. She uses the healthcare industry vertical as an example to illustrate the tailored experiences, workflows, and data models that industry clouds can offer users.

From there, the conversation turns to the specific benefits of industry clouds, including their ability to democratize industry-specific experiences for companies of all sizes. Leggett explains how industry clouds allow smaller businesses to compete on a level playing field with larger enterprises by providing prebuilt solutions that can be quickly implemented and integrated with existing platforms. Additionally, industry cloud software vendors design the workflows around industry-specific regulations.

“Industry clouds are going to be the preferred way that we buy software because of all the industry capabilities that are baked into them [so] you don’t have to start from scratch,” she says, but adds that many of these capabilities are still in their early stages.

Leggett briefly addresses differences in industry cloud adoption, noting that financial services, retail banking, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, government, and communications are among the verticals that have invested more in industry clouds due to their specialized workflows and compliance requirements.

The episode also covers the challenges and barriers for companies that may be considering adopting industry clouds. Key among the challenges are cost (industry clouds can be expensive) and digital sameness, or the potential homogeneity of companies adopting the same industry cloud. Also, she says, the workflows that are included may differ from those that the company uses, so a customer has to decide which workflow to use in those cases.

The episode closes with Leggett providing a list of specific questions a firm should ask when thinking about moving to an industry cloud and other considerations for assessing the decision, so be sure to stick around for that.

To learn more about the latest trends in the cloud market, be sure to check out the agendas for our upcoming Technology & Innovation Summits in Austin, Sydney, and London. Leggett will be presenting, as will a variety of other Forrester cloud analysts and experts.