Note: This article is based on a 2017 Capgemini research report, originally summarised by the Economic Times CIO. The statistics reflect the state of the industry at that time. Some predictions have since been validated by broader market trends, but readers should treat specific figures as historical data points rather than current benchmarks.
Overview
In 2017, Capgemini published research indicating that enterprise adoption of cloud-native applications was poised for rapid growth. Conducted by Longitude Research on behalf of Capgemini, the study surveyed 902 senior professionals — evenly split between IT and non-IT roles — from 11 countries across Europe, the Americas, and Australia. Respondents came from banking, insurance, consumer products, retail, manufacturing, and high-tech sectors.
The headline finding: only 15% of new enterprise applications were cloud-native at the time of the study, but adoption was projected to more than double, reaching 32% by 2020.
What “Cloud-Native” Meant in This Context
The report defined cloud-native applications as software and services built specifically to perform optimally in the cloud, typically by leveraging Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings. This contrasts with “lift-and-shift” approaches, where existing on-premises applications are migrated to cloud infrastructure without re-architecture.
Cloud-native applications are typically characterised by:
- Microservices architecture — functionality decomposed into independently deployable services
- Containerisation — packaging applications with their dependencies for consistent deployment
- Dynamic orchestration — using platforms such as Kubernetes to manage container lifecycles
- CI/CD pipelines — automating build, test, and deployment workflows
- Elastic scalability — scaling individual services horizontally based on demand
Why Organisations Were Moving to Cloud-Native
The study identified the primary business drivers behind the shift. Of the 900-plus respondents, the leading motivations were:
- 74% cited improved business agility
- 70% wanted to increase collaboration with external partners
- 67% aimed to deliver better customer experiences
Notably, cost reduction — traditionally the headline argument for cloud adoption — ranked lower than agility and customer experience improvements. This signals a maturation in how enterprises were framing the value of cloud investment by 2017.
Leaders vs. Laggards: The Performance Gap
The research segmented organisations into “leaders” — those with more than 20% of new enterprise applications developed cloud-natively — and slower adopters. The performance gap between the two groups was significant.
Cloud-native leaders were:
- Nearly twice as likely to report revenue increases attributable to cloud-native applications compared to laggards (84% vs. 44%)
- More likely to describe their software development approach as agile (69% vs. 37%)
- More likely to describe their deployments as automated (78% vs. 46%)
- More likely to report integrated DevOps teams (69% vs. 38%)
Leaders also held a different view of IT’s strategic purpose. Rather than primarily targeting cost reduction, they prioritised improving the customer experience (90%), business agility (87%), and scalability (85%), with cost reduction still valued but ranked lower (79%).
“We predict that cloud-native architectures will become the default option for customer-facing applications by 2020, driven by a need to continuously deploy innovations at an accelerated pace and enhance the customer experience. Businesses that delay adopting this approach will struggle to make up the gap with cloud-native competitors.”
Franck Greverie, Cloud and Cybersecurity Group Leader, Capgemini
Adoption Rates by Industry Sector
Cloud-native leadership was unevenly distributed across sectors. High-tech and manufacturing firms were ahead of regulated industries:
- High-tech firms: 26% were cloud-native leaders
- Manufacturing firms: 29% were cloud-native leaders
- Insurance providers: 18% were cloud-native leaders
- Consumer products, retail and distribution (CPRD): 22% were cloud-native leaders
- Banking providers: Only 11% qualified as cloud-native leaders
Despite lower current adoption, regulated sectors were accelerating. Banks were building 10% of new applications using cloud-native approaches. Nearly half of insurers (47%) and around a third of CPRD firms (27%) stated cloud-native formed a core part of their technology strategy. All three groups planned significantly increased PaaS spending over the following three years — banks and CPRD firms by 41%, insurers by 44%.
Barriers Holding Organisations Back
The report was candid about the obstacles CIOs faced, even in organisations that recognised the value of cloud-native approaches. Barriers fell into two categories:
Organisational Barriers
- 65% cited an ingrained culture resistant to cloud-native ways of working
- 70% reported a skills shortage when developing cloud-native applications
- Difficulty building internal business cases when leadership still measured IT success primarily through cost reduction
Technical Barriers
- 62% struggled to integrate cloud-native applications with legacy infrastructure
- 58% reported being locked into existing vendor contracts that constrained architectural choices
These barriers remain recognisable to DevOps practitioners today, suggesting the report captured structural challenges rather than temporary growing pains.
Six Recommendations for Becoming a Cloud-Native Leader
The Capgemini report offered a practical roadmap for CIOs seeking to close the gap with cloud-native leaders. The six recommendations were:
- Assess the application portfolio — Identify which applications are candidates for cloud-native development and which should remain on legacy infrastructure for now.
- Build credibility with a cloud roadmap — Demonstrate a clear, deliverable plan that connects cloud-native investment to business growth outcomes, not just technical metrics.
- Start small, then scale — Begin with a contained project to develop team capability and organisational confidence before expanding the programme.
- Adapt the IT operating model — Restructure teams and processes to support both business agility (speed of delivery) and stability (reliability and security).
- Be pragmatic in technology selection — Avoid chasing the newest tools. Choose technologies that fit the organisation’s existing skills and integration requirements.
- Incubate a culture of innovation — Actively build an environment that rewards experimentation, cross-team collaboration, and learning from failure — prerequisites for effective DevOps practice.
Why This Research Still Matters for DevOps Teams
Although the specific adoption percentages are now historical data points, several findings from the Capgemini study remain directly relevant to DevOps engineering work:
- The correlation between integrated DevOps teams and cloud-native success (69% of leaders vs. 38% of laggards) reinforces that tooling alone does not drive outcomes — team structure and culture are equally important.
- The skills gap identified in 2017 has deepened rather than narrowed in many organisations, making workforce development a persistent priority.
- Legacy integration complexity continues to be a primary technical constraint on cloud-native adoption, particularly in banking and regulated industries.
- The framing of IT’s role — shifting from cost centre to growth enabler — is a cultural change that DevOps advocates still actively navigate within enterprises.
Methodology
Longitude Research surveyed 902 professionals on behalf of Capgemini. Respondents were evenly divided between IT and non-IT roles and were based in 11 countries across Europe, the Americas, and Australia. Sectors represented included banking, insurance, consumer products, retail and distribution, manufacturing, and high-tech. The survey focused on views about cloud-native software development and organisational progress in adopting it.
Original source: Economic Times CIO, reporting on Capgemini research, 2017.