Perceptions and Influences on the Road to Public Cloud

1. Millennials and the Next
Generation of IT
Perceptions and Influences on the Road to
Public Cloud
September 2016
Research: 2,500 IT Professionals surveyed across US, UK, Brazil,
Japan and India

2. Millennials and the changing IT landscape
We set out to understand just how different
Millennials are in the world of IT – what
perspectives they bring to their role, what work
environments and opportunities they are looking
for from their employers and what technologies
they are prioritizing – to get a glimpse into the
transformation taking place within IT.
We surveyed 2,500 IT workers across US, UK,
Japan, Brazil and India.
Millennials are leaning more heavily toward
public cloud adoption, innovative technologies
and looking for more flexibility in their roles than
their peers. Their peers, perhaps influenced by
their perspectives, are not far behind them.

3. 97% of Millennial ITDMs say connecting
their public cloud solutions to their
datacenter will still be important in 5 years
93% of Millennials believe their
organization has apps that should be in
public cloud that are not currently
At a glance, findings indicate Millennials in IT….
88% of Millennials say their
organization’s policy and procedures
don’t allow them to be as creative as
they could at work
46% of Millennials are
interested in learning
about conversation bots
on the job, more than
their peers

4. In the U.S.,
more
Millennials
cite they are
“very”
comfortable
hosting their
company’s
most essential
applications
or services on
the public
cloud (42
percent for
Millennials; 32
percent for
Gen X and
Baby
Boomers)
Millennials in IT are on the front foot in cloud
adoption & cutting edge cloud technologies
76%
42%
32%
Over three-
fourths (76
percent) of
Millennials
don’t see a
lack of cloud
skills as a
barrier to
public cloud
adoption. In
other words,
they do not
feel inhibited
and instead
empowered
to acquire
the skills they
need.

5. Millennials in IT are on the front foot in cloud
adoption and driving innovation
Across all markets, Millennial
technology decision makers
(ITDMs) are nearly all in agreement
(97 percent) that all organizations
with data stored in the cloud should
use container technology five
years from now.
Nearly half of Millennials are
interested in learning about
conversation bots on the job at
46 percent compared with 39
percent of non-Millennials, and 41
percent of Millennials are interested
in robotics v. 30 percent of non-
Millennials.
In the U.S., nearly nine in 10 (87
percent) of Millennials v. 81 percent
of Gen X and Baby Boomers believe
it is important they work for an
organization that allows them to
use open-source technologies.
Across the five markets surveyed,
41 percent of Millennials v. 34
percent of non-Millennials agree
strongly they need to be able to
use open-source technologies.
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97% 46% 87%

6. Despite their cloud adoption, Millennials and IT
pros in general believe hybrid is a priority and
here to stay
Nearly all (97 percent)
ITDM millennials say that
connecting to their
datacenter will be
important in five years’
time.
Across markets, 85 percent
of Millennials report their
organizations use private
cloud solutions currently.

7. Millennials in
IT believe
innovation is
critical
…Even if it comes with risk. More Millennials cite
they are “very” willing to risk system downtime
when introducing a new technology to make their
workplace more efficient (41% compared with
34% for Gen X and Baby Boomers).

8. Millennials expect their employers to provide
them the flexibility and creative liberties to do
their work
Across all markets, 88
percent of
Millennials say their
organization’s current
IT policies and
procedures don’t
allow them to be as
creative as they could
be at work.
Nine in 10 (90 percent)
of Millennials say
frequently using their
own approach is faster
than their
organization’s
preferred approach.
One third of Millennials
are more likely to say
their approach is faster
“all the time” (33
percent v. 29 percent
Gen X and Baby
Booomers).
In fact, nearly 1 in 5
(19%) Millennials start
looking for a new job if
their organization does
not take their
suggestion to change
an IT policy or process,
more than non-
millennials (roughly 1 in
10 or 13 percent).

9. Across all five markets, IT is showing an
upswing toward cloud, new technologies
and styles of work – perhaps influenced by
their Millennial counterparts.

10. IT is leaning toward open, flexible and creative
work environments in the cloud

12. How can organizations empower digital
transformation in IT?
• Encourage a culture that supports an agile, creative work
environment, where IT feels empowered to bring new
ideas to the table and ways of getting work done.
• Provide support for on-the-job IT trainings where IT can
further build their skillsets and learn about technologies
that interests them.
• Carve out space for incubation as an organization to
experiment with new, emerging technologies, such as
conversation bots, robotics, virtual reality and augmented
reality.

13. Methodology
• The Microsoft Survey “Millennials and the Next Generation of IT” was conducted by
Wakefield Research among 1,281 ITDMs and 1,265 IT pros across the US, UK, Brazil,
India and Japan between August 31st and September 13th, 2016 – for a total of 2,546
respondents – using an email invitation and an online survey.