New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS): While 73 per cent of executives believe their companies are only beginning to leverage the potential of cloud, over 90 per cent recognise cloud’s vital role in enabling rapid response to critical business events, strategic pivots and adopting leading-edge technologies like AI, a new report showed on Tuesday.

About 87 per cent of the respondents said that they would not have been able to make significant pivots last year without cloud.

Businesses are relying on cloud to meet sustainability goals (91 per cent), to work through pandemic-related staffing and supply chain issues (87 per cent) and mitigate the impact of rising inflation (77 per cent), according to the report by HCLTech, a leading global technology company, based on a survey of 500 senior business and technology leaders across industries.

“Cloud is rapidly becoming the optimal business platform for innovation at scale. However, many companies have yet to fully tap into its potential,” said Kalyan Kumar, Global Chief Technology Officer & Head–Ecosystems, HCLTech.

While 58 per cent noted that businesses have increased or are planning to increase investments in GenAI, 85 per cent believe it is only possible with the right cloud strategy.

Both IT leaders (86 per cent) and business leaders (81 per cent) agreed that they closely collaborate with one another to discuss cloud strategy to unlock their potential to innovate.

“Forward-thinking leaders recognise that cloud is no longer just an infrastructure play but rather a transformational business platform,” said Siki Giunta, Executive Vice President, CloudSMART and Industry Consulting, HCLTech.