According to an IBM announcement on Wednesday, organizations that gain competitive advantages through cloud adoption report almost double the revenue growth.  The study claims these organizations have nearly 2.5 times higher gross profit growth than peer companies that are not as aggressive around the use of cloud computing.  The survey was conducted with more than 800 business decision makers and users worldwide.

“IBM’s survey also revealed that the cloud’s strategic importance to decision-makers, such as CEOs, CMOs, finance, HR and procurement executives, is poised to double from 34 percent to 72 percent – vaulting over their IT counterparts at 58 percent.”

Of course, IBM is not a neutral third party.  They have a dog in the cloud computing hunt.  However, the data from this survey seems to line up with what I see in the marketplace, as more innovative and aggressive organizations quickly figure out how to make cloud computing work for the bottom line.  This includes.

Businesses in industries that benefit from capabilities such as adding additional agility, and time-to-market advantages, are the most likely to benefit from cloud computing.  Healthcare and finance are prime examples of those industries.