A new report found enterprises plan to increase hybrid cloud usage, with 91% stating hybrid cloud as the ideal IT model, but only 18% stating they have that model today. Nutanix, Inc., a leader in enterprise cloud computing, released on Monday the findings of its first annual global Enterprise Cloud Index, measuring enterprise plans for adopting private, hybrid and public clouds, which also revealed that application mobility across any cloud is a top priority for 97% of respondents – with 88% of respondents saying it would “solve a lot of my problems.” Additionally, the report found public cloud is not a panacea; IT decision makers ranked matching applications to the right cloud environment as a critical capability, and 35% of organizations using public clouds overspent their annual budget. When asked to rank the primary benefits of hybrid cloud, interoperability between cloud types (23%) and the ability to move applications back and forth between clouds (16%) outranked cost (6%) and security (5%) as the primary benefits.
The report showed that the Middle East runs slightly fewer workloads in traditional data centers and outpaces the global and EMEA regional averages in its deployment of hybrid clouds, with 22% penetration reported as compared to the global average of 19% and EMEA average of 17%.
Today, the Middle East runs half (50%) of its workloads in private and hybrid clouds. However, in two years’ time, the region indicates plans to decrease its traditional data center workloads by more than half, drop its use of private clouds by 7% and increase hybrid cloud usage by the same amount. It also plans to increase its use of public cloud services by up to 10%.
The Middle East ranks data security and compliance as the top benefit of the public cloud and as the top criteria for where to run its workloads, even more often than its peers in other regions Those priorities are followed by cost and performance, values that fall in line with responses from the rest of the world.
Public cloud use shows the most growth in the Middle East over the next two years, where use of a single public cloud will grow by 10 percentage points and use of multiple public clouds will grow by 6 percentage points. Public clouds will then account for more than a third (36%) of the region’s overall workloads, followed by hybrid clouds at 29%, and private clouds and traditional data centers, collectively at 35%
In roles centered on agility and digital transformation, IT teams understand that runtime environments for enterprise apps change constantly. Respondents indicated a need for greater orchestration and application mobility across cloud environments, as they seek flexibility to move apps to the “right” cloud on a more dynamic basis. In addition, shadow IT practices that circumvent enterprise IT teams are posing a significant challenge to forecasting and controlling public cloud spend with well over half of respondents (57%) reporting one or more incidents of shadow IT.
Moreover, the report noted that hybrid cloud better addresses business needs over single public cloud, including the price tag: 87% of respondents said that hybrid cloud as an IT trend is having a positive impact on their businesses, and more hybrid cloud users reported all their needs were being met (49%) compared to single public cloud users (37%). Furthermore, organizations that use public cloud spend 26% of their annual IT budget on public cloud. Perhaps most striking is the fact that only 6% using public cloud came in under budget, while nearly six times as many (35%) overspent in their use of public cloud resources
Security is top of mind for determining workloads: 71% of respondents surveyed for the report ranked data security and regulatory compliance as the top factor in determining where to provision their workloads. This was followed by performance at 62%, ease of management at 53%, and cost at 52%.
App developers today are circumventing IT: 57% of respondents said their developers are circumventing IT when it comes to deciding where applications run, putting the organization at potential risk.
Finding hybrid IT talent is difficult, the report noted. With clear benefits to a hybrid model, respondents say scarcity of hybrid experts is a challenge, with 54% claiming talent retention is part of the problem.
EMEA is expected to surpass the Americas with hybrid cloud adoption: Regionally, the Americas reported greater use of hybrid clouds now (22%) and within 12 months’ time (31%). However, the two-year outlook has EMEA (43%) surpassing the Americas’ hybrid plans (39%) and APJ (39%) catching up.
“As enterprises demand stronger application mobility and interoperability, they are increasingly choosing hybrid cloud infrastructure,” said Ben Gibson, chief marketing officer for Nutanix. “While the advent of public cloud has increased IT efficiency in certain areas, hybrid cloud capabilities are the next step in providing the freedom to dynamically provision and manage applications based on business needs. However, the findings of this study reveal an important gap in the market: organizations need IT talent to manage their hybrid cloud models, especially in the next 12 to 24 months.”
Aaron White, regional director, Middle East at Nutanix, said “it is clear that hybrid cloud is the future. Hybrid cloud capabilities constitute a growing necessity in the dynamic, digital business climate, in which enterprises demand the freedom to dynamically provision and manage applications based on business needs. Reaching this ideal IT operating model will require more comprehensive hybrid vendor solutions, as well as greater expertise in designing, building, and operating hybrid clouds.”
