There has been a drastic shift in business needs as only 3% of C-suite executives reported using a single private or public cloud in 2021, down from 29% in 2019 – establishing hybrid cloud as the dominant IT architecture, according to IBM’s new global study on cloud transformation.
The global study, conducted by IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) in cooperation with Oxford Economics, surveyed almost 7,200 C-suite executives across 28 industries and 47 countries.
IBM said findings indicate that the cloud market has entered the hybrid, multicloud era and concerns around vendor lock-in, security, compliance and interoperability remain paramount.
The study found that infrastructure complexity is creating cracked doors that cybercriminals are exploiting. Yet, more than a third of respondents did not indicate improving cybersecurity and reducing security risks are among their largest business and IT investments.
At the same time, 80% said data security being embedded throughout the cloud architecture is important or extremely important, in most cases, to successful digital initiatives.
Also, nearly 79% of respondents said workloads being completely portable with no vendor lock-in is important or extremely important to the success of their digital initiatives.
Close to 69% of respondents said vendor lock-in is a significant obstacle to improving business performance in most or all parts of their cloud estate.
Almost 70% of respondents in the government and financial services sectors cited industry-related regulatory compliance as an obstacle to the business performance of their cloud estate.
“In the beginning of their cloud journey, many companies dabbled with several different clouds that created complexity and disconnected piece parts, potentially opening them up to major security threats,” said Howard Boville, head of IBM Cloud Platform.
“Today’s finding reiterate that security, governance and compliance tools must run across multiple clouds and be embedded throughout hybrid cloud architectures from the onset for digital transformations to be successful,” said Boville.
The study revealed that enterprises need to assess how they use the cloud in terms of adoption, velocity, migration, speed, and cost savings opportunity.
Other recommendations include focusing on security and privacy; asking which workloads should move to the cloud; making data work for you; setting a tactical approach; and determining the right team.
