Lack of consistent operations hinders multi-cloud adoption

Photo by Lucas Law

Most firms see hybrid cloud as the ideal IT model but many struggle to adopt it, with 70% believing that their transformation is taking longer than expected, according to a new report from Nutanix.

Even then, nearly all (95%) respondents think their organisation would benefit from an optimal hybrid implementation providing consistent IT constructs and operations across multiple clouds, eliminating many of the challenges they currently face ranging from operational silos to staffing shortages.

“The research shows that flexibility will remain a critical consideration, and one which can only be achieved through consistent constructs, operations and tools,” said Neville Vincent, VP for South Asia Pacific at Nutanix. “Hybrid cloud is the ideal choice for this journey. Not only does it address immediate business requirements, it also enables and empowers organisations to prepare for a multi-cloud future.”

The report, commissioned by Nutanix and created by independent market research firm Vanson Bourne, covered a survey of 650 IT decision-makers from multiple industries, business sizes and geographies in the Americas; Europe, the Middle East, Africa (EMEA); and Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) regions.

Additional findings show that public cloud alone is not always the answer, with the majority of respondents have concerns about running business-critical applications on public cloud, specifically around reliability (75%), portability (73%), and cost (72%). 

Additionally, some are simply unable to move their business-critical applications, due to complexity or cost. 

Also, hybrid widens the IT skills gap, and most firms (88%) are facing challenges in ensuring their IT staff has the necessary skills to manage a hybrid IT infrastructure, and over half (53%) see this as a top concern.

Further, skill gaps create silos and inefficiencies that often impact the bottom line, something even more concerning at a time when many businesses are focused on optimising resources. Nearly half of respondents identified resource sprawl (49%), an increase in costs (45%), and/or a waste of resources (43%) as concerns.

Finally, portability is a must and not just for applications. For most businesses (88%) software licensing is a key aspect of a hybrid IT infrastructure, as many have run into difficulties surrounding licensing (58%) or vendor lock-in (58%) when moving to public cloud.