Multicloud is the mainstream in enterprise technology as cloud adoption has become synonymous with how enterprises build business agility and operational efficiency, according to a report from Oracle.
Oracle commissioned 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, for a study conducted in the third quarter of 2022 and covered 1,500 enterprise respondents in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Results show that more than 90% of APAC respondents agreed that the COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong driver of greater interest and investment in cloud technology.
As organisations faced new challenges such as increased levels of remote work and collaboration with new business partners and suppliers, they adopted a multicloud strategy to gain the flexibility and scalability they needed for this new reality.
“The ‘one-stop-shop’ mentality has died when it comes to the cloud,” said Melanie Posey, research director on cloud and managed services transformation at 451 Research. “Instead, multicloud is the reality of enterprise technology environments as these organisations seek to get the right mix of solutions and capabilities they need to operate effectively.”
“Multicloud is here to stay, and enterprises are choosing this model for the benefits it provides for a range of different business and operational requirements, like business agility or access to best-of-breed technology,” said Posey.
Findings also show that 97% of APAC enterprises surveyed are using or plan to use at least two cloud infrastructure providers and 35% are using four or more.
Also, 95% of APAC respondents reported they are using or plan to use at least two cloud application providers (Software-as-a-Service), with more than 48% using cloud applications from five or more providers.
This multicloud strategy allows IT departments to meet the specific technology needs of different teams across the organiSation.
The top two drivers of multicloud strategies in enterprises are data sovereignty (44%) and cost optimiSation (40%).
Other drivers of multicloud strategies include business agility and innovation (32%), best of breed cloud services and applications (27%) and cloud vendor lock-in concerns (26%).
Multicloud strategies give enterprises more control over where and how their data is stored and used, while also ensuring businesses can control the costs of their cloud operations by adjusting which services they use from different providers.
Data redundancy (56%) is the most anticipated future use case, followed by data mobility (52%) and cost optimiSation across public clouds (45%).
IT departments also plan to use multicloud strategies for risk mitigation for the entire IT environment (41%) and geographic expansion or global service delivery (44%).
The fact that IT departments are planning multicloud strategies shows that they see multicloud as a way to get ahead of their technology needs, instead of simply a tactic to react to crises.
“Customers are on-boarding new cloud providers to accelerate their digital transformation goals,” said Chris Chelliah, SVP on technology and customer strategy at Oracle Japan and Asia Pacific.
“They want to get their existing mission critical workloads on the cloud faster, without the cost or risk of having to re-write, to then tap into the innovation areas driven by machine learning and AI,” said Chelliah.
