New research from Fujitsu UK – in conjunction with the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) – has revealed that 60% of organisations have a hybrid cloud strategy in place, comfortably ahead of the 36% that embrace a cloud-first arrangement. This underlines how the appetite for public cloud is decreasing as more businesses opt for the convenience and flexibility of hybrid, indicating that cloud providers should optimise their hybrid offerings to meet this demand.
The data was taken from the joint Fujitsu UK and CIF white paper The transformational impact of cloud. While the desire to embrace cloud – and in particular hybrid cloud – remains high, the research also found that 58% of respondents said their company struggles to keep up with new cloud technology, while 57% said cloud has introduced more complexity to the organisation.
The prime concern on the minds of leaders is that new technology will fail to integrate with legacy technology (mentioned by 44%), which demonstrates the need for better support for companies increasing their cloud adoption.
Graham Bromham, Head of Regional Sales & Service Providers at Fujitsu UK, said: “Cloud continues to offer great potential in helping companies transform their approach to IT and deal with future challenges, providing they receive support to make these projects a long-term success.
“It is clear from the research that many businesses still need assistance in making this happen, particularly when it comes to integrating legacy applications as cloud-based approaches become increasingly common.”
This need for greater support is especially pertinent when looking to the future: 88% expect to accelerate their cloud adoption in the next 12 months, while 42% consider cloud migration one of their organisation’s most important IT projects (second only to cybersecurity on 58%). Further, 80% cite cloud infrastructure as an important technology over the next five years, while 68% mention cloud SaaS.
Bromham added: “A company’s choice of cloud approach is very much a workload-dependent decision. There are applications and workloads perfectly suited to a cloud or SaaS approach, but the time, risk and cost associated with refactoring and migrating legacy workloads are often barriers to successful cloud adoption.”
He concluded: “This is why the appetite for hybrid cloud is particularly strong. The most successful cloud providers will be those who can deliver this effectively for their customers as they decide the future direction of their IT estate.”
