Multicloud is here to stay, but challenges remain

Nutanix has announced the results of its fourth global Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey and research report, which measures enterprise progress with cloud adoption, in a press release issued today.

According to the study, multicloud is presently the most popular deployment type, with usage expected to increase to 64% in the next three years.

However, managing across cloud boundaries remains a significant barrier for businesses, with 87 percent believing that multicloud success necessitates easier administration across mixed-cloud infrastructures.

A hybrid multicloud strategy is appropriate for addressing major problems such as interoperability, security, cost, and data integration, according to 83 percent of respondents.

“While businesses are now viewing and using IT more strategically than ever before, the complexity of multicloud is creating challenges that are standing in the way of cloud success,” said Rajiv Ramaswami, President and CEO at Nutanix. 

“Solving for these complexities is giving way to a new hybrid multicloud model that makes cloud an operating model rather than a destination,” Rajiv added.

Key findings from this year’s report include:

• Top multicloud challenges include managing security (49%), data integration (49%), and cost (43%) across cloud borders. While multicloud is the most commonly used operating model, and the only one expected to grow, most enterprises are struggling with the reality of operating across multiple clouds, private and public. 
• The pandemic has changed how nearly all organizations operate, and multicloud supports this new way of working. Well over half of respondents (61%) say they’re focused on offering more flexible work setups because of the pandemic. 
• Application mobility is top of mind. Nearly all organizations (91%) have moved one or more applications to a new IT environment over the last 12 months. However, 80% of respondents agree that moving a workload to a new cloud environment can be costly and time-consuming. They cite security (41%) most often as the reason for the move, followed by performance (39%), and gaining control of the application (38%).
• Enterprises are growing more strategic in their use of IT infrastructure. Nearly three-fourths of respondents (72%) say they believe that the IT function in their organizations is perceived as more strategic than it was a year ago. They also cite business reasons for changing their infrastructure models, such as improving remote work and collaboration (40%), supporting customers better (36%), and strengthening business continuity (35%). Additionally, they’ve begun strategically matching each workload to the infrastructure best suited to it, based on factors such as security (41%), performance (39%), and cost (31%), likely a primary driver behind the proliferation of multicloud.

This year, survey participants were questioned about their present cloud issues, as well as how and where they expect to host business apps in the future. The impact of the pandemic on recent, current, and future IT infrastructure decisions, as well as how IT strategy and priorities may alter, as a result, were also questioned about.

To learn more about the report and findings, please download the full fourth Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index, here.