Hybrid Cloud Adoption Gains Momentum

Transcription

1 Redefining The Role Of IT As Digital Transformation Takes Center Stage GET STARTED

2 Evaluating The Trends In Hybrid Cloud Adoption Organizations have been adopting cloud solutions, both public and private, for many years to support their digital transformation. As the lines blur between many different flavors of cloud, the concept of hybrid cloud has emerged, where organizations use a mix of both private and public cloud solutions across multiple use cases and workloads. As organizations shift away from on-premises technology deployments, the spotlight shifts to the role that IT professionals play in this new hybrid cloud world. In September 2015, Canopy and EMC commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate current trends and use of hybrid cloud in today s digitally transformed world, the benefits and challenges organizations face when fully utilizing hybrid cloud, the preferences for a hybrid cloud management solution, and the impact of hybrid cloud on the role of IT professionals. Sixty-nine percent of hybrid cloud adopters said they use both private and public cloud platforms. The remaining 31% said they use multiple public cloud platforms. Hybrid Cloud Adopters: Survey Demographic 150 French, German, US, and UK IT decision-makers Number of countries with operations: 47% between 2 and 10 countries 29% between 10 and 19 countries 23% more than 20 countries

3 1 2 3 Defining Hybrid Cloud: The Use Of Public And Private Cloud Hybrid cloud is not just a fad. In fact, more than half (58%) of all organizations surveyed in Forrester s Business Technographics Global Infrastructure Survey, 2015, highlighted that they have adopted and are using multiple cloud environments either public, hosted private, or internal private. Cloud adopters were screened as part of the custom study and were asked how they defined hybrid cloud. As organizations become more familiar with the concept of hybrid cloud, a single definition of hybrid cloud emerges. Forty percent of hybrid cloud adopters think the same: that it is the use of public and private cloud. Other definitions included a cloud plus any additional cloud or noncloud infrastructure (15%) and multiple application portfolios across multiple deployment options (12%). Essentially, organizations using hybrid cloud define it as a cloud spread across multiple deployment models.

4 1 2 3 Enterprise-Class Workloads Are Being Used Across Hybrid Cloud Cloud adopters are growing in their confidence of using hybrid cloud as fear of increased data vulnerability or performance issues are being dismissed. While we anticipated a few clear use cases to emerge, nearly all applications and workloads are being considered for hybrid cloud. Hybrid cloud adopters identify many applications and workloads within their current service portfolio for hybrid cloud use, including much larger, secure, and enterprise-class workload types, such as backup and recovery, database, commerce software, and enterprise content management. With more traditional workloads being transitioned to hybrid cloud scenarios, it highlights the growing market confidence in allowing hybrid cloud to deliver more services even among those where information and data is secure. As cloud confidence grows, the fear of increased data vulnerability or performance issues must be addressed. No one is more qualified to do so than IT professionals.

5 1 2 3 IT s Role Transitions To Becoming A Service Broker Enterprises must consider how hybrid cloud is managed. Do application owners have enough insight to manage and maintain these environments or is central IT getting in front of this usage? The answer differs at each organization. Regardless of who carries the torch, it is clear that management of the ecosystem is key. When looking at hybrid cloud users today, management capabilities play a key role in the selection of their solutions. They expect the ability to monitor and optimize cloud cost (55%), the ability to monitor cloud performance (49%), as well as ease of porting applications across different hybrid clouds (47%). This shows a shift in IT professionals role within the business. They have gone from being a service provider in the past to being required to manage existing services and broker new ones. Better governance and ease of porting applications are key expectations for a hybrid cloud management solution.

6 1 2 Hybrid Cloud Users Start With Standardization And Efficiency As organizations expand their use of cloud services, they must look for ways to drive standardization and realize efficiency across their existing technology infrastructure. Hybrid cloud adopters surveyed demonstrated this as they have already built service templates across hybrid cloud (33%), evaluated the current application portfolio (32%), replaced applications with software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications (31%), and have moved more services to public cloud (30%). This further showcases technology leaders requirements to help them manage hybrid cloud so they can better serve the business. Thirty-six percent of organizations surveyed plan to leverage additional cloud services.

7 1 2 The Appetite For Hybrid Cloud Continues To Grow As IT decision-makers are able to demonstrate the value of hybrid cloud, their appetite is growing for expanding the number of use cases they plan to support within their hybrid cloud strategy. Despite all of the applications and workloads that are currently being supported by hybrid cloud, once again we see the expansion of disaster recovery services (52%) at the top of hybrid cloud strategy. This further highlights the growing confidence in hybrid cloud, as disaster recovery implementation will have significant impact on what, where, and how much information and data to store. In addition, hybrid cloud adopters will be consolidating the management of all cloud services (51%). Organizations that are already on the way to consolidating cloud services still have a long way to go. Many of these organizations will need to rationalize their application portfolio and fully utilize their service catalog to consolidate all cloud services, which will allow them to better control services, including the ones purchased through shadow IT.

8 1 2 Benefits Of Hybrid Cloud Solidify IT s New Role The inherent risks of shadow IT, bring-your-own (BYO) programs, and cloud threaten to undermine IT s role in the business. The study has shown that hybrid cloud adopters are looking for ways to help manage a number of different cloud solutions. This provides a new opportunity for IT leaders, by consolidating, governing, and managing different cloud-based services to ensure they help meet business needs, and further solidifies their own role within the business. As IT leaders adopt tools to help them manage and support the effective delivery of hybrid cloud services to the business, a number of benefits arise. Forrester s Business Technographics Global Infrastructure Survey, 2015, highlights improved security and compliance (27%), better IT cost management (27%), and improved disaster recovery (26%) as key benefits that organizations see when using hybrid cloud.

9 1 2 Technology Leaders Seek Third-Party Support To Help With Hybrid Cloud Management Hybrid cloud touches all parts of the IT and business landscape. Investing in hybrid cloud capabilities is by no means an easy feat. Organizations must augment internal skills with external knowledge to overcome technical, process, and organizational challenges. Hybrid cloud adopters seek assistance from third-party vendors to help them with the implementation, management, and delivery of hybrid cloud. Surveyed organizations told us a provider must help break down organizational silos by demonstrating the ability to work effectively and engage with business and IT leaders (51%). In addition, hybrid cloud adopters look for deep global delivery capabilities (43%) to ensure that all local regulatory and compliance factors are considered, as well as the ability to deliver industry-specific expertise, knowledge, and experience (43%).

10 IT Is In Prime Position To Better Serve The Business As the study has shown, part of the transition to hybrid cloud will be redefining IT roles to embrace the expectations set by the business while learning how to digitally deliver the right support and service to your business customers. Mastering IT s new role as a service broker will require making a current assessment, navigating through people and process challenges, balancing current priorities, and managing relationships across a plethora of new and old vendor types to ensure hybrid cloud delivers on its promises. METHODOLOGY This Technology Adoption Profile was commissioned by Canopy and EMC. To create this profile, Forrester leveraged its Business Technographics Global Infrastructure Survey, Forrester Consulting supplemented this data with custom survey questions asked of IT decisionmakers in France, Germany, the UK, and the US responsible for managing hybrid cloud deployments. The auxiliary custom survey began and was completed in September For more information on Forrester s data panel and Tech Industry Consulting services, visit forrester.com. ABOUT FORRESTER CONSULTING Forrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders succeed in their organizations. Ranging in scope from a short strategy session to custom projects, Forrester s Consulting services connect you directly with research analysts who apply expert insight to your specific business challenges. For more information, visit forrester.com/consulting. 2015, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester, Technographics, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. For additional information, go to forrester.com. 1-PSC1LT