As companies set out to embrace a multi-cloud strategy, certain roadblocks can hold them back. Some 57% of IT leader said that technical challenges and the cloud skills gap have caused problems in their multi-cloud deployments, according to a report from VMware and MIT Technology Review.
The report, which surveyed 1,300 IT leaders, found that 62% of respondents cited the integration of legacy systems as their biggest challenge in multi-cloud, while 61% said their primary difficulty was understanding the new technology associated with it. Additional problems noted by respondents were data migration and management, and dealing with potential data loss.
“Complications around vendor lock-in, data sovereignty, innovation and the need for workload-specific services are driving organizations to leverage multiple clouds to achieve business success,” a press release said. “The study finds that while there are inherent challenges in deployment, the benefits are too consequential and only get better over time.”
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Of course, moving to the cloud in any capacity will affect the people in one’s organization and the processes that they rely on. According to the report, 26% of IT leaders saw a large impact on data governance, 22% on skills, 16% on policies, and 16% on headcount.
As the impact can be so large, it is important that companies plan their move to the cloud precisely. Moving to a multi-cloud environment can impact security protocols (70%), staff training (64%), budgeting (64%), processes (63%), staff (53%), and culture (53%), the report said, so firms should perform proper research and development in these areas before starting the transition.
If users don’t seem sold on the cloud at first, their attitudes are likely to change with extended use, the release said. For example, only 70% of new cloud users perceived cloud security as a benefit, while 91% of seasoned users did, the release said.
Additionally, disparities in the perception of cloud scalability, agility, and data privacy also existed between new and experienced users. Efficiencies had the smallest disparity (84% of new users vs. 89% of veterans).
“A multi-cloud environment brings many recognized benefits to help organizations meet the high demands of today’s digital economy,” Owen Jenkins, vice-president of planning for Kadence International, said in the release. “While the research shows that there are technical challenges inherent with multi-cloud adoption, the confidence in its benefits grows significant, especially in the areas of efficiency and agility, to such an extent that one of the biggest piece of advice from users is ‘just go for it’.”
Want to use this data in your next business presentation? Feel free to copy and paste these top takeaways into your next slideshow.
- 62% of IT leaders say integrating legacy systems is the biggest roadblock to multi-cloud success. -VMware/MIT Technology Review, 2017
- In moving to multi-cloud, 26% saw a large impact on data governance, 22% on skills, 16% on policies, and 16% on headcount. -VMware/MIT Technology Review, 2017
- 70% say a multi-cloud environment will impact security policies, and 64% say it will impact staff training. -VMware/MIT Technology Review, 2017
