The joint use of private and public clouds is the main way to develop IT for most companies. According to the study of Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI), a hybrid cloud for the third year in a row is called the preferred IT operating model. In 2020, 86% of respondents believed so, and almost half (46%) increased investments in such infrastructure.
The reasons for the acceleration of transition to hybrid clouds at once several. First, technological barriers disappear and more and more options for mixed cloud environments are available. Hypercalers connected to the players of the virtualization market, offering solutions for client data center. But the main driver was not technology, but a change in thinking and priorities. In 2020, business was shocked, as a result of which whole industries revised the role and value of IT.
Crucial momentAccording to ECI, 76% of respondents recognized that due to the consequences of the spread of COVID-19, they began to look at IT as a strategic asset. At the same time, the introduction of clouds in all of their forms accelerated. Only 10% admitted that they did not increase investment in cloud technologies as a result of a pandemic. What did the rest moving?
Definitely not saving. In response to a question about the objectives of changing current IT models, a little more than a quarter noted the cost reduction. And this is the difference from these past years, when the cost reduction consistently appeared in the top task.
Now it is important. Other: 55% need flexibility to fulfill business requirements, 51% - the rate of execution, 46% of the votes have gained tasks of improving customer support and the ability to ensure the work of remote employees. Closes a list of significant motives of data security and compliance with regulatory requirements with 40% of votes.
In the theory of the majority, if not all declared purposes can be achieved by turning private or buying a public cloud service. So why most want to mix them and use at the same time?
The cloud is good, and different - betterThe past year clearly showed: the ability to adapt and rebuild work with IT helped business survive, and the most flexible and fast players - to overtake others and achieve results. The ability to quickly redistribute or expand computing resources for business tasks, of course, the winning feature of an external cloud. However, despite the proposals to obtain these opportunities from the "one window", the company is most of them not ready to close on one platform. According to ECI, among those who use cloud services, 63% work in two or more cloud platforms. In the next 12 months, it is expected that their number will grow to 71%.
If you try to look at a little further, the forecast says that in perspective from 3 to 5 years it is the hybrid version that implies the integration of different types of infrastructures, will become the most popular, while the use of all other models for solitary will be reduced. The decline in the demand is also waiting for traditional centries, and private clouds, and even the multicular media if they are not integrated among themselves.
Flexibility is not a lotThe explanation of this can only be one thing: real flexibility that business craves is difficult, if it is generally possible to achieve, climbing in the framework of the same model, as it should be good. Maximum flexibility is achieved by a combination of private and public clouds with a mandatory condition for their integration with common interfaces, management and safety approaches. The claimed ideal is the ability to dynamically move the applications and data between them, based not so much on considerations of the cost and availability of expertise, as in security indicators, availability, response time and ability to cope with loads, the speed of introducing new services and products.
The latest ECI data show that the reorientation of the focus with technological and economic criteria for IT requirements associated with doing business in the post-chase world has already occurred. As a result, restrictions on current approaches became clearly visible. Therefore, companies have planned or have already launched the processes of restructuring: 49% of managers stated that by 2025 their model IT would be completely hybrid.