Gartner predict that global spending on public cloud services will be up 18.4% in 2021 and that this acceleration will continue until 2024.
They also suggest that around 70% of organisations using cloud services, plan to increase their adoption even further in response to the recent changes brought about by the pandemic.
It seems, despite all the business cases and proof of concepts, the pandemic has served as the best and quickest way to ‘validate the cloud value proposition’. But is it all as good as it looks?
Now, many months down the line, businesses are starting to discover that relying solely on public cloud is a gamble that’s only partly paid off. Yes, business has continued, but it’s not without issue.
Just the other day, I was talking with a financial services customer who said bottlenecks on their network was becoming commonplace with those working the furthest away from the servers (which equates to most of their staff) experiencing real latency issues. Capacity issues are an ongoing concern and we saw the major public cloud providers, like AWS, put out statements during last year’s peak to reassure customers of their ability to meet demand.
And to make matters worse, a rise in coronavirus related security threats and a lack of visibility in public cloud is making managing security an even bigger headache. I didn’t even begin to talk to them about how much money they’ve had to throw at it.
It doesn’t sound like there’s much of a silver lining, but actually, there is.
For many organisations, like the financial services customer, what’s happened has shown them the importance of having a solid strategy in place for cloud, not least to ensure ongoing resilience and agility. It’s made IT leaders focus on the things that really matter; preserving cash by being more efficient, enabling and supporting remote workers, and ensuring proper measures are in place for continuity. And it’s accelerated their digital strategy quicker than anyone could have ever hoped for.
They’ve been able to see first-hand how the cloud can benefit their business, making now the perfect moment to get the support needed to accelerate digital strategy, transform customer experiences, and get ahead of the market. The pandemic has also taught IT teams an important lesson in ensuring a more structured plan is in place for migration and how taking a hybrid cloud approach, using private as well as public cloud, can deliver them the best of both worlds, delivering the outcomes they need now with a clear path for the future.
Time to re-harness IT
We’re working with Dell to help customers around the world re-harness their IT and develop a more sustainable approach that provides much needed agility now and a path to hybrid cloud in the future; ideal for a climate of uncertainty.