Industry-related regulatory compliance is a significant
obstacle for 64 percent of respondents, resulting in an uptick of
specialized cloud adoption
Despite escalating cyber-attacks, a third of respondents do
not have security as their top priority
ARMONK, N.Y., Oct.
28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the results of
IBM's (NYSE: IBM) new global study on cloud transformation
there has been a drastic shift in business needs as only three
percent of respondents reported using a single private or public
cloud in 2021, down from 29 percent in 2019 – establishing
hybrid cloud as the dominant IT architecture.
The global study, conducted by IBM Institute for Business Value
(IBV) in cooperation with Oxford Economics, surveyed almost
7,200 C-suite executives across 28 industries and 47 countries. The
findings indicate that the cloud market has entered the hybrid,
multicloud era and concerns around vendor lock-in, security,
compliance and interoperability remain paramount. The study
found:
Cyber threats are at an all-time high 1
- Infrastructure complexity is creating cracked doors that
cybercriminals are exploiting.
- Yet, surprisingly more than a third of respondents did not
indicate improving cybersecurity and reducing security risks are
among their largest business and IT investments.
- At the same time, 80 percent said data security being embedded
throughout the cloud architecture is important or extremely
important, in most cases, to successful digital initiatives.
Companies are denouncing vendor lock-in
- Nearly 79 percent of respondents said workloads being
completely portable with no vendor lock-in is important or
extremely important to the success of their digital
initiatives.
- Nearly 69 percent of respondents said vendor lock-in is a
significant obstacle to improving business performance in most or
all parts of their cloud estate.
Public cloud adoption is evolving towards industry
clouds
- Nearly 70 percent of respondents in the government and
financial services sectors cited industry-related regulatory
compliance as an obstacle to the business performance of their
cloud estate.
"In the beginning of their cloud journey, many companies dabbled
with several different clouds that created complexity and
disconnected piece parts, potentially opening them up to major
security threats," said Howard
Boville, Head of IBM Cloud Platform. "Today's finding
reiterate that security, governance and compliance tools must run
across multiple clouds and be embedded throughout hybrid cloud
architectures from the onset for digital transformations to be
successful."
The study revealed that enterprises need to assess how they use
the cloud in terms of adoption, velocity, migration, speed, and
cost savings opportunity. Other recommendations include:
- Focus on security and privacy - determine where your
critical workloads reside and scrutinize who and what has access to
them. Regularly test that security controls and privacy policies
are being adhered to, but also that improperly configured assets
and software vulnerabilities are being promptly addressed.
- Ask which workloads should move to the cloud – take
inventory of the IT environment to successfully determine which
workloads and applications will yield the most value in the cloud
and which are better suited to stay on-premises.
- Make data work for you – analyze workloads using AI
driven tools and best practices to determine where and how to put
them in the right place for the right reason.
- Set a tactical approach – address the technology
trade-offs, such as selecting the best approach to modernize
specific applications and manage important issues like security,
governance, and disaster recovery.
- Determine the right team – put a cross-disciplinary team
of people to work rethinking how your enterprise creates value for
its customers.
Additional findings from the 2021 report
- By industry: Respondents in regulated industries,
government (85 percent) and financial services (80 percent), cited
governance and compliance tools being able to run across multiple
clouds as important to success of digital initiative.
- By industry: Only 1 percent of respondents in the
electronics, insurance, manufacturing, telco, transportation and
travel industries, reported using a single private or public cloud
in 2021.
Access the full study findings here:
https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/report/cloud-transformation
About IBM Institute for Business Value
The IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) delivers trusted
business insights from our position at the intersection of
technology and business, combining experience from industry
thinkers, leading academics, and subject matter experts with global
research and performance data. The IBV thought leadership portfolio
includes research deep dives, benchmarking and performance
comparisons, and data visualizations that support business decision
making across regions, industries and technologies. Follow @IBMIBV
on Twitter, and to receive the latest insights by email, visit:
www.ibm.com/ibv.
1 2021 Cost of a Data Breach report by the
Ponemon Institute, sponsored by IBM
Contact:
Jeannine Kilbride
IBM External Relations
jkilbri@us.ibm.com
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