Cloud is critical to modernisation: then what is impeding success? 

By Gaia Lamperti

New global market research from  IBM shows a strong correlation between hybrid cloud adoption and progress in digital transformation and revealed that more than 77% of respondents have adopted a hybrid cloud approach which can help drive digital transformation.

Yet, the majority of responding organizations are struggling with the complexity to make all their cloud environments work together, with less than one-quarter of respondents across the globe managing their hybrid cloud environments holistically, which can create blind spots and put data at risk.

In fact, 71% of those surveyed think it’s difficult to realize the full potential of a digital transformation without having a solid hybrid cloud strategy in place. At the same time, only 27% of those surveyed possess the necessary characteristics to be considered “advanced” in their transformation.

So, why the disconnect? Some of the reasons are:

• Compliance: Businesses believe ensuring compliance in the cloud is currently too difficult – especially as we see enforcement of regulatory and compliance requirements heat up across the globe.
• Security: While businesses have embraced a variety of security techniques to secure workloads in the cloud, concerns about security still remain.
• Skills: As organizations face the realities of a talent shortage, they are failing to implement a holistic hybrid cloud strategy – which can create gaps in security and compliance and cause risk across cloud environments.

“As we see regulatory requirements grow across the globe, compliance is top of mind for business leaders. This concern is even greater for those in highly regulated industries. Yet at the same time, they are facing a growing threat landscape – one that demands holistic management of their multi-cloud environments to avoid the risks of a Frankencloud – an environment that’s so disconnected, it’s difficult to navigate and can be nearly impossible to secure, particularly against third and fourth party risks,” said Howard Boville, Head of IBM Cloud Platform. “An integration strategy to bring together these different piece parts is what we believe separates the leaders from the rest of the pack – the alternative is to pay the price of the Frankencloud.”

The 2022 IBM Transformation Index: State of Cloud also revealed a lack of the right skills, which is inhibiting progress in cloud applications. About 69% of respondents say their team lacks the skills needed to be proficient, causing a major roadblock to innovation, with more than a quarter of respondents saying skills and talent shortages are impeding their business’s cloud objectives.

Also, exposure to cyberthreats continues to lurk despite embracing security techniques. Over 3o% of overall respondents cite security as the top barrier for integrated workloads across environments and more than one-quarter of respondents agree security concerns present a roadblock to achieving their cloud business goals. Security concerns can even hold organizations back from unlocking the full potential of partnerships.

Finally, egulatory and compliance requirements remain centre stage causing businesses to pause. With regulations on the rise, so too are compliance challenges. 53% of respondents believe that ensuring compliance in the cloud is currently too difficult and nearly one-third cite regulatory compliance issues as a key barrier to integrating workloads across private and public IT environments. In financial services, for example, more than a quarter of respondents agree that meeting industry requirements are holding them back from fully achieving their cloud objectives. These challenges span the globe and are especially prevalent in countries such as Singapore, China, India and Japan.

Rick Villars, Group Vice President of Worldwide Research at IDC, commented: “The key value of cloud for businesses is rapid access to innovative technologies, data sources, and applications required to navigate current disruptions and transform businesses. No individual cloud can address all of an enterprise’s requirements, so it must be able to use and effectively control hybrid cloud assets across many locations. IBM with its focus on providing a holistic hybrid cloud strategy is well positioned to help organizations address the security, data management and compliance complexities that can prevent them from taking full advantage of cloud innovation,”