Cloud computing: Companies lagging on multi-cloud plans
Only a small minority of European organisations have made much progress in creating a strategy to deal with juggling multiplecloud computing vendors.
While some companies are standardising on one cloud computing provider, more are finding their developers and business units are demanding access to services from different vendors, while other buyers of cloud services are worried about lock-in.
Spending on public cloud computing services will grow by nearly a quarter this year, but more of that spending is going to a small number of vendors, adding to fears that these vendors will wield undue influence.
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Tech analyst IDC said while nearly all businesses will be using cloud services from different suppliers, few companies are able to benchmark those services, compare prices or choose the right service based on workload requirements.
Building effective multi-cloud strategies requires companies to identify which workloads are suitable for the public cloud and which are better run in a private cloud, said IDC. And as the cloud computing environment continues to evolve, IT buyers must regularly evaluate the cloud vendor landscape.
But IDC found that only nine percent of European organisations can be considered multi-cloud ready ('Pathfinders'), with the vast majority still stuck in the transition process from hybrid cloud environments ('Pedestrians' and 'Travelers'). IDC placed 10 percent of organisations in the 'Bystanders' category, having made little multi-cloud progress. The analyst firm also found that a third of European organisations have no plans to move workloads from current cloud providers over the next 12 months.
"While the perception of multi-cloud infrastructure as an end goal certainly resonates with European organizations, there remains uncertainty over what a multi-cloud strategy looks like and how this strategy should be disseminated within an organization," said Michael Ceroici, research analyst for European multi-cloud infrastructure, at IDC.
"Elements from infrastructure technology, aligning cloud vision between different business lines, and internal cloud expertise all play a part in facilitating successful multi-cloud endeavors," said Ceroici.
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