Choosing the right path: how to establish a best practice journey to hybrid/multicloud adoption

Cloud has undoubtedly transformed the way that we consume IT.

Hybrid strategies have proved popular to date as organisations look to maintain a mix of cloud services and on-premise IT. However, the last couple of years have seen the rise of the next iteration of cloud consumption: multi-cloud.

Cloud has been a game-changer when it comes to how technology is consumed. More than nine out of 10 organisations today use cloud-based services in some way[1]. This is because cloud delivers agility, flexibility and scalability, improving value to internal and external customers in ways that are sometimes difficult to achieve with traditional on-premise IT.

But every organisation’s goals are different, as is their journey to the cloud. Here we look at why organisations choose cloud, identify some of the biggest business benefits, and suggest how CDW can help guide you on the best options for your individual requirements.

The cloud has transformed the way in which we work. Businesses are now spending more on cloud than they are on on-premise infrastructure as they look to take advantage of its organisational, cost and productivity benefits. This spending is only set to increase over the next few years with 40 percent of large UK businesses expect to be cloud-only by 2021.

Did you know there are 2.7 billion frontline workers worldwide? Accounting for 80 percent of the workforce globally, the importance of these deskless workers cannot be overstated, as they not only provide essential services but often serve as the face of your company to customers.

The rapid evolution of cloud technology has left some enterprise IT leaders struggling to keep up with the options available – let alone how to absorb the latest infrastructure innovations into their existing data centre arrangements.

The attractive economics of cloud services have driven a huge rise in adoption. Gartner puts the market size and growth of the cloud services industry at nearly three times the growth of overall IT services through 2022.

Business are investing in cloud solutions at an unprecedented rate. Gartner predicts that the global public cloud market will grow 17.3% in 2019 to a total of $206.2 million. Compared with $175 billion in 2018, that represents a significant leap, with infrastructure services identified as the fastest-growing segment and hybrid cloud being the most common form of adoption. But what is driving this rapid rise? 

As cloud adoption escalates, so do the associated costs. Cloud computing expenditure now accounts for around a third of an average company’s IT budget, according to research by IDG Enterprise.

It is therefore imperative that cloud spending is carefully managed.

Consistent patterns are revealing how executives establish an IT launchpad that accelerates cloud migration and digital transformation. In evaluating its enterprise customers, Masergy found congruent themes that expose a three-step process for innovation readiness:

The potential for cost savings is one of the top three reasons for cloud adoption, according to survey by the Cloud Industry Forum but whether expected savings are realised in practice is another question.