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.

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? 

Rapid growth in the availability and adoption of cloud services has given rise to a simultaneous increase in complexity. 

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.

A third of customers will abandon a brand they love after just one bad experience. That was the finding of a survey by PwC of 15,000 international consumers1. The obvious conclusion is that customer experience ought to be an absolute priority for businesses aiming to maintain or expand their market share. The challenge for enterprise is to optimise experiences across the multiple channels through which customers now interact. How do you enable consistent quality of communication across the physical, online, mobile and social spheres?

More than 80% of organisations are operating with hybrid cloud infrastructure of some sort. The rate of adoption tripled in the year up to 2017 and continues to rise. One of the major drivers of this trend is that, for a variety of reasons, full transition to the public cloud has proven more challenging than first anticipated. Hybrid cloud has emerged as a more comfortable option with less risk and lower costs.

How is cloud better for business? That’s a thorny question which has been considered by countless senior executives over time as they’ve sat down and weighed up the benefits of varying IT strategies.

Barely a week goes by without a major cyber security story hitting the headlines. Only recently, the WannaCry virus swept the globe, followed swiftly by the NotPetya ransomware attack. In both cases, malicious software paralysed the IT capabilities of major firms, leading to data being locked up for long periods of time.