Multi-cloud is certainly a compelling trend – but according to new data from IDC, fewer than 10% of European organisations are fully on-board with a multi-cloud strategy.
The analyst firm argues that multiple cloud service usage will be an inevitability – but understanding and strategy from European firms varies wildly.
More than a third of firms polled overall (34%) said they had no plans to move workloads from current cloud providers in the coming 12 months. Yet for the UK market, 29% of respondents do have plans, with IDC noting UK businesses are much more fluid when it comes to multi-cloud.
In total, only 9% of organisations polled were considered multi-cloud ready, with IDC designating them as ‘pathfinders.’ 43% of respondents were designated as ‘travellers’ and 38% ‘pedestrians’; IDC argues that these middle organisations are stuck in the transition process from hybrid cloud environments. The remaining 10% were considered ‘bystanders’ – those unlikely to make moves in the space.
IDC adds that, while these results show reticence among European businesses, it is still relatively early days for assessing the ‘how’ and ‘where’. “While the perception of multi-cloud infrastructure as an end goal certainly resonates with European organisations, there remains uncertainty over what a multi-cloud strategy looks like and how this strategy should be disseminated within an organisation,” said Michael Ceroici, IDC research analyst for European multi-cloud infrastructure.
As regular readers of this publication will be aware, a major aspect of getting multi-cloud right is through security. Writing in March, Chintan Patel, CTO Office at Cisco, argued that while it is easier to deploy new IT services in a multi-cloud world, user visibility and behaviour suffers with it. “In order to obtain the level of control in a multi-cloud environment, it is essential to have the cloud controls and technologies in place to allow businesses to get the protection and visibility they need,” Patel wrote. “Businesses can no longer afford to be complacent when it comes to a multi-cloud security strategy.”
“Virtually all European enterprises will soon use multiple cloud services. The smart ones are already actively planning for those services to be benchmarked, price-compared, and selected against each other based on the workload need,” said Giorgio Nebuloni, IDC research director for European multi-cloud infrastructure.
“To get there, a central point of control based on software and potentially services is needed, as are strategic approaches to skillsets, processes, and data centre infrastructure.”