Hybrid cloud solutions are the long-term target for 2 in 3 companies, according to a survey by Hornetsecurity, a leading security and backup solution provider for Microsoft 365.
A hybrid cloud adoption survey of 900+ IT professionals primarily based in North America and Europe found that the majority of businesses (93 per cent) are adopting a hybrid of cloud and on-premise solutions, or migrating fully to the cloud within 5 years. Half of respondents (51 per cent) reported that they will be ‘mostly in the cloud’ in 5 years, with one or two workloads remaining on premise.
Around 28 per cent of respondents said they will remain ‘mostly on premise’, with a workload or two in the cloud. While 29 per cent of respondents said they are using hybrid cloud solutions as a stepping stone to a full cloud environment, 67 per cent of respondents see hybrid as a final destination for their infrastructure due to workloads that must remain on premise. The rest claim to be remaining 100 per cent on premise.
When asked why companies were remaining on premise, many respondents cited data control, security, and cost concerns with cloud technology. The hybrid cloud adoption survey also found that trust issues with the public cloud are present within companies of all sizes, with 31-36 per cent of all surveyed company size categories reporting concerns.
The survey also shows that with experience comes more distrust in the public cloud. Respondents with 20+ years of experience were more likely to express concerns with the trustworthiness of cloud platforms (34 per cent) than those with 1-5 years of experience (24 per cent).
Half of all respondents mentioned ‘legacy systems or software’ as another major reason certain workloads must remain on premise, while ‘application compatibility’ was reported as a roadblock to cloud migration for 4 in 10 companies. Industry regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA and CMMC among others were also cited as an obstacle for cloud adoption by 29 per cent of respondents.
Multiple challenges blocking cloud adoption
Companies say they are holding back from full cloud migration due to a lack of ‘technical knowhow or certified staff’ (48 per cent), difficulties with ‘application of best practices within the company’ (33 per cent), issues with connectivity (33 per cent), and ‘secured access’ (29 per cent). The most common workload preventing IT departments from lifting all services to the cloud was ‘Print & Imaging Services’ (55 per cent). Databases, file storage and application services are also cited as reasons for remaining partially on premise with 50, 45, and 43 per cent of respondents indicating such respectively.
Hornetsecurity’s survey reveals that hybrid cloud solutions still bring with them several challenges. Chief among them is ‘monitoring and security’, with half of respondents expressing concerns in this area. ‘Networking and connectivity’ is another concern shared by nearly half of all respondents (48 per cent). Finally, ‘training and certification’, ‘manageability and tooling’, and ‘resiliency and data recovery’ also factor into the concerns shared by 35, 35, and 33 per cent of respondents respectively.
Companies using MSP services more likely to use cloud solutions vs on premise
About 47 per cent of respondents who form part of internal IT teams reported that they see their workloads ‘mostly in the cloud’ in 5 years, versus 52 per cent of respondents whose company uses MSP services, and 54 per cent of respondents that work at MSPs. Internal IT departments report a lack of trust in cloud services at almost the same rate as those using MSP services, with 34 and 33 per cent respectively.
