Study Reveals that Hybrid Cloud is Key to Success in the Digital Age
The study, conducted by IDG Research and published by EMC this month, found that companies who adopt the technology are three times more likely to approach business and infrastructure readiness goals.
Survey responses suggest that digital transformation enabled by hybrid cloud helps organisations to increase IT agility and makes implementing digital business initiatives a faster, easier and less expensive process. Of those surveyed, 88% classed hybrid cloud capabilities as either important or critical to enabling digital business transformation. Organisations must “think digital” to enhance customer experiences, increase flexibility, drive business opportunities, and decrease costs.
With the vast majority of respondents in the study (92%) agreeing that their organisation’s competitive strategy calls for digital business initiatives and 90% naming digital business as a “top priority” over the next one to three years, the transformative power of digital business is clearly a key driver for IT today.
The study also found that the key drivers behind these digital technology investments include improving customer experience, acquiring new customers, increasing innovation and enabling real-time business decisions.
Jeremy Burton, President, Products and Marketing, at EMC Corporation, said: “Becoming digital is a priority for nearly every business on the planet. But how to get there is not as obvious. This study makes it perfectly clear that hybrid cloud – and the savings and agility it brings with it – is a key enabler to becoming a digital business.”
Clearly the transformation to a digital business is complex and takes time, but 63% of respondents stated that they were well on their way to achieving their initial digital transformation goals. That said, IT leaders are still facing obstacles, with 38% citing budget and resources as a hurdle, 30% indicating fragmented computing environments and 29% citing a lack of the right technologies.
IT leaders are increasingly turning to hybrid cloud environments to resolve these issues, embracing a modernised infrastructure that involves two or more delivery models, including a traditional data centre, a private cloud, a managed private cloud and a public cloud. Over 80% of respondents currently use or plan to use a hybrid cloud environment, and 73% agree that a hybrid cloud model helps forge the path to a digital business.
The study suggests that the most aggressive hybrid cloud adopters are also the most advanced at digital transformation. Those organisations with a significant number of hybrid cloud workloads are three times more likely than non-adopters to be approaching their digital business and infrastructure readiness goals.
(Adapted from original press release published to EMC newsroom on 20th January 2016: )