Working towards the hybrid 'ideal'

Rather than reducing data centre use by nearly 20% by 2019 (as projected by respondents to the 2018 EMEA Enterprise Cloud Index) the latest report shows an actual increase of nearly 14%. This was accompanied by a drop in hybrid cloud use of around 5%, rather than the 7% increase previously forecast. The net effect is for companies in EMEA to now be some 6 percentage points behind the Americas in hybrid cloud deployment and to also lag in terms of multi-cloud take-up. Despite these figures, however, companies surveyed indicated ambitious plans to bolster hybrid cloud penetration in the region from 12% today to 53% by 2024.

Helping to explain the disparities, the report found mixed attitudes and less enthusiasm across EMEA when it came to the public cloud portion of the hybrid cloud equation. For example, EMEA companies chose data security and compliance as the top public cloud benefit more often (about 19% of the time) than the Americas and APJ regions chose any factor while, at the same time, more than half (60%) also saw security as a top challenge of the public cloud component.

Fewer EMEA companies reported that their needs were “completely” met by public cloud compared to other regions. Plus, there was a greater propensity in EMEA towards going over budget on public cloud spending. All of which is adding to the need for companies in the region to fine tune plans and sometimes repatriate workloads back to the data centre in order to adjust to the rapidly changing realities of implementing their preferred hybrid cloud model.

The Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index is based on research conducted by Vanson Bourne to learn about the state of global enterprise cloud deployments and adoption plans. The research surveyed 2,650 IT decision-makers in 24 countries around the world, exploring where organisations currently run their business applications and where they plan to run them in the future. It also questioned respondents on their cloud challenges and where their cloud initiatives sit against other IT projects and priorities. 

Key findings from the EMEA report include:

1. In line with global trends, EMEA’s 2018 plans to migrate significantly away from traditional data centres toward hybrid cloud are yet to materialise. Data centre usage actually rose 14% in 2019, instead of falling as predicted in the 2018 report, while hybrid cloud figures fell by 5% instead of a predicted rise.
2. Despite the short-term setback, EMEA reports aggressive plans to bolster hybrid cloud use in the next five years. EMEA hybrid cloud penetration set to rise from 12% to about 53% by 2024.
3. EMEA companies are less bullish on public cloud as part of hybrid cloud strategy than other regions. EMEA companies are also slightly less likely than those in Americas and Asia-Pacific-Japan (APJ) regions to run a managed or hosted private cloud as part of a hybrid cloud environment. 
4. Paradoxically, EMEA companies named data security as both a top benefit of public cloud and its biggest challenge. EMEA companies chose data security and compliance as the top public cloud benefit more often (about 19% of the time) than the Americas and APJ regions chose any factor. At the same time, however, more than half  (60%) saw security as a top challenge of the public cloud component.
5. Existing IT skills and cross-cloud application portability are less important cloud decision factors in EMEA than elsewhere. All regions chose inter-cloud security as having the largest potential impact on the future of cloud computing. However, while 46% of Americas and nearly 44% of APJ companies cited existing IT skill sets as important factors driving decision-making, that compared with just 38% of EMEA enterprises. Similarly, while 42% and 43% of Americas and APJ companies, respectively, cited application portability as the top cloud influencer, only 36% of EMEA companies did so.