Recent research from The Bunker reveals that many organisations are not getting the advice or support they need for successful cloud adoption, with 44 per cent of respondents stating that bad advice from suppliers has been a contributing factor to cloud failure.
The research, which surveyed IT leaders in 100 mid-market and large UK organisations, showed that of the 94 per cent of respondents who confirmed their organisation has already migrated applications or data to cloud infrastructure, 70 per cent said that they had experienced some kind of failure, whether in terms of a failed cloud migration or stalled project, or a failure to realise the business benefits anticipated. Of the 70 per cent of organisations, 44 per cent cited confusing, biased or incorrect advice from key suppliers as a contributing factor to failure.
Despite this, the research highlights that IT leaders are still leaning heavily on suppliers to guide them in putting a hybrid cloud strategy in place. The research shows that there is a good level of engagement with external parties, with the majority of CIOs and IT decision-makers stating that they engage with independent consultancies (67 per cent) and key suppliers (61 per cent).
Commenting on the research, Phil Bindley, CTO of The Bunker, said: “Many IT leaders are challenged because they lack previous experience in bringing the cloud into their organisation and there are many providers that are poor when it comes to effective delivery. We believe that the disconnect that exists between organisations and the advice they receive externally from consultancies and key suppliers demonstrates the importance of working with the right partners to develop a hybrid cloud strategy that is both deliverable and properly aligned with the needs of the business.”
Hybrid cloud deployments use new application programming interfaces (APIs) and require complex network configurations that push the limits of traditional administrators’ knowledge and capabilities. Therefore, many IT leaders look to suppliers in an attempt to help them achieve the best return on investment possible. However, this is only possible if it is done carefully, working with partners with the sufficient skills and experience. Due-diligence on accreditations including information security management (ISO 27001), business continuity management ISO 22301) and payment security standards (PCI DSS v3.1), when appropriate, as well as seeing evidence of migration and integration experience are essential.
Phil added: “Whilst it’s clear that CIOs and IT decision-makers recognise the importance of aligning IT and business strategy, many are unable to translate into technology what the business is trying to achieve. Despite this being a major source of failure, the fact that such a high proportion of respondents said that they consulted externally is a positive sign of opportunity for cloud providers that can get it right.”
“At The Bunker, we believe that hybrid cloud should be a business strategy, not an IT challenge. The skills and knowledge available internally and the advice that CIOs and IT decision-makers receive from consultancies and key suppliers compounds this challenge. As a result, IT leaders need to make sure that they do their due diligence with potential providers to make sure that they understand the hybrid environment. They must be able to work seamlessly with existing internal systems and with other cloud suppliers,” Phil concluded.
