“Using the right cloud for the right workload is rapidly being accepted as the best way to do business today,” said Matt Tebay, OVHcloud. “Almost two thirds (64%) of organisations see their use of multi-cloud increasing in the next two years, so although it can bring considerable complexity, the benefits are clear to companies today. In fact, only 3% of organisations said that their use of multi-cloud would decrease in the next two years, and fewer than 1% have no plans to use multi-cloud at all.”
The flexibility of multi-cloud, allowing organisations to run workloads in the right cloud environments, was recognised by half of the study as one of its main strengths, closely followed by improved agility (41%). Cost-effectiveness and gaining access to better infrastructure on an OpEx basis (40%) as well as reduced organisational risk (39%) – through having fewer points of failure – were also seen as key advantages.
“Running the right application on the right cloud can bring significant operational gains to organisations,” continued Tebay. “Although working in multiple cloud environments can require higher levels of skills and training, when done well it can bring both enhanced agility and a solid commercial ROI.”
However, the report also highlighted a number of challenges with multi-cloud environments, with 27% of IT decision-makers highlighting technical complexity as one of their main concern or area of risk, and 31% being concerned with a larger physical estate implying more endpoints to secure, and as a result, more possible vulnerabilities.
“This complexity may explain why just under half (46%) of the study admitted to still being ‘on the road’ to multi-cloud, taking it a step at a time,” concluded Tebay. “Despite this, almost a quarter (23%) of IT decision-makers said that their use of multi-cloud was ‘plain sailing’ and that they’re seeing significant benefits, which shows the real impact of a mature, well-thought-out approach to multi-cloud.”
