Nutanix’s fourth global Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey and research report revealed that multi-cloud is the most used deployment model currently — with adoption expected to jump to 63% in the next three years.
The same report noted that the complexity of managing workloads across cloud borders remains a major challenge for enterprises, and there is a growing requirement for hybrid multi-cloud tools that unify and automate processes across dissimilar cloud platforms.
To address top challenges related to interoperability, security, cost and data integration, 82% of respondents agree that a hybrid multi-cloud infrastructure, an IT operating model with a blend of interoperable private and public cloud environments, is ideal.
Digging deeper into the findings
Up to 38% of respondents from Singapore acknowledged the use of multiple clouds, including private or public, as their most-used IT environment.
Singapore enterprises outpaced their APAC (35%) and global counterparts (36%) when it comes to multi-cloud use. This trend is expected to rise even further to 63% over the next three years.
Post-2020, organisations have adopted the new way of working with 62% of employees working for Singaporean companies (participating in the survey) now working remotely. Most organisations report that while their remote workforces may shrink or grow, they are here to stay for the foreseeable future.
Multi-cloud offers the most agile IT environment for supporting this flexibility by distributing data to diverse geolocations for user proximity, and business continuity.
Public cloud acceptance is fuelling multi-cloud deployment with 31% of Singaporean firms in the survey saying they use two or three public cloud providers, outpacing the global (26%) and APAC averages (26%).
Three use cases that harness the public cloud are expected to drive multi-cloud growth in the next three years: bolstering business continuity (42%) with diverse data backup and redundancy; support for growing remote work requirements (39%); and a desire to capitalize on cloud-native technologies (39%) such as artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), which enable data analytics and operations automation.
Source: Nutanix 2021
Key challenges in cross-cloud management remain with Singapore respondents ranking data integration (53%), security (50%), and application mobility (46%) as key hurdles in multi-cloud management. These challenges also outpace global and regional averages.
While multi-cloud is the most used operating model, and the only one expected to grow, most enterprises are struggling with the reality of operating across multiple clouds, private and public.
IT leaders are realizing that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to the cloud, making hybrid multi-cloud ideal according to the majority of respondents (82%).
Application mobility is top of mind. Nearly all organisations in Singapore (99%) have moved one or more applications to a new IT environment over the last 12 months. Local respondents cited improved security and compliance (48%) as the reason for the move, followed by hopes for faster app development (44%), desire to integrate with AI/ML and other cloud-native technologies (41%), and anticipated improvements in data access speeds (40%).
However, 76% of respondents remain that moving a workload to a new cloud environment can be costly and time-consuming.
Ho Chye Soon, Nutanix’s Singapore country manager, commented that hybrid multi-clouds are prized for their agility and high levels of intercloud operability it offers. He added that this enables businesses to align their cloud needs with strategic business priorities, streamline existing workflows and resources, enhance workforce productivity, and accelerate innovation at speed and scale.
Nutanix expects this upward trend to continue alongside a growing need for platforms that seamlessly unify and automate processes across different cloud platforms and applications.
“This will be a key priority for Singapore enterprises as they race to gain competitive advantage and further support hybrid work productivity, and we are ready to support businesses as they chart their cloud futures on their own terms,” he continued.
