Fujitsu Highlights Growing Demand for Multi-Cloud Flexibility

Driven by the need for faster digital transformation, hybrid IT estates have become the norm, with the most successful customers opting for a ‘right workload for the right cloud platform’ approach. But this is also creating new types of complexity, with the risk of vendor lock-in highlighted in the results of a new study – Where is Hybrid Heading? Views on exploiting multi-modal IT conducted among 400 IT decision-makers in eight countries by research firm Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) on behalf of Fujitsu¹.

Sourcing flexibility – which helps avoid vendor lock-in by diversifying supply chains – has risen to become the most important consideration for hybrid IT adoption, rated as “business critical” or of “high importance” by some 80 percent of respondents. In a market where more than half (55 percent) of all organisations with hybrid IT are already mostly cloud-based, sourcing flexibility is also key, as cited by 86 percent.

The need to achieve transformational change more quickly becomes obvious when considering that three quarters of organisations rate the ability for their IT to respond quickly to events as either “business critical” or “highly important”. Greater agility is also clearly more than hype, with 79 percent confirming this as a benefit of hybrid IT adoption, as a response to competitive pressure where IT systems cannot be allowed to hold back digital transformation programs.

This emphasis on speed of response also helps explain why 63 percent of hybrid IT users in the survey regard faster delivery and more reliable business outcomes as the most compelling reason to partner with a service provider for cloud and traditional IT delivery. Findings also highlight that integration and orchestration is the biggest barrier facing organisations looking to build, connect and optimise hybrid IT environments, with just under half (48 percent) of all respondents indicating that it is a major challenge and only one in ten (10 percent) not having any problems with integration and orchestration.

Managing Complexity
While other studies have found a clear tendency for enterprises to move towards multiple cloud adoption, PAC’s report finds a marked disinclination to take on management of multiple similar clouds. Some 90 percent of respondents in the transport and public sectors prefer to have consolidated management from a single supplier for each type of cloud. Overall across all vertical markets, between two-thirds and three-quarters of respondents plan to appoint a single supplier for each type of cloud, with an overall average of 76 percent.

Mark Phillips, Head of Digital Pursuits, Fujitsu EMEIA, says: “Now that cloud has become mainstream, it’s no longer a land grab and organisations have become a lot more selective when it comes to deploying cloud services. On the one hand they are alert to a new risk of vendor lock-in and have come up with viable strategies to off-set this. On the other hand, they are convinced that cloud really does give them the ability to respond to the pressures of disruption and see partnering with leading global systems integrators like Fujitsu as the best way to speed up and de-risk cloud adoption and management. This is particularly the case with integration and orchestration, which they see as the biggest hurdle to jump – something we have also addressed in a new report, The State of Orchestration, 2018/2019.”

Notes to editors
¹During August and September 2018, PAC interviewed 401 business- and IT-decision-makers of organisations that are already using hybrid IT. Respondents were from an even mix of mid-sized and larger organisations (only organisations with at least 500 employees were invited to take part in the study) and were selected mostly from the Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing, Transport and Public Sector verticals. The sample was evenly divided into respondents from Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, India, The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK.

Online resources

• Visit the Fujitsu UK website: http://uk.fujitsu.com
• Read the Fujitsu blog: http://blog.uk.fujitsu.com/