07-13-21 | Blog Post
Cloud and COVID-19
When asked whether COVID-19 had affected their cloud strategy, 90 percent of respondents to the Flexera State of the Cloud Report said cloud usage is higher than initially planned. Multi cloud strategies are increasing as well, with organizations using an average of 2.7 private clouds and 2.6 public clouds.
With the increase in cloud adoption (particularly public cloud) comes an increase in spend — at least 36 percent of enterprises reported spending more than $1 million each month in public cloud. That’s a lot of dough. This matches up to some recent observations regarding Accelerated Cloud Adoption, an ever so slight silver lining for business during Covid.
Top challenges: Cloud Security, Spend, Governance and Expertise
With all that extra spending on cloud, numerous challenges pop up. Cloud Security topped the list, with 81 percent of respondents citing it as a top challenge. Managing cloud spend came in second at 79 percent and 75 percent of respondents all cited cloud governance, lack of expertise and compliance as their biggest challenge. It’s interesting to note that even though enterprises, with their large teams and large(r) budgets, gain more experience using cloud with each passing year, security still ranks as their top challenge year over year.
So, how can one overcome these challenges? It’s all about how you use the resources available to you and asking for outside help when you need it. Cloud security is an especially tricky beast to handle on your own as it can be difficult to hire (and retain) the right people. A good service provider goes a long way here. They can supplement your in-house resources and should be able to support (if not manage for you) your cloud computing security, compliance and governance policies.
For a majority of respondents, especially enterprises, outsourcing a part of their cloud strategy does appear to be a priority. 61 percent are outsourcing at least some cloud work, while interestingly, 29 percent are engaging cloud managed service providers (MSPs) for most of their public cloud use. The staffing and resource gaps continue to grow sometimes delaying transformation efforts and casting doubts on compliance. Partnering with a compliant Cloud Services provider may be the best way to close the skills gap at your organization.
Don’t forget about private cloud
Despite the adoption rates of public cloud, private cloud is still very much in the mix. Nearly 40 percent of enterprise respondents use VMware’s vSphere as their private cloud solution, while SMB respondents prefer Microsoft Azure Stack for their private cloud.
Other notable findings
Here are a few extra tidbits from the report:
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Additional Information
Tools to Assist Security, Compliance and Improved Cloud Economics
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About Otava
Otava provides the secure, compliant hybrid cloud solutions demanded by service providers, channel partners and enterprise clients in compliance-sensitive industries. By actively aggregating best-of-breed cloud companies and investing in people, tools, and processes, Otava’s global footprint continues to expand. The company provides its customers in highly regulated disciplines with a clear path to transformation through its effective solutions and broad portfolio of hybrid cloud, data protection, disaster recovery, security and colocation services, all championed by an exceptional support team. Learn more at www.otava.com.
