Print.IT Reseller - issue 75

01732 759725 34 CLOUD 87 per cent of enterprises will accelerate their cloud migration in a post-COVID world, that’s according to a new LogicMonitor study of 500 global IT decision-makers Remote working accelerates shift to cloud said Tej Redkar, Chief Product Officer at LogicMonitor. “It is clear that organisations are hastening their cloud migration during the crisis, as the cloud is enabling them to operate remotely now while also serving as the foundation for digital transformation and ongoing innovation.” Survey respondents made it clear that remote work was a driving force behind cloud migration. “If things go smoothly initially with remote work [as a result of COVID-19], then I expect increased efficiency and much more cloud usage,” noted one IT decision- maker. This sentiment was echoed by another survey respondent: “In a fully remote workforce scenario, there will be cost savings in terms of office leases, but more money will be spent on remote IT services. Everything will be in the cloud – including more automation and Internet of Things (IoT).” The decline of on-premise LogicMonitor’s Cloud 2025 survey also revealed that global IT decision-makers anticipate a decline in on- premise workloads over the next five years amidst accelerating shifts to the cloud. Prior to COVID-19, 35 per cent of workloads resided on-prem, according to survey respondents. However, by 2025, they believe only 22 per cent of workloads will reside on-prem. This represents a drop of 13 per cent. “If everyone is remote, companies will have to switch from on-prem infrastructure to more cloud-based infrastructures,” commented one IT decision-maker on why his organisation is accelerating its cloud migration. Respondents from all three regions anticipated a significant decline in on- prem workloads between now and 2025. In the UK, 38 per cent of workloads currently on-prem are expected to decline to 21 per cent by 2025. Survey respondents believe workloads LogicMonitor’s Cloud 2025 study examined the future of cloud workloads and the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on IT organisations in North America, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Though the full picture is still evolving, the survey suggests that COVID-19 has become a powerful catalyst for rapid cloud migration. Three quarters of respondents believe that 95 per cent of all workloads will be in the cloud within the next five years, 30 per cent of UK respondents stated this will happen by 2022. This is markedly different to the findings of similar LogicMonitor research conducted in 2017, when 13 per cent did not think the shift would ever happen. “The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the importance of the cloud in large and small enterprises as a vital asset to business operations,” The current state of hybrid cloud and IT Enterprises that halted their cloud migration journey during the global pandemic are two and a half times more likely than those that continued their move to the cloud, to have experienced IT outages that negatively impacted their SLAs. This is according to Virtana’s latest survey report: The Current State of Hybrid Cloud and IT . Virtana conducted the peer-driven survey to assess the current experiences of IT infrastructure decision-makers across the US and UK. The study found that more than half of businesses said the new economic climate has exposed a lack of access to the correct IT tools to run efficiently, while 47 per cent said it has highlighted a lack of visibility into their IT systems overall. More than a third said the pandemic has contributed to missed outages in key IT performance. The report highlights how the global COVID-19 pandemic has changed IT operations and the impact remote-working practices have had on businesses. More than three quarters of respondents said that machine learning and artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) will be key to supporting their remote working practices. The current environment requires a transformative approach to IT and IT-to-business interaction, and the move to hybrid cloud is a central part of that equation. “IT leaders across the globe are facing a unique challenge right now. The global pandemic has resulted in a monumental increase in IT workloads and has forced IT decision-makers to make changes to their operations overnight. It has arguably accelerated the need for digital transformation,” said Ron Sege, CEO, Virtana. www.virtana.com Ron Sege Tej Redkar