Hybrid cloud and multi-cloud, IT funding, digital transformation and the ongoing search for talent are all driving organisation’s IT strategies into the new year.
They are among the trends highlighted by Red Hat’s annual Global Tech Outlook survey, which aimed to discover the current state of cloud and organisations’ cloud strategies, their major funding priorities, and the factors influencing digital transformation success.
Hybrid and multi-cloud strategies are on the rise
Hybrid cloud continues to be the leading cloud strategy among respondents, rising three points to 30% this year.
Multi-cloud is also on the rise, coming in at 13% compared to 11% last year.
On the other hand, public (9%) and private (14%) cloud-first strategies are waning.
Notably, 18% of respondents are still establishing their cloud strategy and a small percentage (5%) have no cloud strategy at all. These percentages remain unchanged from last year.
IT funding priorities show year-over-year consistency, with security continuing to lead
From a funding perspective, security, cloud management and cloud infrastructure remain the top IT priorities for 2022.
In fact, security was top of mind for respondents across the board when asked about their top priorities for cloud infrastructure, IT operations automation, and big data and analytics, ranking cloud security (43%), security automation (36%) and data security and integrity (45%) as the leading priorities in their respective funding areas.
IT automation also continues to rise year over year. For 2022, 38% of respondents said automating IT operations is their second most important funding priority for optimising legacy IT. Compared to 32% in 2021, it saw the biggest increase from the prior year.
Companies double down on digital transformation efforts in the wake of Covid-19
Last year, customers across industries planned to accelerate transformation plans to address the impact of the ongoing pandemic.
This year, survey respondents indicated that this trend continues as more companies use technologies and processes to innovate and transform their businesses (31%, up from 29%) or have accelerated their digital transformation efforts (22%, up from 21%), citing the global pandemic (52%) and revenue increases (50%) as reasons for this acceleration.
Fewer respondents feel that their digital transformation initiatives remain stalled (3%), and more are now in the early stages of starting new projects (8%), underscoring this shift.
The talent gap is now the leading barrier to digital transformation success
This year, skill-set or talent gaps (26%) moved into the top spot in terms of barriers preventing companies from being successful with digital transformation, while integration issues and security and compliance declined several points to 23% apiece.