The hybrid cloud, with workloads running on-premises and across multiple public cloud providers, is alive and growing well, according to the 2022 Global Hybrid Cloud Trends Report.
The report, which was sponsored by Cisco and conducted by 451 Research, surveyed 2,500 IT decision-makers around the world. According to the report, 82% of organizations have adopted hybrid cloud, showing just how widespread the trend has become. Hybrid isn't just about on-premises workloads, it's also about public cloud, and 47% of respondents said they use two or three public cloud providers. Only 8% noted that they use a single public cloud.
There is also a lot of movement from on-premises to the cloud as well.
"Fifty-eight percent of the respondents are moving workloads between on- and off-premises environments weekly," Todd Brannon, senior director, Cloud Platforms Marketing at Cisco, told ITPro Today. "This is a faster operational tempo than we expected, and it demonstrates continuous optimization of workload placement is becoming more widely adopted."
Challenges Revealed in 2022 Global Hybrid Cloud Trends Report
There is no shortage of challenges that organizations deal with when implementing a hybrid cloud strategy.
"There are different operating models and technology specializations with each of the public cloud vendors," Brannon said. "Therefore, it’s easy for IT organizations to become more siloed."
He added that the increased diversity and complexity of the hybrid cloud environment generates all manner of challenges that the report helped to identify. The survey asked respondents: "What are the most significant challenges your organization faces or would face using multiple clouds?" (Respondents were able to pick multiple answers, so the total is more than 100%.)
Topping the list is security at 37%, followed by operational complexity and managing costs, which were tied at 33%. Twenty-five percent of users identified lack of visibility and control as an issue. And the skills shortage for managing hybrid cloud deployments was noted as a challenge by 20% of respondents.
Hybrid Cloud Headed Toward the Edge
A key trend identified in the report is the growing use of edge computing.
Bannon noted that 41% of survey respondents currently have some form of edge computing capability, while an additional 53% expect to deploy edge computing in the next two years.
Also, to deal with the growing complexity of hybrid cloud, AIOps will increasingly be used by organizations. The report found that 45% are using some form of AIOps technology today, and 49% are expecting to deploy it in the next year.
"We expect that trends around sovereign clouds, the continuous introduction of new cloud services, and growth of specialized and regional providers will continue to drive increases in the number of cloud services IT teams look to connect and operate with," Bannon said.
