EDITOR’S QUESTION
WILL BUSINESSES
THAT AVOID
THE POWER OF
MULTI-CLOUD TODAY
STRUGGLE TO
CATCH UP?
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F
5 Networks has unveiled EMEA’s first
ever Future of Multi-Cloud (FOMC)
report, highlighting game-changing
trends and charting adaptive best practice
over the next five years.
The F5 commissioned report was
conducted by the Foresight Factory and
features exclusive input from influential
global cloud experts specialising in
entrepreneurialism, cloud architecture,
business strategy, industry analysis and
relevant technological consultancy.
“The Future of Multi-Cloud report is a unique
vision for how organisations can successfully
navigate an increasingly intricate, cloud-
centric world. The stakes are higher than ever
and businesses that ignore the power of the
multi-cloud today will significantly struggle
in the next five years,” said Vincent Lavergne,
RVP, Systems Engineering, F5 Networks.
The FOMC report comes at a time of
significant cloud receptivity.
According to the figures cited in the FOMC
report, 81% of global enterprises claim
to have a multi-cloud strategy in place.
Meanwhile, the Cisco Global Cloud Index
estimates that 94% of workloads and
compute instances will be processed by
cloud data centres by 2021.
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INTELLIGENTCIO
“The multi-cloud is a game-changer for both
business and consumers. It will pave the
way for unprecedented innovation, bringing
cloud architects, DevOps, NetOps and SecOps
together to pioneer transformational services
traditional infrastructures simply cannot
deliver. The outlook for the coming years is
bright and full of potential,” said Josh McBain,
Director of Consultancy, Foresight Factory.
A new era of business innovation
The FOMC consensus is that those
delaying multi-cloud adoption will become
increasingly irrelevant.
New levels of service specialisation will
increasingly allow enterprises to find the
best tools for their specific needs, enabling
seamless scaling and rapid service delivery
innovations. Technologies set to drive this
transition include serverless architectures,
as well as Artificial Intelligence-powered
orchestration layers and configuration tools
to aid data-driven decision-making. Fear of
vendor lock-in is expected to continue as a
key justification for multi-cloud investments.
“The multi-cloud ramp-up is one of the
ultimate wake-up calls in internal IT to get
their act together,” said Eric Marks, VP of
Cloud Consulting at CloudSpectator and a
FOMC contributor.
“One of the biggest transformative changes
is the realisation of what a high-performing
IT organisation is and how it compares to
what they have. Most are finding their IT
organisations are sadly underperforming.”
Plugging the skills gap
The FOMC report cautions that the
multifaceted logistics of monitoring multiple
cloud services, containers, APIs and other
processes can be daunting and inhibit
technology uptake. A significant skill gap
also exists to handle this added complexity
both now and into the future. Across the
world, available workforces are not keeping
with the pace of innovation, with potentially
damaging results to business productivity
and Digital Transformation capacity.
Knowledge silos or lack of collaboration
within businesses may further exacerbate
multi-cloud apprehension.
Looking ahead, the FOMC report urges the
business community to do more to “tap into
the kaleidoscopic potential of youth and
promote industry diversity.” It also calls on
the IT industry to better promote the use
of smart, context-driven and automated
solutions that can spark attractive new
career opportunities and free existing
workforces to focus on more strategic and
rewarding work.
www.intelligentcio.com