Hybrid cloud tops IT priorities for Malaysian businesses: Avanade

  • 91% expect hybrid cloud solutions to provide an edge over competitors
  • Customisation and flexibility key attraction of hybrid cloud over public-only
Hybrid cloud tops IT priorities for Malaysian businesses: Avanade

HYBRID cloud has floated to the top of priority lists for Malaysian businesses, with more than 80% indicating that it will be one of the biggest areas of focus for 2015.
 
According to a new survey by Avanade, Malaysian executive optimism has turned the spotlight on hybrid cloud despite much confusion about what exactly hybrid cloud means, and what is required to prepare an organisation for hybrid cloud implementation.
 
Compared to the global average of only 74%, about 96% of Malaysian respondents strongly agree that hybrid cloud will enable their companies to focus on issues that are core to the growth of the business.
 
Avanade senior vice president and general manager for Asean, Kevin Wo said the study’s finding shows that Malaysian investment in hybrid cloud solutions is occurring at a faster rate than private or public cloud.
 
“More than half of the companies’ applications and services are expected to be deployed on hybrid cloud environments within an average of one and half years.
 
“In that time, we will reach a tipping point when the hybrid cloud model, with its inherent flexibility, will become the dominant model and de facto approach for enterprises,” he added.
 
The technology solutions and managed services provider noted that despite concerns – real or perceived – about security and privacy, there is a clear tipping point for hybrid cloud adoption on the horizon.
 
The study shows that Malaysian companies (91%) expect hybrid cloud solutions to give them an edge over competitors in the field.
 
Interestingly, with IT spending decisions continuing to move outside of the traditional IT department, C-level executives are optimistic about the value of hybrid cloud solutions, and motivated to adopt them.
 
Almost half of the respondents (47%) indicated that if they could put any functions on hybrid cloud tomorrow, they would prioritise customer-facing applications, followed by data and analytics (42%), office (42%) and e-commerce applications (36%).
 
With improvements in security and privacy over the last three years, Avanade believes that hybrid cloud has moved from hype to reality and is competitive advantages that better positions organisations to focus on issues that are core to the growth of the business.
 
“Hybrid cloud gives companies the speed and flexibility they need to transform into digital businesses and enables them to focus on driving growth and outperforming their competitors,” said Wo.
 
“Budgets and control may be shifting away from IT, but hybrid cloud solutions represent an opportunity for IT to align itself with C-suite priorities, delivering strategic value to the business in a secure and properly governed manner,” he added.
 
More than half of Malaysian respondents (53%) indicated that customisation and flexibility was an advantage of hybrid cloud over public-only cloud, followed by improved security (44 %) and user experience (42%).
 
Business leadership in Malaysia has a positive view on how ready their organisations are to embrace the new model – the hybrid cloud strategy.
 
Almost half of the respondents believe that IT staff will spend less time managing legacy systems which will leave them with more time to develop a hybrid cloud strategy or implement new technologies.
 
Avanade’s survey was conducted in October 2014 by independent research firm Wakefield Research and polled 1,000 global C-level executives, business unit leaders and IT decision-makers in 21 countries.
 
The research supports the findings of Accenture’s High Performers in IT: Defined by Digital report, as well as the Gartner 2014 Cloud Survey, which indicates that 72 % of companies will be pursuing a hybrid cloud strategy by 2015.
 

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