Survey shows growing preference for hybrid cloud solutions

Survey shows growing preference for hybrid cloud solutions by Kiwi IT Leaders

New Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 facilitate hybrid cloud and accelerate digital transformation

AUCKLAND, 28 February 2017 – New Zealand’s IT leaders need to step up with the use of hybrid cloud to enable digital transformation and to manage rapidly increasing complexity and security demands on their IT infrastructure, according to Microsoft New Zealand.

Survey data released by Microsoft New Zealand shows IT leaders in New Zealand are desperate for a solution to help them juggle existing legacy infrastructure and ever-tightening budgets.

A survey of 100 New Zealand IT professionals found that 42 percent are already on the hybrid cloud journey, with this expected to increase to 47 percent in the next 12 to 18 months. A large portion are still using outdated cloud solutions, with 46 percent using private cloud and 12 percent using a public cloud solution alone. Survey respondents say their main reason for using public cloud is down to the cost savings it can provide, while those using private cloud are doing so for better network security and control of data flow.

Cloud and Enterprise Lead at Microsoft New Zealand, Dirk Develter says, “The next few years will be critical to all IT leaders as they execute plans for a transition to a modern cloud-based IT infrastructure needed to serve their digital business needs. Our survey shows Kiwi organisations are not likely to increase their investments in public or private-only cloud solutions, therefore reinforcing the demand for a more integrated, hybrid approach.”

Transforming IT with the Hybrid Cloud

IT leaders are struggling to balance legacy IT needs, budget demands and the need to modernise. They spend about 56 percent of their time on maintenance, compliance and operational issues, 24 percent on developing next generation digital capabilities and 20 percent of their time working with business leadership on digital transformation initiatives.

They’re facing increasingly complex IT environments to manage and crave simplicity and say “optimising operations” is the single most important digital transformation goal for them over the coming year.

Develter says, “Hybrid cloud is a natural progression for all organisations in New Zealand, regardless of size and the budgets they have to reach their digital ambitions. It’s a tough balancing act for IT to manage both current and future digital needs of the business. The cloud holds rich new applications which will enable better management tools, intelligent applications and advanced analytics to not just reduce cost and increase efficiency, but to also innovate and enable faster time to market. As such, it can’t be ignored but it needs to be managed.”

Adopting a hybrid cloud strategy is the next step in the journey; however, the study showed that most IT leaders in New Zealand have traditional views of the cloud. While 71 percent said they would be comfortable hosting all their business applications on the public cloud in the future, more than half of respondents are only using it for basic applications such as email and customer facing online assets (websites). Just 39 percent of respondents are using the cloud for application development and operations.

Develter believes there are four areas in which IT Leaders need to step up to enable digital transformation.

“Firstly, they need to get up to speed with the modern tools of managing increasing security and complexity. Secondly, gain control of their infrastructure with software management tools spanning public, private, and multiple branded clouds. Thirdly, move quickly to an integrated hybrid cloud which will allow them to benefit from the best of both worlds. Lastly, they need to drive more sophisticated workloads in the cloud to innovate, shorten time to market and maximise the potential which new digital technologies have to offer.”

Microsoft Introduces Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 to accelerate move to Hybrid Cloud

IT leaders need to start planning their organisations’ digital transformation journey today, and it starts with a clear hybrid cloud strategy. By bringing a cloud model to the business, IT leaders can add scalability and flexibility to their current model, without sacrificing control or security, Develter says.

“The transition to a digital business can be a jarring one for most businesses due to legacy systems and processes. IT leaders need to have the urgency to kick start this digital journey, or risk being disrupted. Microsoft is committed to helping enterprise customers in their digital journey, regardless of size and budgets.”

Microsoft has uniquely built-in security to all its cloud and hybrid infrastructure services at all levels– devices, applications & infrastructure.

• Windows Server 2016 is the cloud-ready operating system that supports organisation’s current workloads while introducing new technologies that make it easier and safer to transition to cloud. It delivers powerful innovations including advanced multi-layer security to prevent cyber-attacks and detect suspicious activities; software-defined compute, storage and network features inspired by Azure; and a cloud-ready application platform to deploy and run existing and cloud-native applications.

• System Center 2016 makes it easy for organisations to deploy, configure and manage virtualised, software-defined datacenter and hybrid cloud infrastructure. The latest release of System Center offers an array of new capabilities that amplify the ability to meet the most demanding business requirements, providing support for everything from provisioning the physical and virtual infrastructure to IT process and service management. When complemented withOperations Management Suite, organisations will be able to effectively simplify and manage multiple cloud solutions from a single console.

Customers can get started now by trying out the System Centre 2016 evaluation, Operations Management Suite as well as downloading the Windows Server 2016 Evaluation.

ENDS

Key survey take-outs

• The innovation in cloud is causing the usage of cloud apps to explode. On average, it is estimated that there are 223 apps being used per organisation in New Zealand (compared to 340 in Asia Pacific) and they need robust tools to manage them.

• IT leaders are concerned about the skills gap in their organisations, citing the top 3 skills most needed in their organisations are in the areas of security (74 percent), data analytics (64 percent) and cloud app management (51 percent)

• Security continues to be a concern in a world facing increasing cyber threats every day. The top three reasons driving their concerns:

1. Malware and data theft by cyber criminals

2. Extortion by cybercriminal

3. Employee connecting their own devices into organization’s network

• Organisations in New Zealand already use an average of 35 security products

o In New Zealand, 70 percent of respondents agree that there is a need to invest more in IT security solutions and services and 53 percent agree on the need to reduce complexity of managing the increasing portfolio of IT security solutions and services.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.

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