Australian companies are adopting hybrid cloud solutions, but many have no accompanying strategy, according to a recent Cisco-sponsored IDC report.

IDC's 2016 CloudView Survey of 11,350 executive decision-makers from around the world found that 58 per cent of businesses in Australia are pursuing a hybrid cloud solution; of these organisations, 29 per cent have no strategy.

In response to the survey's findings, Rodney Hamill, general manager of cloud at Cisco Australia and New Zealand, told ZDNet: "Australia is consistently referred to as an 'early adopter'; however, despite growing global adoption rates of cloud solutions, Australian organisations face substantive challenges in optimising their hybrid cloud strategy."

The survey report revealed that 41 per cent of Australian companies have already adopted hybrid cloud solutions – fewer than countries like South Korea (55 per cent), Japan (54 per cent),  the United Kingdom (46 per cent) and the United States (45 per cent).

Country comparison: Corporate hybrid cloud adoption rates (IDC CloudView 2016 Survey)

1	South Korea	55 per cent
2	Japan	54 per cent
3	China	52 per cent
4	Germany	51 per cent
5	Latin America	47 per cent
6	Canada	47 per cent
7	United Kingdom	46 per cent
8	United States	45 per cent
9	France	42 per cent
10	Netherlands	42 per cent
11	Australia	41 per cent

The IDC report outlines the typical obstacles firms face when adopting hybrid cloud solutions – skill gaps, lack of an effective strategy or roadmap, siloed organisational structures, and IT/line of business misalignment. Such barriers impede their ability to achieve higher levels of cloud maturity, which is positively correlated to better business performance in terms of increased revenue and more strategic allocation of IT budget.

Moving in the right direction

The survey results suggest that Australian organisations continue to adopt cloud solutions, whether public or private cloud, indicating that they are moving in the right direction – towards a hybrid cloud future. 

"The range of solutions and services available that interconnect private and public clouds, as well as bridging between multiple public clouds, has enabled enterprises to adopt solutions based on hybrid cloud architectures," said Prabhitha Dcruz, senior market analyst with IDC Australia.

"The increased adoption of hybrid cloud to facilitate enterprises' digital transformation agenda will further positively impact the growth of cloud services in Australia," she added.

Many organisations exhibit a low level of cloud maturity, however, with many still seeing its main value as IT cost reduction.

Chris Morris, IDC's VP for cloud services research, explained the importance of getting the right experience and skills on board: "Hybrid clouds require expertise that is low in availability, and the smart CIO decides on an experienced implementation partner at the beginning of their project.

"Working with a partner at early stages of a project to plan the implementation can minimise risks of project budget and timelines overruns."

Australian cloud spending to near $800 million by 2019

Cloud computing within Australian companies has grown strongly, with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) representing the biggest portion of the cloud spending increase in 2015. More than half of all organisations in Australia with more than 20 employees are now using public cloud IaaS for at least some part of their IT infrastructure, according to a study by technology research firm Telsyte.

The Telsyte Australian Infrastructure & Cloud Computing Market Study 2015 predicts that the total spend for public cloud infrastructure services across the country will top $775 million by 2019, a significant rise from $366 million in 2015. 

"The uptake and spending value of cloud is increasing as more testing and production workloads, including virtual machine backups and disaster recovery, are being deployed off-premises," said Rodney Gedda, senior analyst at Telsyte.

"The hybrid cloud architecture and dealing with multiple cloud service providers both present opportunities for more automation and process improvement," he added.

Key drivers of cloud computing within Australian companies are IT pressures, such as cost reduction, time to market and scalability, as well as emerging technology like big data analytics, mobile applications and the Internet of Things.

"More vendors are also pushing a cloud-only procurement model which will further drive uptake," said Gedda.

The ANATAS Cloud Strategy and Roadmap

Australian firms have a big challenge implementing an effective hybrid cloud solution on their own. 

Leveraging on our proven hands-on experience, ANATAS can help your organisation develop a strategy that aligns with your immediate and long-term goals.

Contact us today to get your free cloud strategy health check.