Lack of expertise passes security as top cloud challenge

The latest State of the Cloud report from cloud management specialist RightScale reveals that a lack of resources and expertise is now the top cloud challenge -- cited by 32 percent of respondents.

This means it has overtaken security, mentioned by only 29 percent. Even the most security conscious respondents -- enterprise central IT teams and security pros -- no longer see security as their main challenge.

The report also shows that hybrid cloud adoption is increasing. Private cloud use increased from 63 percent to 77 percent last year, driving hybrid cloud adoption up from 58 percent to 71 percent. Eighty-two percent of enterprises now have a hybrid cloud strategy, holding steady from the 2015 report.

AWS leads in public cloud adoption, used by 57 percent of respondents. Enterprise adoption of AWS grew from 50 percent to 56 percent while adoption by smaller businesses fell slightly from 61 percent to 58 percent. Azure is coming up on the rails though with IaaS growing strongly from 12 percent to 17 percent adoption, while Azure PaaS grew from 9 percent to 13 percent.

Private cloud use is on the increase too. VMware vSphere is in the lead with strong year-over-year growth, 44 percent of respondents reporting they use it as a private cloud. OpenStack and VMware vCloud Suite are both showing strong growth too, tied at 19 percent adoption overall. VMware vCloud Suite holds the number two slot among enterprises while OpenStack is second among business with fewer than 1,000 employees. Bare-metal cloud was included in the survey for the first time this year and is used by 15 percent of respondents.

More information can be found in the full report which is available from the RightScale website.

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