Cloud migration shows no signs of slowing down

According to a new study 31 percent of companies have moved workloads to the cloud within the last six months compared to only 18 percent six months ago.

Based on a survey of almost 1,000 IT decision makers, the report from cloud migration specialist Next Pathway shows 36 percent are migrating to the cloud to prevent customers from leaving for more personalized solutions offered by competitors that are using the cloud to enable a superior digital experience.

As companies look to become cloud-first organizations, they want to accelerate the transformation benefits enabled by the cloud, not just the operational efficiencies. However, there is a recognition that in many cases they need help to achieve this.

Over 40 percent are concerned that they don't have the internal skills to plan or execute workload or data migration or to select the right cloud platform. While 54 percent fear that when moving workloads to the cloud they won't know which ones are necessary and which ones can be retired.

Along with the lack of internal tools, companies are also concerned that they won’t have the right automated tooling to smooth translation and migration rom on-premises to cloud. More than a third (38 percent) fear they won't be able to manage end-user expectations. Testing is also considered a major pitfall, with 29 percent acknowledging this part of the migration journey poses significant challenges.

"Every company is now undertaking a move to the cloud," says Chetan Mathur, CEO of Next Pathway. "Our research reinforces that the motivation extends beyond gaining operational efficiencies; the cloud is seen as a strategic imperative to remain competitive and as an enabler for personalized experiences with customers. The pandemic has both accelerated the move to the cloud and underscored this urgent need."

There is a clear preference for a hybrid cloud strategy from 98 percent, and agreement that the trend is toward more collaborative support between different cloud providers to offer a robust multi-cloud offering.

Despite most companies favoring leading cloud data warehouses and data lakes such as Microsoft Azure Synapse, Amazon Redshift and IBM Cloud, new entrants such as Snowflake and Databricks are also being considered.

"As companies move to the cloud, they realize that these initiatives are as complex as they are critically important to the business," adds Mathur. "Hence, companies are demanding more assistance at every stage of the migration, from planning through to cut over. They are requiring more services and tooling from cloud providers and partners. Moreover, they are hedging their bets, as they prefer a hybrid strategy and are performing POCs with a number of newcomers, such as Snowflake and Databricks."

You can get the full report from the Next Pathway site.

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