Converged infrastructure vendor Nutanix released its 2023 Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) report on March 22, providing new insights into the state of cloud usage.
The latest Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) report highlights the growing complexity of IT infrastructure that organizations face as they grapple with the integration of data management and control. The majority of IT teams are utilizing multiple IT infrastructures, a trend that is set to gain further momentum in the future, the study revealed.
However, the lack of visibility into data across environments is a major hurdle, with only 40% of respondents claiming to have complete visibility into the location of their data.
The key takeaways from this year's report are:
- Most organizations use multiple IT infrastructures, and most prefer a single, consistent management platform.
- Data security and management influence IT infrastructure decisions.
- Managing cloud costs is a major IT challenge.
- Kubernetes usage is pervasive.
- Sustainability is a top priority.
According to Induprakas (Indu) Keri, senior vice president of engineering at Nutanix, this year's Enterprise Cloud Index was a clear indication that the tides in IT have shifted.
"The reality is that no one environment will support all the needs of a modern, digital-first business," Keri told ITPro Today. "In order to balance speed, performance, cost, and governance, organizations need the flexibility of leveraging multiple environments."
Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index Reveals Cost Control Challenges
According to the Enterprise Cloud Index, 85% of organizations find cloud cost controls to be a challenging IT management issue. Somewhat surprisingly, the report also revealed that in the coming year, 46% of respondents intend to bring some applications back to on-premises data centers to reduce cloud expenses.
There are several reasons why cloud costs have become a critical concern for so many organizations, according to Keri. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nutanix saw many businesses leverage the public cloud for what it does best — provide easy and fast access to expanded resources, he said. That's how many companies were able to support remote work overnight or scale their online business.
"While IT was saving the day by expanding a company's digital capabilities overnight, no one was looking at the bill at the end of the month," Keri said. "But now many are re-evaluating which environment might be best suited for which application, with cost being an important part of the equation."
Why Cloud Complexity and Multicloud Will Continue to Grow
According to the report, 60% of IT teams use multiple IT infrastructures, and this number is expected to increase to 74% in the near future. However, managing applications and data across these diverse environments presents challenges, with 94% of respondents saying a unified management platform would be beneficial.
Keri said that most organizations are just starting to appreciate the challenges involved in having their data spread across multiple private and public clouds — and the resulting data protection and governance challenges. At the same time, solutions that enable low-cost portability of data and management of applications across private and public clouds are just emerging.
Looking forward, Keri expects that future versions of the report will likely see even more companies embracing hybrid and multicloud.
"Change in IT often takes time, but the pain of multicloud will lead many organizations to find a more efficient way to manage it all," he said.
About the author
Sean Michael Kerner is an IT consultant, technology enthusiast and tinkerer. He consults to industry and media organizations on technology issues.
