Rise in cloud adoption, confusion about managing complex cloud environments

Today’s enterprises are increasingly moving to the cloud to transform internal IT environments, but are struggling to manage the complexity, according to 451 Research and Embotics.

We expect cloud computing to be:

More than 75 percent of enterprises are using multiple clouds, including public and private. Managing multiple cloud environments is leading to complexity, with 65 percent of respondents with more than one cloud using a cloud management platform and 54 percent using tools from multiple providers. However, the tools enterprises are using continue to fall short in solving several key management challenges.

The research found that users are unsatisfied with slow response times, are challenged with the management and tracking of digital assets, and that internal IT teams lack insight into how virtual machines are being used over time. More than 80 percent of IT professionals surveyed believe that their cloud management platform tools lack essential capabilities.

“IT departments being tasked with transformation to cloud-based infrastructure are struggling with the challenges and complexity of managing multiple environments, and our research shows that a majority of the platform providers they turn to today are falling short in supporting that transformation,” said William Fellows, Research VP at 451 Research. “As enterprises continue along the cloud maturity curve, we anticipate a sharp demand for cloud automation, self-service and provisioning capabilities as they seek to increase efficiency, flexibility, spend and agility.”

How many public cloud providers are currently in-use?

Managing complex cloud environments

Additional survey highlights include:

• More than 35 percent of IT enterprises have moved beyond virtualization and onto automation and orchestration along the 451 Research Cloud Maturity Curve.
• More than 50 percent of respondents are currently using or plan to use over the next 12 months container and orchestration technologies. Sixty-three percent have adopted or plan to adopt cloud automation technology.
• Critical capabilities are lacking in current cloud management platforms. Just 21 percent of respondents can accurately report on who is consuming VM resources, while just 19 percent can assign and track virtual assets in real time or model future costs based on consumption.
• VM sprawl is a major issue for IT teams. Only 13 percent or respondents understand how virtual machines are being utilized over time, while just 12 percent can identify who has logged in and how often. Twelve percent can analyze workloads so system admins can optimize sprawl servers.