Almost all (98%) of senior IT leaders have been impacted by increasing cloud complexity in some capacity, potentially leading to poor IT performance, loss in revenue and barriers to business growth, according to the 2023 Cloud Complexity Report from NetApp.
"Our global research report highlights paradigm shifts in how technology leaders look at and manage their cloud initiatives," said Ronen Schwartz, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cloud Storage, NetApp. "As cloud adoption accelerates and businesses innovate faster to compete, technology leaders are facing growing pressure to juggle multiple priorities at once — causing many to rethink how they manage efficiency and security in this new environment."
Key findings from the report include:
Cloud Complexity Reaches a Tipping Point
Data complexity has reached a boiling point for companies globally, and tech executives are feeling the pressure to contain its impact on the business. However, technical and organizational challenges may stunt their cloud strategies, with 88% citing working across cloud environments as a barrier, while 32% struggle just to align on a clear vision at the leadership level.
The following regions list this as their top concern if data complexity is not managed:
■ Cybersecurity: France, Spain, and Australia/New Zealand
■ Leadership skepticism: France, Spain, Japan
■ Inefficient use across the organization: Australia/New Zealand
■ Lack of visibility: Japan
Leadership Want Cloud Results Now
Sustainability has become an unexpected cloud-driver, with nearly eight in ten tech executives citing ESG outcomes as critical to their cloud strategy. However, ROI is a concern among leadership, with 84% of tech executives saying their cloud strategy is already expected to show results across the organization.
Nearly half of tech executives (49%) report that when cloud strategy discussions happen, cost concerns come up often or all the time.
Data regulation and compliance is another cloud driver, with various local regulations promoting their multicloud strategy most or some of the time.
Tech Executives Consider AI as Possible Solution
In the next year, over a third (37%) of tech executives report that half or more of their cloud deployments will be supported by AI-driven applications.
Nearly half of tech executives at smaller companies — those with fewer than 250 employees — expect to reach the 50% mark in the next year, and 63% by 2030, while larger companies lag.
The US leads EMEA and APAC on plans to deploy AI-driven cloud applications in the next year, with France and Japan as outliers in their regions.
Scaling AI is the top priority in EMEA and APAC, but is second in the US, behind meeting regulatory compliance.
"NetApp’s global research report reveals a disconnect between the executives outside of IT and those within — specifically, leaders working to execute on cloud are the ones most ingrained in the cost and complexity issues while those outside of IT have yet to fully understand. In the process of shifting to the cloud, leaders are experiencing challenges, leaving room for vendors to address these current or yet-to-be discovered issues," said Randy Kerns, Senior Strategist & Analyst at the Evaluator Group. "As customers express concerns with cloud implementation, vendors have the opportunity to build and offer solutions to simplify the process."
Methodology: NetApp partnered with Wakefield Research to conduct a quantitative research study during November 2022, among 1,300 tech and data executives at businesses in 9 markets: US, EMEA (France, Germany, Spain, the UK), and APAC (India, Japan, Singapore, and Australia/New Zealand). At the time of completion, all participants held positions that were classified as "director-level and above" and worked across IT, IT infrastructure, cloud infrastructure and data engineering departments.
