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72% of Mid-Size Companies Face Significant Cloud Management Talent Shortage, Hindering Business Growth

Prashant Ketkar
Parallels

As organizations struggle to find and retain the talent they need to manage complex cloud implementations, many are leaning toward hybrid cloud as a solution. And by hybrid cloud, I mean a combination of public cloud, private clouds and on-premises infrastructure used together by organizations to store, manage, and run their data applications. While it's true that using the cloud is not a "one size fits all" proposition, it is clear that both large and small companies prefer a hybrid cloud model.

According to a recent study done by Parallels, a sub-brand of Alludo, the ease of talent search plays a pivotal role in driving the adoption of the hybrid cloud. In fact, a significant majority of IT professionals (62%) find a lack of cloud management skills to be a barrier to growth, an issue even more prevalent in mid-size companies (72%).

To cope, companies are increasing their use of hybrid cloud infrastructure. Nearly two-thirds of the survey respondents (64%) had already implemented a hybrid approach and 38% plan to further embrace a hybrid cloud approach in the next year.

The research also looked at the usage of the public cloud, uncovering that the majority derive most value from it. However, within large enterprises, 18% of respondents admit to not getting the most value out of the public cloud. About 11% across all companies find themselves in a similar position. Among this group of respondents, 41% cite concerns over the complexity of migrating to the public cloud. This challenge is further exacerbated by a lack of in-house cloud expertise (33%) and IT recruiting challenges (15%).

Hybrid Cloud for Hybrid Work

The research found that hybrid cloud infrastructure is the most prevalent model for supporting a hybrid workforce. Out of the 83% of respondents who currently work in a hybrid (working both remote and in the office) structure, 82% use the hybrid cloud.

The top five benefits reported for the use of hybrid cloud, compared to 100% public cloud or 100% on-premises infrastructure, are increased flexibility (49%), improved security (46%), cost savings (45%), increased reliability (44%), and scalability (40%).

Legacy Applications Persist

The continued significance of legacy applications is also contributing to the ongoing adoption of hybrid cloud. Nearly all (96%) of the IT professionals surveyed claim that they currently need legacy Windows and Linux applications, and almost half (49%) report that they will need to continue to access these legacy applications more than five years from now.

This is especially true for smaller companies with 54% signifying this is very important. Only 4% of those surveyed reported that they did not use any legacy applications. A hybrid cloud approach helps overcome the legacy application challenge by enabling incremental changes to the IT infrastructure, without a wholesale upgrade to applications that may not be cloud ready.

By using a more incremental cloud adoption approach, supported by easy-to-manage software solutions that are enhanced with automation and security, IT professionals can realize the flexibility and cost savings they want from the cloud, without specialized cloud management expertise.

Survey Methodology: Parallels' Hybrid Cloud Survey was conducted in July 2023 with data from 805 IT professionals that are using the public cloud to some extent in US, UK and Germany.

Prashant Ketkar is CTO of Parallels, a sub-brand of Alludo

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72% of Mid-Size Companies Face Significant Cloud Management Talent Shortage, Hindering Business Growth

Prashant Ketkar
Parallels

As organizations struggle to find and retain the talent they need to manage complex cloud implementations, many are leaning toward hybrid cloud as a solution. And by hybrid cloud, I mean a combination of public cloud, private clouds and on-premises infrastructure used together by organizations to store, manage, and run their data applications. While it's true that using the cloud is not a "one size fits all" proposition, it is clear that both large and small companies prefer a hybrid cloud model.

According to a recent study done by Parallels, a sub-brand of Alludo, the ease of talent search plays a pivotal role in driving the adoption of the hybrid cloud. In fact, a significant majority of IT professionals (62%) find a lack of cloud management skills to be a barrier to growth, an issue even more prevalent in mid-size companies (72%).

To cope, companies are increasing their use of hybrid cloud infrastructure. Nearly two-thirds of the survey respondents (64%) had already implemented a hybrid approach and 38% plan to further embrace a hybrid cloud approach in the next year.

The research also looked at the usage of the public cloud, uncovering that the majority derive most value from it. However, within large enterprises, 18% of respondents admit to not getting the most value out of the public cloud. About 11% across all companies find themselves in a similar position. Among this group of respondents, 41% cite concerns over the complexity of migrating to the public cloud. This challenge is further exacerbated by a lack of in-house cloud expertise (33%) and IT recruiting challenges (15%).

Hybrid Cloud for Hybrid Work

The research found that hybrid cloud infrastructure is the most prevalent model for supporting a hybrid workforce. Out of the 83% of respondents who currently work in a hybrid (working both remote and in the office) structure, 82% use the hybrid cloud.

The top five benefits reported for the use of hybrid cloud, compared to 100% public cloud or 100% on-premises infrastructure, are increased flexibility (49%), improved security (46%), cost savings (45%), increased reliability (44%), and scalability (40%).

Legacy Applications Persist

The continued significance of legacy applications is also contributing to the ongoing adoption of hybrid cloud. Nearly all (96%) of the IT professionals surveyed claim that they currently need legacy Windows and Linux applications, and almost half (49%) report that they will need to continue to access these legacy applications more than five years from now.

This is especially true for smaller companies with 54% signifying this is very important. Only 4% of those surveyed reported that they did not use any legacy applications. A hybrid cloud approach helps overcome the legacy application challenge by enabling incremental changes to the IT infrastructure, without a wholesale upgrade to applications that may not be cloud ready.

By using a more incremental cloud adoption approach, supported by easy-to-manage software solutions that are enhanced with automation and security, IT professionals can realize the flexibility and cost savings they want from the cloud, without specialized cloud management expertise.

Survey Methodology: Parallels' Hybrid Cloud Survey was conducted in July 2023 with data from 805 IT professionals that are using the public cloud to some extent in US, UK and Germany.

Prashant Ketkar is CTO of Parallels, a sub-brand of Alludo

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Organizations that perform regular audits and assessments of AI system performance and compliance are over three times more likely to achieve high GenAI value than organizations that do not, according to a survey by Gartner ...

Kubernetes has become the backbone of cloud infrastructure, but it's also one of its biggest cost drivers. Recent research shows that 98% of senior IT leaders say Kubernetes now drives cloud spend, yet 91% still can't optimize it effectively. After years of adoption, most organizations have moved past discovery. They know container sprawl, idle resources and reactive scaling inflate costs. What they don't know is how to fix it ...

Artificial intelligence is no longer a future investment. It's already embedded in how we work — whether through copilots in productivity apps, real-time transcription tools in meetings, or machine learning models fueling analytics and personalization. But while enterprise adoption accelerates, there's one critical area many leaders have yet to examine: Can your network actually support AI at the speed your users expect? ...

The more technology businesses invest in, the more potential attack surfaces they have that can be exploited. Without the right continuity plans in place, the disruptions caused by these attacks can bring operations to a standstill and cause irreparable damage to an organization. It's essential to take the time now to ensure your business has the right tools, processes, and recovery initiatives in place to weather any type of IT disaster that comes up. Here are some effective strategies you can follow to achieve this ...

In today's fast-paced AI landscape, CIOs, IT leaders, and engineers are constantly challenged to manage increasingly complex and interconnected systems. The sheer scale and velocity of data generated by modern infrastructure can be overwhelming, making it difficult to maintain uptime, prevent outages, and create a seamless customer experience. This complexity is magnified by the industry's shift towards agentic AI ...

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 19, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA explains the cause of the AWS outage in October ... 

The explosion of generative AI and machine learning capabilities has fundamentally changed the conversation around cloud migration. It's no longer just about modernization or cost savings — it's about being able to compete in a market where AI is rapidly becoming table stakes. Companies that can't quickly spin up AI workloads, feed models with data at scale, or experiment with new capabilities are falling behind faster than ever before. But here's what I'm seeing: many organizations want to capitalize on AI, but they're stuck ...

On September 16, the world celebrated the 10th annual IT Pro Day, giving companies a chance to laud the professionals who serve as the backbone to almost every successful business across the globe. Despite the growing importance of their roles, many IT pros still work in the background and often go underappreciated ...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping observability, and observability is becoming essential for AI. This is a two-way relationship that is increasingly relevant as enterprises scale generative AI ... This dual role makes AI and observability inseparable. In this blog, I cover more details of each side ...