Business agility has never been more important than now, and helping organizations achieve this is hybrid cloud. Though going digital was one among the many agendas of enterprises, it was almost just a thought for many of them. But then pandemic happened and enterprises had to rush to be digital entities. With no other option in hand but to push to adapt digital, hybrid cloud has become a friend in need.

Many companies had embarked on digital transformation journeys before COVID-19, but the pandemic highlighted that most of them were not as agile as they had previously thought. The 2021 Hybrid Cloud Report stated that the pandemic laid bare deficiencies in businesses’ cloud infrastructure, security and network architecture capabilities, hindering their ability to adapt and remain agile. It was all of a sudden that organizations had to permit their employees to work from home, which meant giving them access to needed infrastructure and networking solutions. Indeed the pandemic has forced a cultural mind shift.

But despite the uncertainties, the pandemic has provided a significant opportunity to accelerate digital transformation initiatives. It is interesting to note that out of the 950 decision-makers in 13 countries across five regions including Singapore, Hong Kong, India in APAC, nearly 90 percent of APAC businesses (88.8 percent in India) agree that the pandemic has forced its business to rely on technology more than ever before. Indeed it has become the business lifeline.

On the other hand, the benefits that hybrid cloud bring to the table is quite clear, with 60.3 percent of APAC organizations (53.8 percent in India) already using, or piloting hybrid cloud. There is no doubt about the fact that hybrid cloud is the future. The study found that a further 31.6 percent of APAC respondents (31.3 percent in India) plan to implement a hybrid solution within 12-24 months. This growing importance proves that hybrid cloud is now seen as critical to data-driven processes and real-time decisions, both now and in the future.

Driving Efficiencies

Among the many things that the pandemic taught, running businesses in shoestring budget but keep the innovation and R&D wheel rolling is one important take. Hence many moved to hybrid cloud to increase cost efficiency and drive the organization’s overall performance. NTT’s report found that an improved speed of deployment of apps and services is the biggest driver (38.8 percent) of hybrid cloud adoption in APAC, especially given the shift to a distributed workforce model where businesses in this region now need to access data and applications in new, different and often complex ways.
As mentioned in the report, according to APAC respondents, the second largest motivation for hybrid cloud adoption is an overall improvement of business agility (38.3 percent), followed by a more efficient total cost of IT operations (34.0 percent). Businesses, however, need to implement hybrid cloud in a way that will optimize environments to maximize efficiencies. This is why nearly 55 percent of the organizations surveyed strongly agree on the need to engage with experts, such as managed cloud providers.

But not all is rosy with hybrid cloud. Nearly 51.2 percent of the respondents in APAC claim that the difficulties in managing data security is the greatest barrier to adopting hybrid cloud. To overcome these barriers when working in such complex environments, organizations must choose the right environment that will securely host their mission-critical applications across public and private clouds, and work with a partner who understands the industries they are working in to ensure compliance.

The next biggest challenge is the existing skill gap that persists across industry. The report also seconds this, as it mentions that network performance and a shortage of skills were also regarded as sizeable barriers to hybrid cloud adoption. Both, if not appropriately addressed, when implementing the cloud, cloud undo the benefits it offers. Rob Lopez, Executive Vice President, Intelligent Infrastructure at NTT Ltd., comments “As businesses look to navigate the new year, they must look to hybrid cloud environments that are optimized for agility, security and supported by the right network architecture while also meeting compliance requirements. This is the foundation upon which cloud is successful and will enable businesses to weather any form of disruption that comes their way.”

When the challenges are two-front, it is important you partner with experts. Hence the coming times will see industry collaboration and working with external experts to provide businesses with the right knowledge and skills to set up their hybrid cloud environments for agility. Nearly 70.8 percent of businesses said they engaged with systems integrators, while 55.4 percent engaged with specialist information security consultants or managed security service providers highlighting the importance of security to cloud deployments.