As I wrote in a previous blog, research recently conducted by ESG clearly supports the notion that the effects of the pandemic include IT decision makers’ increasing spending for long-term strategies that protect from future disruptions and enable their employees to effectively work remotely. In this regard ESG has seen two key trends move into the mainstream over the last two years. They are:
o More IT complexity combined with an increased demand for managing valuable data has created the need for new and enhanced multi-cloud IT services
o Customers are preferring to address these challenges with subscription-based, services-led offerings
Data points from ESG research confirms the increasing use of multiple cloud providers by end user customer organizations:
o 86% of organizations leverage more than one public cloud provider, and 45% rely on either 3 or 4 different CSPs.
o Multi-cloud is meaningful, with applications hosted in multiple locations:
§ 63% of respondents often use multiple IaaS or PaaS CSPs with applications hosted in more than one.
§ 53% of respondents describe their usage of multiple CSPs for Iaas or PaaS is done in a meaningful way.
Furthermore, multi-cloud is more than multiple public cloud providers; it is IT and application environments that span multiple cloud providers and multiple data center environments.
Multi-cloud environments present enormous opportunity for partners to grow their businesses
Organizations that are effectively using multi-cloud solutions are more flexible, but delivering a simple, easy-to-deploy cloud experience is a challenge. Users also need flexibility in deployment, and many are moving workloads back on-premises from public cloud services as a part of their strategy for existing applications. Issues surrounding cost, security, compliance, and application performance can all lead to a decision to migrate applications.
On-premises solutions, as part of total hybrid cloud solutions, provide a great way for partners to leverage their existing platform expertise as a component of new multi-cloud solutions, which, in addition to a public cloud component, could include different stacks, such as VMware and Microsoft.
Companies look to partners to help them with the top challenges they face when leveraging multiple CSPs, with flexibility, scale, and agility among the top cloud selection criteria organizations look at when prioritizing and selecting specific public cloud providers. The best partners are invaluable in adding expertise, addressing the care and feeding of apps and data, moving workloads between data centers and CSPs, and ensuring availability and performance.
Dell APEX is a strategy to increase consistency and control across the entire multi-cloud environment
Dell has made APEX an integral part of its partner program, giving participants a strategic advantage in the as-a-Service space and helping them seize these opportunities.
APEX is the transformative way to grow a partner’s business by delivering flexible IT on demand, how and where customers need it – on-premises, adjacent to public cloud or in it. Together, Dell and its partners can use APEX to provide end-customers with key elements to accelerate their digital and IT transformation success.
Partners who succeed will find customers come to rely on them to provide both technology capabilities and operational assistance, in addition to guidance, in managing the organizational and cultural shifts that are critical to successful IT transformation and achieving the CIO imperative.
About the ESG Research
The ESG research cited here explores four themes that are being shaped by the marketplace changes in IT consumption and management. This blog examines the second theme, ‘Navigating Multi-cloud Complexity’. We will cover each of the other themes in future blogs to examine the factors and data behind these trends, how they are connected to the others, and the impact on end-users and the partners that support them.
Read the full ESG report and discover how you can help customers navigate multi-cloud complexity with Dell APEX.
