Survey Shows Enterprises to Keep Moving From Private to Public Cloud

In a survey of about 300 IT professionals, LogicMonitor, a provider of a Software-as-a-Service IT systems performance monitoring platform, shows that on-premises private cloud systems will continue to give way to public cloud platforms. Giant cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft will continue to grow and concentrate their market power, the survey indicates. But LogicMonitor also dug deeper and discovered that artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things will fundamentally influence the development of the cloud market. However, while survey respondents also suggested that while many companies will eventually move to a nearly all-cloud environment, the transition might take longer than some think. Read on to learn more about the public cloud transition and how it will impact enterprises as they look ahead to their strategic cloud initiatives:

Although 63 percent of IT professionals say that the “digital transformation” is already driving widespread cloud adoption, it doesn’t appear to be something that will be completed anytime soon. According to the survey 62 percent of respondents say that enterprises will still be carrying out their digital transformation programs in 2020.

Today, 50 percent of IT professionals believe artificial intelligence and machine learning are playing at least a moderately significant role in migrations to the public cloud. But by 2020, two-thirds of IT professionals believe artificial intelligence and machine learning will play a major role.

The Internet of Things is playing a major role in public cloud adoption in about 45 percent of cases, according to IT professionals. But by 2020, 58 percent believe that the emerging technology will prompt them to move to the public cloud.

For companies already engaged in the public cloud, 66 percent of IT professionals say security is the biggest concern. Six in 10 respondents cited governance and compliance and 58 percent said they’re concerned that their staff members don’t have the requisite cloud experience.

The least-likely problem IT professionals could face is the possibility of “unplanned outages,” they told LogicMonitor. Just 31 percent said that those outages are a concern. That’s about half the number of people who are concerned with security.

Currently, 37 percent of data center workloads are running on-premises, IT professionals told LogicMonitor in the survey. By 2020, just 27 percent of cloud workloads will rely on a private, on-premises platform. Use of private cloud and hybrid cloud platforms will jump in the coming years, the survey shows.

Public cloud is expected to see the most significant uptick in workload reliance in the coming years. According to the survey, 31 percent of It workloads rely on the public cloud. But by 2020, that figure will jump to 41 percent. That will be enough to make public cloud the most popular platform for workloads.

Despite obvious interest in the cloud, some companies are still moving slowly. Just 6 percent of companies will have more than 95 percent of their workloads in the cloud within one year, and 27 percent will be there in five years. But 13 percent of companies say they’ll never put more than 95 percent of their workloads in the cloud.

Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform are expected to grow in the coming years, IT professionals said. Microsoft Azure will “gain ground” in the next three years, according to the IT professionals. Just 22 percent of IT professionals thought Azure could lose ground. Meanwhile, 35 percent of IT professionals said Google Cloud Platform would gain ground, compared to 17 percent who said Google’s service would lose market appeal.

Looking ahead, things look good for Amazon Web Services. By 2020, IT professionals predict AWS will hold 52 percent public cloud market share, topping Microsoft Azure at 21 percent share, according to the survey. Google Cloud Platform will take the third spot with 18 percent market share, according to the IT professionals.