eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
An end-of-year-survey sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and released this week at a conference in Munich reports that a whopping 87% if IT decision-makers say that their organizations have started to implement as-a-service solutions or have already completed the process.
However, yet 71% of these same decision-makers are concerned about keeping up with the changing aaS landscape, according to HPE’s “2019 As-a-Service: Driving Change Report.” The report surveyed about 1,000 ITDMs) at companies of all sizes (from 50 employees to 10,000+) across the U.S., Germany and the UK to explore the future opportunities and impact of as-a-Service (aaS) consumption models.
“As this survey data shows, the market clearly views as-a-Service as the future, but (people) are looking for a new and better approach to realize a consistent cloud experience, across public, private and the edge,” Phil Davis, President of Hybrid IT for HPE, said in a media advisory.
Top Findings
Adoption of as-a-Service is on the rise across organizations: Nearly nine-in-ten (87%) ITDMs report that their organizations have started to implement aaS solutions or have already completed the process. Furthermore, three-quarters (75%) of all ITDMs surveyed expect their organization to move toward full adoption of aaS solutions in less than five years.
aaS is critical to keep up with the competitive landscape and remain strategic: executives recognize the critical need to modernize IT to support future business growth and competitive advantage. aaS solutions will be very important for their company’s future (58%), competitiveness (55%) and growth (53%).
IT Challenges: data remains siloed within organizations: three quarters of ITDMs agree that at their organization, data is siloed between public and private clouds (77%) and admit that data silos are a key challenge (75%) for their businesses. About two-thirds (66%) state they agree that data migration to the public cloud is currently stalled at their organization.
Younger ITDMs are more fearful that their jobs will become obsolete due to aaS: The survey findings show only about a quarter of ITDMs 55 and older (23%) are concerned that aaS adoption is making their job obsolete, compared to almost two-thirds (60%) of 22-34-year-olds. For both age groups, many (67%) ITDMs are concerned about new generations of digital natives having an advantage over their experience as it relates to aaS adoption.
aaS enables career growth and opportunity for IT professionals: Despite the changes ahead and apprehension from younger ITDMs, about nine-in-ten (87%) of all respondents agree that aaS adoption will advance their career and envision a shift in their roles from day-to-day IT support toward more of a business strategist role.Globally, seven-in-ten ITDMs say aaS adoption will make their role within their organization more important (72%) and give them more control over data (70%) and budget (71%).
HPE’s Commitment to as-a-Service: HPE pioneered the modern IT on premises as-a-Service model with HPE GreenLake, which is now one of the fastest-growing businesses in HPE. Today, HPE GreenLake has more than 740 customers worldwide and in 2019 generated over 200% order growth in the channel. In June 2019, HPE committed to offer its entire portfolio as-a-Service by 2022, through a range of subscription based, pay-per-use and as-a-Service offerings.
HPE Launches as-a-Service Hybrid Cloud Platform
To address some of the challenges and barriers to as-a-Service adoption referenced in the study, HPE also announced the launch of HPE GreenLake Central, an advanced software package that provides users with an as-a-Service portal and operational console to run, manage and optimize their entire hybrid IT estate.
HPE claims that GreenLake Central gives users a unified digital front-end and single control plane across public and private cloud, data center and edge workloads. This platform, HPE said, provides the foundation for digital transformation initiatives by empowering developers and line-of-business leaders with greater speed, simplicity and choice and gives finance, IT, legal and security teams greater visibility, flexibility, and cost and compliance control.