When it comes to the world of hybrid cloud, 2021 made one thing clear – the one vendor approach to cloud is dead. A recent study by IBM surveying almost 7,200 C-suite executives across 28 industries and 47 countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reinforced this fact, with none of respondents in the UAE reporting using single private or public cloud in 2021, down from 43 percent in 2019.
This has established hybrid cloud as the winning IT architecture of the future. The findings indicate that the cloud market has entered the hybrid, multi-cloud era and concerns around vendor lock-in, security, compliance and interoperability remain paramount.
The implications of vendor lock-in have become painfully clear – lack of innovation, angst over security and concerns with reliability. COVID-19 provided a burning platform to accelerate digital transformation and companies started rethinking the value of keeping applications on-premises – being more deliberate about which applications go the cloud, and which remain.
The case for a hybrid, multi-cloud approach has never been clearer. So, what’s next? Through the study, we have taken a closer look  into what 2022 holds for hybrid cloud in the region.
Enterprises will strategically migrate workloads and denounce vendor lock-in
As organisations move further into their hybrid and multicloud journeys, their focus will shift towards determining which workloads go where. IBM’s study found that 71 percent of respondents in the UAE said workloads being completely portable with no vendor lock-in is important or extremely important to the success of their digital initiatives; with nearly 64 percent of respondents in the UAE viewing vendor lock-in as a significant obstacle to improving business performance in most or all parts of their cloud estate. Early on in their cloud journeys, organisations often moved simple workloads to the cloud and now they are evaluating migrating more mission-critical, complex workloads as they embrace modernisation. In the year ahead, they’ll need to take inventory of their IT environments to select which workloads and applications are best suited for the cloud and which should remain on-premises.
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Future of cloud computing: Security will be front and centre as cyber threats grow
One of the many reasons why organisations are increasingly adopting a hybrid, multi-cloud approach is to mitigate vendor concentration risk as cyber threats grow. The IBM study found that infrastructure complexity is creating cracked doors that cybercriminals are exploiting, with 80 percent of respondents in the UAE saying data security being embedded throughout the cloud architecture is important or extremely important, in most cases, to successful digital initiatives. 54 percent of respondents in the UAE also indicated that improving cybersecurity and reducing security risks are among their largest business and IT investments. With data protection top of mind enterprises will also prioritise security designed with one single point of control so they can gain access to a holistic view of threats and mitigate complexity in the year ahead.
Preparing for data governance: The rise of industry clouds
As organisations grapple with security and compliance, nearly 56 percent of respondents in the UAE agree industry-related regulatory compliance is a significant obstacle. Adhering to compliance and security requirements is especially important for highly regulated industries such as the financial services sector and government agencies for example. As these industries strive to meet the demands of today’s digital-first customers and constituents, cloud adoption is evolving towards specialised clouds. Industry-specific platforms will increasingly be adopted to help them balance innovation with stringent compliance protocols. By choosing the right platform – one with built-in controls – they will be able to innovate at the pace of change, ensuring they don’t get left behind while their industry puts new regulations into place or modifies existing ones.
Whilst no one knows exactly how 2022 will play out, we can be sure the last two years have been a turning point for digital transformation. Around the world, companies are accelerating their digital transformation journeys: adopting new business models, moving workloads to the cloud and digitalising their operations. We fully expect hybrid cloud to continue playing a fundamental role in driving the innovation needed to build resiliency and open new opportunities for organisations in the future.
