The high cost of cloud agnosticism
While some organisations see the value of having multiple cloud suppliers, there's no rush to diversify, finds research
UK IT leaders continue to be concerned about cloud lock in, but despite increased dependency on cloud services since the pandemic, there's no great rush to diversify.
Computing's annual survey of cloud strategies saw 9% of 171 IT leaders polled saying they take active measures to avoid lock-in, with another 42% saying it's something they are aware of. A total of 17% felt they could overcome potential lock-in problems (11%), or that the simplicity of sticking with one supplier offset any risk of finding it hard to leave.
These findings are broadly similar to last year's. The steep increases in some cloud costs don't seem to have translated into a move towards diversification, perhaps because all suppliers have been affected by rising energy prices and supply chain issues.
More than half were already using more than one cloud services provider (CSP) for IaaS/PaaS. Thirty-nine percent said they used one main CSP; 37% two; 19% three; and 6% four or more. For a third (32%), this was a deliberate strategy to avoid lock-in or over-dependence on one supplier and for 19% it was to take advantage of functionality that only another cloud provider could supply, but for others it was a situation that had evolved organically.
More clouds the merrier?
So are IT leaders looking to broaden their supply base? For two-thirds (66%) the answer was no. Cloud agnosticism, while attractive in theory, is simply too complex.
"It's difficult and complex to add more clouds," said an enterprise architect in aerospace. Indeed, the complexity of adding another supplier, the possible extra costs and the need to hire new operatives outweigh any agility gains for many.
"Our focus is on delivering cloud benefits, not integrating more and more solutions," said a head of technology services in the NHS.
"It will cost too much to have a multi-cloud strategy at this point. However, we will continue to look at this," said a CTO at an engineering consultancy.
In short, keeping one's options open comes at a cost, but for some it was a price worth paying, or even a necessity. Often these were organisations that supplied services based on cloud, or those with customers or users that demand a choice.
"We're primarily Azure, with a little AWS, but looking to use more AWS where it has better functionality," offered a CTO at a university.
Some organisations find their CSP cannot offer sufficient support when their situation changes, or won't at the current rates.
"With new acquisitions, there is a need for more services and may come as added cost if it's a service we are not getting from an existing provider," said a development manager at a software company.
"As business grows and diversifies, we need to adapt to what clients require," added a ESG manager at a financial consultancy. "At the same time we need to ensure compliance with an ever broader regulatory framework."
Automation to ease the burden
The complexity of managing multiple clouds, the skills required and the challenge of managing costs are the main things preventing organisations from being cloud agnostic. However, these are areas where increased automation could tip the balance.
The tricky tasks of managing workloads between clouds and particularly controlling costs will, to some extent at least, be handed over to machines. After improving productivity and security, managing cloud workloads and costs were some of the key areas where IT leaders saw potential for AI/ML over the next two or three years.
Join us online on 22nd February for Deskflix: Hybrid & Multi-cloud where more results of this research will be revealed.