INTELLIGENT DATA CENTRES
Organisations are
building the foundation
to support digital
transformation by
embracing cloud,
automation and
orchestration.
With consumer and corporate data at risk due to persistent and
emergent threats, organisations are ramping up web application
firewall deployments to protect their apps. Respondents who have
a web application firewall currently deployed tend to feel more
confident in their ability to withstand application-layer attacks,
although this confidence is more pronounced for on-premises
deployments. Organisations with applications deployed in the
cloud are challenged to move from network-focused security to
application-centric solutions.
Nearly three out of four respondents cite automation as being
important to their IT operations, and they are taking a strategic
approach to leveraging it to optimise processes, scale to meet
demand, and respond to incidents. Almost half have settled on a
single automation framework, while two-thirds have standardised
on a single scripting and deployment toolset. Container
orchestration through proprietary and open-source systems
continues to grow in popularity.
Organisations are relying on the cloud to deliver the agility necessary for
digital transformation projects.
Digital transformation is driving the need for automation and orchestration
to IT systems and processes, according to 55% of the respondents.
Key findings
Digital transformation inspires new architectures and IT
optimisation initiatives: Optimising IT infrastructure and
processes remains the primary driver for digital transformation
projects. Cloud adoption and automation provide the speed,
space, and scalability required by organisations.
Multi-cloud enables the best cloud for the app strategy: Most
organisations pursue a best-of-breed strategy for each application
deployment, leading to multi-cloud architectures. Nonetheless,
IT organisations are still required to provide their distributed
application portfolio with ubiquitous security and performance,
no matter where each app resides.
Application services are the gateways to the future: On average,
organisations take advantage of 16 different application services to
keep their apps fast, safe, and available. Security is still the most
important application service, but application gateway services
emerged as key services to be deployed in the next 12 months.
Security confidence falls as multi-cloud rises: Digital
transformation drives organisations to deliver more apps from
the cloud, yet organisational confidence to withstand an attack
IT optimisation provides the foundation of digital transformation
initiatives, and is also viewed as the primary benefit according to
72% of respondents.
has taken a hit due to lack of experience and expertise in securing
applications deployed in public clouds. Organisations that
deployed web application firewalls WAFs were most confident in
their security, both in public and private clouds.
Automation and orchestration, full steam ahead: IT is
embracing programmability – and is standardising their
automation and orchestration environments – to realise leaner IT
with the goal of reducing OpEx. The use of containers ticks up as
organisations seek faster, smarter scale through new application
architectures and deployment models.
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