Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 16 | Page 66

FINAL WORD Multi cloud, hybrid cloud, dominate annual investments Adrian Pickering, Regional Head for Middle East and North Africa at Red Hat. R ed Hat surveyed more than 400 Red Hat customers from around the globe about their annual priorities, including top challenges, budget allocation, cloud deployment strategies, and plans for emerging technologies. Last year’s survey revealed that most respondents were on the digital transformation journey and looking to shift their investments to modern infrastructure and applications. The Red Hat Global Customer Tech Outlook 2018 saw a bit of a shift from previous years, however, and some findings highlighted respondents’ mind shift towards doing more with existing IT investments. Others exemplified the role cloud initiatives are playing within organisations. Here is what we learned from the Red Hat Global Customer Tech Outlook 2018. IT spend is shifting While spend in 2017 focused on optimising existing IT, most respondents are planning to spend more of their budgets in the following areas: delivering cloud infrastructure and services 36%; integrating data and applications 76%; and developing and deploying modern applications 30%. Cloud initiatives are expected to continue growing and maturing in 2018: As in 2017, funding for cloud infrastructure was cited as a top focus for investments among survey respondents in 2018 36%, with hybrid and multi-cloud favored. Most organisations surveyed 61%, also now define their cloud infrastructure strategies as hybrid, as compared to last year, when it was a split between hybrid 30% and private 38%. While hybrid cloud is the hot strategy, some respondents are still going beyond 66 For most organisations, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and IoT, are not high priority areas in 2018, according to Adrian Pickering at Red Hat. hybrid coordination to workload portability across more than one cloud concurrently, using multi-cloud strategies for their apps. About 37% of responding organisations are moving towards a multi-cloud future, either deploying or planning to deploy a multi- cloud infrastructure in 2018. building blocks of digital transformation— with investments in integration, cloud infrastructure, and modern apps. This is perhaps a good indication that among enterprise customers, this is simply how they are delivering more modern services now—no transformation tag needed. Modernising IT investments top challenge and priority Emerging technologies are still emerging While most organisations were tackling digital transformation according to our 2017 survey, this year one priority for many respondents is addressing the challenges associated with optimising and modernising existing IT investments, which 42% of survey respondents ranked as a top challenge in 2018. Additional top challenges include improving security 47%, automating processes 36%, and integration of data, processes and apps 26%. Additionally, 31% of respondents consider modernising existing IT investments a funding priority this year. Over 50% of respondents reported they have no plans to conduct research or implement artificial intelligence or machine learning solutions in 2018. A little over 40% said the same of the Internet of Things. For most IT organisations, these emerging technology areas are still emerging and not a top priority in 2018. As upstream open source innovation advances these areas, we expect to see adoption plans follow suit in future surveys. Modernise first, transform second OR digital transformation by any other name? Everyone is talking about digital transformation, but are most organisations executing on those initiatives? Surprisingly, our data showed that only 19% of respondents plan to execute on digital transformation initiatives in 2018. Because modernising existing IT remains a top challenge 42%, we believe this shows that respondents are focusing on optimising those investments and creating a more agile infrastructure before moving ahead with full digital transformation. That said, we also see evidence that organisations are implementing the For many organisations, cloud strategies are still coming together One-third of respondents say their organisations do not have a defined cloud strategy. This may be an indication that enterprise customers are still carefully watching the ever-evolving cloud landscape. For IT leaders who have defined their organisation’s cloud strategy, we see this as an indication that they may need to more clearly articulate that strategy across their organisations. Red Hat conducted an online survey in September 2017 using TechValidate of a pool of Red Hat customers about their tech priorities and insights moving into 2018. Respondents were from all over the globe, representing the following regions: Asia Pacific; Europe, Middle East, Africa; Latin America; and North America.  Issue 16 INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS