Hybrid cloud to comprise half of enterprise market

In three years a considerable chunk of larger firms will have hybrid deployments, Gartner says

The outlook for hybrid cloud in the enterprise market is particularly good for the next three years, according to a special report from Gartner.

Nearly half of large organisations will have hybrid cloud deployments by the end of 2017, the analyst giant has announced – comparing it with the evolution of private cloud over the past three years.

The report, Hybrid Cloud: The Shift from IT Control to IT Coordination, found that private cloud has moved from an "aspiration" to a "tentative reality" for many over the past three years and hybrid implementations are at the same place today that private cloud was three years ago.

Thomas Bittman, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, suggested cost reduction is important but not the primary driver for implementation here.

"Virtualisation reduces capital expenses, and standards and automation reduce operational expenses. Adding usage metrics, self-service offerings and automated provisioning requires investment in technologies without a significant reduction in operational cost," Bittman said. "With this in mind, the driving factor for going that next step should primarily be agility."

IT providers therefore need to understand both where agility could make a difference to their services, and what new services would be useful in a more agile environment. And although private cloud technologies are relatively immature and customisation may be required, according to Gartner, business transformation that allows the organisation to make the best of such implementations is the much more difficult part of the equation.

An ingrained IT culture focused on technical expertise does not fit a fully automated, self-service model that requires a service-oriented, team approach, he suggested.

"Too often, private cloud projects are started by choosing a technology, but technology itself does not solve the transformational people and process issues," Bittman explained.

"It is much better to focus first on an approach that will provide transformation. In many cases, that means creating a separate organisation outside traditional IT processes, at least to incubate these projects, and focusing first on a simple project that has buy-in between IT and IT's customers."

The cloud vendor goats will be sorted from the sheep very quickly, with losers being acquired or going out of business in the next few years, he added.

"Vendors are promoting private cloud computing as the next thing for infrastructure and operations – and it is, but only for the right services," warned Bittman.