VMware Research and Insights

Enterprises Find Multi-Cloud Strategies Critical for Success

Even so, our research with 2,258 organizations shows that many struggle with multi-cloud.

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Multi-cloud architectures help organizations:

Transform customer experiences
Scale the business and innovation
Drive employee productivity

Realizing these benefits is not easy.

Stakeholders report their top three challenges when using multiple public clouds.

Executives

Modernize RAN to Monetize 5G Services
  1. Inconsistent infrastructure API, database, network, security constructs
  2. Risk related to security, data, or privacy issues
  3. Increased or unplanned costs

Developers

Leader in True Multi-Cloud Observability
  1. Increased complexity from policies that manage individual environments
  2. Increased complexity from specialized tools
  3. Ability to manage/ optimize spend

Infrastructure teams

Modernize RAN to Monetize 5G Services
  1. Risk related to security, data, or privacy issues
  2. Securing identities, RBAC, IAM, configuration, audit, and compliance across environments
  3. Need to hire or maintain new, specialized skills to support public clouds

The enterprise technology stack has become more complicated than ever.

Applications need to be modernized.

68%

of developers want to expand use of modern application frameworks

  1. 61% for Retail
  2. 72% for Financial Services
  3. 79% for Healthcare
  4. 80% for Manufacturing
  5. 58% for Public Sector

Distributed work models are here to stay.

72%

of enterprise employees are working from non-traditional environments

  1. 63% for Retail
  2. 62% for Financial Services
  3. 58% for Healthcare
  4. 59% for Manufacturing
  5. 62% for Public Sector

Each cloud has different advantages.

72%

of developers want to expand use of modern application frameworks

  1. 68% for Retail
  2. 72% for Financial Services
  3. 59% for Healthcare
  4. 66% for Manufacturing
  5. 71% for Public Sector
1 | VMware FY22 H2 Benchmark: Digital Momentum, August 2021

The more clouds you use, the more complex everything becomes.

Look what happens when you increase the number of public clouds you use.

Click on each cloud tab

Application distribution by environment
Private Cloud
Public Cloud
Colocation
Edge
Other
Growth in app portfolio, through 2024
Share of applications deployed as containers today
1 | VMware FY22 H2 Benchmark: Digital Momentum, August 2021

Cloud platform operations are a top-down concern for executives.

To unlock the full value of multi-cloud, executives require consistency and control across clouds.

91

of executives are looking to improve “consistency across [their] public cloud environments”

52

of executives say [their] public clouds do not operate "perfectly in sync with one another"

39

of executives “struggle to have a common set of controls over [their] public clouds”

Top Executive goals for improving consistency

  • 1 Security and control
  • 2 Connectivity between apps
  • 3 Support for a wide range of apps
  • 4 App performance
  • 5 Ease of use
2 | VMware FY22 Q3 Executive Pulse, September 2021

More control leads to better business results.

The past year has seen a wave of strategic technology initiatives within, organizations, with a focus in four key areas.
Share of technology initiatives started between August 2020 and August 2021 [showing all industries]
EX: 25%
Security: 22%
Ops: 24%
CX: 29%
  • CX: Improving customer experience
  • EX: Improving employee experience
  • Ops: Improving efficiency / reducing costs
  • Security: Improving corporate governance, enhancing security and reducing risk

Industries have different priorities for these initiatives.

Industries have different priorities for these initiatives.

  1. Manufacturing
  2. Retail
  3. Financial Services
  4. Healthcare
  5. Public Sector
EX
Security
Ops
CX
  • 27% CX: Improving customer experience
  • 25% EX: Improving employee experience
  • 27% Ops: Improving efficiency / reducing costs
  • 21% Security: Improving corporate governance, enhancing security and reducing risk
EX
Security
Ops
Ops
CX
  • 31% CX: Improving customer experience
  • 27% EX: Improving employee experience
  • 24% Ops: Improving efficiency / reducing costs
  • 18% Security: Improving corporate governance, enhancing security and reducing risk
EX
Security
Ops
CX
  • 28% CX: Improving customer experience
  • 23% EX: Improving employee experience
  • 26% Ops: Improving efficiency / reducing costs
  • 23% Security: Improving corporate governance, enhancing security and reducing risk
EX
Security
Ops
CX
  • 31% CX: Improving customer experience
  • 24% EX: Improving employee experience
  • 24% Ops: Improving efficiency / reducing costs
  • 21% Security: Improving corporate governance, enhancing security and reducing risk
EX
Security
Ops
CX
  • 22% CX: Improving customer experience
  • 27% EX: Improving employee experience
  • 29% Ops: Improving efficiency / reducing costs
  • 22% Security: Improving corporate governance, enhancing security and reducing risk

To deliver on these initiatives, organizations are embracing multi-cloud architectures.

They use these specific actions:

CX

Build and deploy apps anywhere, serving customers faster everywhere

  • 1 Modernize IT infrastructure and apps for cloud
  • 2 Adopt cloud-native architecture and modern DevOps practices to introduce new products
  • 3 Deliver a seamless customer experience across every channel

Ops

Automate how data is leveraged between systems

  • 1 Automate and consolidate IT and data infrastructure
  • 2 Increase investments in advanced analytics, AI/ML and automation
  • 3 Modernize core apps and services

EX

Provide secure access between every service and every endpoint

  • 1 Modernize IT infrastructure and apps for cloud
  • 2 Deliver high-performance, secure access to apps and data from any device and location
  • 3 Improve remote workforce management tools (e.g. VDI)

Security

Safeguard all environments with an integrated, intrinsic security strategy

  • 1 Operationalize Zero Trust security across the IT environment
  • 2 Protect against ransomware and other endpoint and network threats
  • 3 More efficient threat detection
1 | VMware FY22 H2 Benchmark: Digital Momentum, August 2021

By applying these actions consistently
to their multi-cloud environments,
companies report dramatic results.

42%

faster time to release applications

35%

improvement in business productivity

35%

revenue increase from the IT initiative

41%

less IT hours spent on infrastructure

41%

less total cost spent on security incidents

36%

improvement in visibility and control of all devices

1 | VMware FY22 H2 Benchmark: Digital Momentum, August 2021

Explore how VMware Cross-Cloud™ services help reduce complexity and boost control across your multi-cloud environments.

Background and methodology

We surveyed:
20%

Countries

2258%

Organizations

350%

Software developers

751%

C-Suite technology decision makers (CIO, CTO, CISO, etc.)

Study 1

H2 Benchmark

The VMware H2 Benchmark, Digital Momentum study was fielded on behalf of VMware by Management Insight Technologies between July and August 2021.


The custom research was conducted in North America (U.S. and Canada), Western Europe (U.K., Germany and France) and APAC (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India and China) using a combination of web and telephone interviews.


Responses were collected from 1,800 IT leaders, IT decision-makers, and developers who are knowledgeable about and involved in decision making for cloud platforms. The sample targeted 10% SMB (2–999 employees), 30% commercial (1,000–4,999 employees), and 60% enterprise (5,000+ employees).

Base

  • Respondents: IT Decision Makers (n=900), Technical Influencers (n=540), Developers (n=360)
  • Total Sample Size: N=1800
  • Company Size: 2-999 employees (n=180), 1,000-4,999 (n=540), 5000+ employees (n=1080)
  • Geo: AMER (n=804), APJ (n=495), EMEA (n=501)
  • Cannot personally or have a family member that works for a competitor
EXPAND COLLAPSE

Study 2

Q3 Executive Pulse

The VMware Executive Pulse Q3 study was fielded between August 2021 and September 2021. The study is fielded each quarter by Qualtrics.


Custom research was conducted in the Americas (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, U.S.), Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, U.K., Spain, Sweden, Russia) and Asia Pacific (Australia, China, India, Japan, Singapore) using web-based surveys.


Responses were collected from 458 C-Suite and senior technology decision-maker respondents involved in app and infrastructure platform decisions. The sample targeted 46% commercial (1,000–4,999 employees), and 54% enterprise (5,000+ employees).

Base

  • Respondents: Senior IT Decision Makers (C-suite; VP level and higher)
  • Total Sample Size: N=458
  • Company Size: 1,000–4,999 employees (n=212), 5,000-19,999 employees (n=175), 20,000+ employees (n=71)
  • Geo: AMER (n=153), APJ (n=155), EMEA (n=150)
  • Cannot personally or have a family member that works for a competitor
EXPAND COLLAPSE