Cloud Trends 2021: Where do Swiss companies stand?
Where do Swiss companies stand on the way to the cloud? Which IT infrastructure will be used for which data and applications in the future? Which advantages will tip the balance, and what changes should decision-makers initiate now? These questions are addressed in the study commissioned by Interxion: A Digital Realty Company.
The "Cloud Trends 2021" study was conducted in 2020 for the second time with a total of 150 Swiss IT decision-makers. Their responses only partially confirmed the predictions they had made in 2018: from the on-premise focus in 2018 (47.7 % of Swiss respondents store their data in on-premise solutions - either in their own data center or in a private cloud), data actually migrated towards the public cloud by 2020, albeit only half as fast as expected.
Cloud Trends 2021: Public cloud share will continue to grow
By the end of 2020, more than half of Swiss IT decision-makers wanted to outsource 51.4 % of their data to the public cloud in 2018; in fact, their own data center still accounts for 39.4 % and public clouds for only 45%. The colocation share increased from 12 % to 13.2 % percent since 2018. Overall, it can be observed that the migration of data to the cloud is only happening half as fast as in the past.
as expected by Swiss decision-makers in 2018.
For 2022, respondents expect the following picture when it comes to application location: public clouds 55.4 % (+16 %), colocation 12.9 % (-0.3 % and own data center 27.4 % (-12 %)x - so the big push into clouds has been delayed by 2 years.
Applications that stay close
However, not all data migrates to the same infrastructure. Four groups can be distinguished. The first group comprises the applications that remain in the vicinity: For ERP, CRM, supply chain management and storage, a migration towards the cloud is discernible. In 2018, up to three quarters of the data load is still in the company's own data center. By the end of 2020, they have already been distributed much more strongly to colocation and public cloud solutions, albeit much less strongly than expected. The cloud share is currently 26.4 % on average. Business-relevant data does not need to be scaled quickly, and security and direct access are also important. For
However, by 2022, over 50 % of these critical applications are expected to be sourced from the public cloud.
The localists
The second group can be called the localists: HR, marketing automation and backup were already strongly represented in the public cloud in 2018. In the case of HR applications, 56.7 % of respondents will be using the public cloud at the end of 2020 (+15 %), marketing automation 73.3 % (+9.2 %) and backup 44.2 % (+2.3 %). The reason: here it is a matter of flexible access and secured performance. In the area of marketing automation, the data must also be easily available to external partners and service providers. For HR and marketing automation, stagnation is expected up to 2022, while the cloud share for backup is expected to grow by 20 %.
The cloud mixed models
For database applications, a broad spread across deployment models was expected in 2018. This has not materialized by the end of 2020 and own data centers continue to dominate here. Everything from the private cloud in the company's own data center to the hyperscaler is in use here. In this application group, it depends on the industry and the specific data handled in each case which infrastructure offers the most advantages.
Your own data center deserted? Not as fast as expected!
In 2018, Swiss decision-makers expected a large migration to the cloud. But instead of only 26.3 % of all applications, 39.4 % will still be operated as a monolithic application or in a private cloud in their own data center at the end of 2020. The resilience of the own data center is particularly well demonstrated by the Development/Testing area, for which 85 % public cloud shares were expected in 2018. Instead, the real shares at the end of 2020 show that there has been no more significant shift to the public cloud. The area even declines slightly from 72 % to 71 %.
2020: The multi-cloud world
The study shows that the trend toward multi-cloud is continuing or has solidified. As early as 2018, 60 % of the decision-makers surveyed reported that they use up to five service providers for Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service. By the end of 2020, 64.7 percent said they were already using up to 10 cloud providers. Here, the focus has clearly shifted towards diversity.
Cloud Connectivity Hubs are the interface to all infrastructures
IT decision-makers looking for the right infrastructure for their future business success will find the best location in so-called Cloud Connectivity Hubs. There, they can operate their own private clouds securely and efficiently, but also have secure, high-performance access to hyperscalers and local public clouds through the colocation location. In this way, hybrid clouds can be set up efficiently. This is also shown by the growth of colocation as a deployment model from 12 % to 13.6 %.
Source: Interxion
