Enterprises in the UK are increasingly embracing a cloud-first approach to their IT investments and are looking to service providers to help them migrate more of their workloads to the public cloud, according to a new report published by Information Services Group, a technology research and advisory firm.
The 2021 ISG Provider Lens Public Cloud – Services & Solutions Report for the UK finds many large enterprises interested in hybrid cloud environments, which enable continued use of legacy IT systems, even though an increasing number of companies anticipate a time when they would migrate all of their IT assets to the cloud. Small and medium-sized enterprises, meanwhile, are looking at infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) options to replace their depreciated hardware assets.
The move to the cloud is expected to be the primary driver of IT market growth in the U.K. in the coming years, said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research.
“Even if ‘cloud-everything’ is still out of reach for many UK enterprises, the momentum is growing, with many companies increasingly migrating more of their IT workloads to the cloud and taking on more complex migration projects,” he said.
A growing number of UK companies are focused on implementing a multicloud approach. Many are outsourcing their multicloud environments and classic data centers to global and regional IT service providers, the report adds. By selecting the right technology and business partners, companies are able to focus on their core business functions and business expansion plans.
The report also sees a demand for integrated AI-led cloud managed services.
There are some barriers to a multicloud setup, the report adds. Companies often seek help with orchestration, which involves several moving parts in a complex setup to be operated in the public cloud. Enterprises are also worried about public cloud vendor lock-in and about interoperability between two or more cloud providers.
