Wipro-Cisco study: Hybrid cloud is the new normal

Key findings:

- Virtualization is a key imperative to private/hybrid cloud enablement across sectors - 97% in BFSI, 87% in Retail and 83% in Manufacturing

- Cloud investments: Cost reduction remains top of the mind in India (78%), whereas expanding existing virtualization Investments is critical in both Australia (43%) and Singapore (47%)

- Security tops the list of private cloud-related capabilities organizations are seeking

Forrester Consulting conducted a study on behalf of Wipro Ltd and Cisco Systems that forecasts large enterprises combining private and public cloud operations, often described as "hybrid cloud computing". The September 2013 study titled "Transforming The Data Center -Navigating The Journey From Virtualization To Private Clouds" notes that "hybrid cloud" is becoming the new normal.

IT decision-makers report great interest in using IaaS in a hybrid cloud approach to complement on premises capacity, rather than replace it, and are planning for the impact that it will have on network operations and spending. While a hybrid approach promises cost savings and significant gains in IT and business flexibility, some concerns remain around how to manage and integrate on-premises infrastructure with cloud services in a hybrid cloud architecture.

The study notes that 60% of the respondents believe virtualization will be the primary technology over the next 12 months. Banking, financial services and insurance companies strongly recognize the link between virtualization and private/hybrid cloud enablement with 97% of those surveyed highlighting this aspect.

Historically, costs have been the initial motivator for virtualizat ion and cloud adoption, but the study found that security is at par with cost as a primary driver for a hybrid cloud approach. 78% of Indian respondents feel that cost reduction and resource optimization drive cloud investments and 76% believe that security is one of the key capabilities required to enable private/hybrid cloud.

The study also states that 25% of the respondents find that adopting IaaS as-a-service technology will drive IT organizations towards a hybrid cloud approach. More than half of those planning to use or using IaaS see "on-demand flexibility for hosting workloads on-premises or at a cloud service provider" as a key benefit of going hybrid with their IaaS strategy. Flexibility to respond quickly to business needs also topped the list of key benefits associated with a hybrid model. This survey gathered insights from 140 senior IT decision-makers in Australia, India and Singapore. The respondents were asked about their current and future private/hybrid cloud and virtualization adoption plans. Respondents were also asked to identify key drivers and inhibitors that will determine the speed of adoption for private and hybrid cloud deployment models. Forrester also leveraged its Foresights Budgets and Priorities Tracker Survey, Q4 2012, which provided insights from a survey of 3,659 senior IT and business decision-makers based in Asia Pacific.

According to the study, organizations that embrace private/hybrid cloud approaches alongside traditional data center capabilities will be far better positioned to support, encourage and innovate within their organizations based on simplified, more efficient access to compute resources and capabilities.