Local organizations exploring more sophisticated cloud technologies but are hampered by skill shortages.
Rackspace Technology, a leading end-to-end, multi-cloud technology solutions company, has announced the Multi-cloud Annual Research Report 2022 that finds that Singapore organizations are becoming more comfortable with more sophisticated ‘Cloud 2.0’ technologies, even as they confront difficulties in hiring and retaining IT talent.
Among the 120 local IT leaders in Singapore across industries, though cloud development continues to be a top priority for local organizations, such that 60% do not envision owning a data center in five years, a resounding 75% of IT decision-makers said that a scarcity of talent is inhibiting the adoption of new cloud development methods.
The survey also finds local organizations’ top cloud priorities evolving, from ‘basics’ such as agility (24%) and scalability (36%) and toward more sophisticated issues such as security (37%) and compliance (33%). Moreover, an increased appetite for risk among IT professionals can be seen in their enthusiasm for exploring edge technologies (41%) and containers (54%), while over half plan to invest in hyperscale providers.
“The cloud is no longer a shiny new object– it is a nearly universally accepted technology, and there is almost no organization that is not currently in the process of transforming itself via the cloud,” said Jeff DeVerter, Chief Technology Evangelist, Rackspace Technology.
“At the same time, there are a number of barriers standing in the way of that transformation, most notably a dearth of IT talent. More than ever, organizations will need to rely on external expertise to achieve their cloud goals, as they continue to shed legacy infrastructure and ask the cloud to do more.”
IT talent is hard to find – and keep
The survey underscores a growing talent dilemma for local IT leaders, with morethan half (52%) of all respondents citing talent shortages as major business challenge, well ahead of concerns such as product shortages (36%) and wage growth (28%).
Companies are employing a variety of tactics to attract new IT talent, including promoting opportunities for training and development (43%), offering hybrid/flexible/work-from-home schedules (37%), increasing starting salaries (31%). A total of 23% are being even more aggressive, luring talent with large starting salaries or increases, while 16% are offering sign-on retention agreements and 15% are offering signing bonuses.
The cloud is here to stay – and it’s growing
“We have seen an evolution in the cloud discussion, away from some of the table stakes topics such as agility and scalability, and toward more sophisticated uses of cloud, such as containers and edge, that is shaping the future,” added DeVerter. “Not only are people excited to close their data centers. They are also more apt to take on more risk than they had been in the recent past.”
Sandeep Bhargava, Managing Director, Asia Pacific and Japan at Rackspace Technology, said: “Through the adoption of cloud technology, organizations have benefited from improved customer experience, and they have recognized the value that cloud offers when it comes to innovation and staying ahead of competition.
“To continue to effectively leverage the benefits of cloud technology, businesses can address the challenge of hiring and retaining the much-needed IT talent in the region by joining forces with external cloud solutions providers.”
According to the survey, the majority of local respondents uses multi-cloud, with majorities saying they are using either AWS, Azure and/or Google Cloud. In addition, 73% are already finding new uses for single tenant and/or private cloud infrastructure, while over half (56%) said they plan to run serverless applications. A total of 28% say their applications currently run on serverless technology, including functions such as automating workflows, scaling IoT apps, enabling virtual assistants/chatbots and running SaaS functions.
When asked how cloud is aiding innovation:
- 50% say it is improving customer experience and ease of use
- 45% say is enabling faster testing and deployment of new products and services
- 43% say it is providing limitless compute and storage
- 34% say it is enhancing personalized experiences for customers
- 31% say it provides the ability to scale up and down on demand
Security driving need for outside expertise
Survey respondents cited security as the most important factor to consider when choosing a cloud environment (37%), ahead of scalability (36%), compliance (33%) and flexibility/agility (24%). Security is also the leading reason companies use external partners. In addition, more than half of respondents (51%) cite security as their biggest barrier to using serverless.
