With the way that AWS and Microsoft dominate technology conversations, particularly now around AI and Gen-Ai, most business and IT decision makers would be forgiven for thinking that everyone is in the cloud. Whilst two thirds of organisations have some sort of footprint in a public cloud solution, 55% of all businesses are still reliant on traditional on premise systems^[1] so it’s really not quite as dominant as you might have been led to believe. 

You may in fact have noticed a change in how Senior Decision Making Boards are talking about their cloud strategy- We’ve seen a shift from the early days of cloud strategies being a black and white ‘all or nothing’ approach evolve into Cloud First, and now something more resembling’ cloud where appropriate’. Organisations are no longer expecting to be in the cloud by default. In fact, the buzz word of a few years back, MultiCloud is also proving to be somewhat less enthusiastically achieved then the market Thought Leaders may have predicted. Only 14% of organisations according to Flexeras report^[2] run in multiple hyperscale cloud platforms, with the real dominant approach proving to be a Hybrid approach.

When you take these two points together; the lower adoption of cloud than perhaps expected and the dominance of Hybrid cloud over multi or even Single cloud, the logic and reason start to become somewhat clearer. 

Because the truth is that adopting cloud is not easy. It is fraught with challenges and disruption and the two most commonly identified sinners are not going to blow you away, indeed it is the same two problem children that plague technology. 

Problem Child One: Costs.

Let’s start by discussing costs of the cloud. There are a lot of overwhelming stats out there illustrating this point – from Gartner’s view that if you run a highly optimised cloud environment, you’re still wasting 15% of your cost – through to 70% of companies not being sure exactly what they’re spending on the cloud^[3]. It’s of course, a recurring issue that the cloud has never fully accomplished true ease of transparency with costs, and those of us in the industry as AWS and Azure rose up, will remember not having any native tooling at all with which to review costs.

Problem Child Two: Skills 

The skills gap however is a much trickier issue to resolve. The simple truth is that finding the right people with the right skills and experience to effectively, securely and capably manage cloud deployments and environments is really hard. Only 36% of organisations consider that they have the right amount of expertise^[4] and what’s worse is that almost as many, consider their shortage to be significant. The sad thing is that this is not a new phenomenon, and has only been getting worse. Harvard Business Review pointed out almost the exact same issue in 2021^[5]. Worse, a lack of appropriate skills has now been highlighted to be the leading cause of cloud wastage^[6].

These two challenges have hindered the cloud from truly dominating technology in businesses for a while. Realistically it’s going to get worse as the drivers for cloud adoption are changing from enabling infrastructure to be scalable, flexible and more resilient to enabling customers to leverage their data for competitive advantage through AI, and more specifically Gen-AI. Whilst not trying to add to the fatigue in that particular discussion, it’s really important to note, that Gen-AI is bringing a new wave of adoption to Azure and AWS that’s focused on your data platforms whilst leaving your infrastructure largely alone. This will bring challenges, because your Azure foundation and landing zone doesn’t care if your workload is a custom built application, a virtual desktop experience, or a hefty OpenAI deployment, but the skills you need to look after each of those workloads, and the landing zone itself, are very different. 

The truth is that these two issues are not going to go away any time soon. The onus is on expert technology partners and service led providers to step up and help businesses make the best and most of their IT investments. 

So how can Ultima help ?

Ultima has always been known for a strong pedigree in infrastructure solutions. We invested early in developing cloud automation technologies under our Intelligent Automation team, and in 2021 we invested in additional cloud native skills, a global 24×7 helpdesk and acquired Just After Midnight. This acquisition added some of the best DevOps engineers and cloud architects in containers, cloud native and web technologies to further strengthen our cloud capabilities and customer proposition.

Our Group Cloud Team, now offers a full cloud services and solutions portfolio and access to the right expert skills. Front of mind is the need to support our customers with their two ‘problem children’ of cost and skills gap. 

To that end, our new combined cloud services focus on modularity to provide scalable services that support specific outcomes; any combination of which will solve your ‘gaps’ without encroaching on what you do, creating a tailored experience. 

In short, when you lack the skills, or time, to activate plans, implement improvements, or cut waste, you now have access to an even broader range of experienced talent at Ultima, from cloud engineers, FinOps practitioners and break fix support to Solution Architects, DevOps experts and managed services.  

Now you can rest assured that Ultima can meet you where you are, and help get you where you want to go.

Dominic Melly, Group Head of Cloud, Ultima

Dominic Melly is the Group Head of Cloud at Ultima, a leading IT services provider that delivers expert-led solutions for cloud, automation, security, and workspace. He has over a decade of experience in the IT industry, working with clients across various sectors and regions. He is passionate about helping clients and partners leverage the power of cloud to transform their businesses and achieve their objectives.

As the Group Head of Cloud, Dominic Melly oversees the cloud strategy, delivery, and operations for Ultima’s customers across private an public sectors. He leads a team of cloud architects, engineers, and consultants who design, implement, and manage cloud solutions for clients and partners. He also works closely with cloud vendors, such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud, to ensure Ultima stays ahead of the curve and delivers the best value and service to its customers.

Dominic Melly believes that cloud is the key to digital transformation, as it enables businesses to be more agile, innovative, and efficient. He sees cloud as a catalyst for change, not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of culture, processes, and business transformation mindset. 

Dominic Melly is also a fan of clear communication and simplicity. He strives to demystify cloud and make it accessible and understandable for everyone, regardless of their technical background or level of expertise. He avoids jargon and complexity, and focuses on delivering practical and pragmatic solutions that meet the needs and expectations of his clients and partners.

Join Dominic Melly at the Cloud Success webinar on 24^th October, 10 – 11.00am 

Register now or contact [email protected] for more information

References:

^[1] https://www.cloudzero.com/blog/cloud-computing-statistics/

^[2] https://info.flexera.com/CM-REPORT-State-of-the-Cloud-2024-Thanks

^[3] https://www.cloudzero.com/blog/cloud-computing-statistics/

^[4] https://www.hashicorp.com/state-of-the-cloud#skills

^[5] https://www.splunk.com/en_us/pdfs/resources/analyst-report/hbr-the-state-of-cloud-driven-transformation-2021.pdf

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