Hybrid cloud adoption is on the rise among Indian businesses but security, compliance and skills gap are impeding progress says IBM

• IBM’s survey shows a strong correlation between hybrid cloud adoption and progress in digital transformation.
  
• In India, 85% of respondents have adopted a hybrid cloud approach, which can help drive digital transformation.
  
• 66% of respondents in India say their team lacks the skills needed to be proficient in data management.
  

A study conducted by IBM has found that 85% of respondents in India have adopted the hybrid cloud, which can help drive digital transformation, yet a majority of them are struggling with the complexity to make all their cloud environments work together.

The IBM Transformation Index: State of Cloud survey revealed that when it comes to managing their cloud applications, 37% of respondents in India cite security as the top barrier for integrated workloads. Compliance hurdles and lack of available talent are other challenges that continue to hamper cloud strategy or documentation centres in India.

Only 30% of Indian respondents manage their hybrid cloud environments holistically, the survey found.

“Indian organisations must quickly take stock of where they are on their cloud journey and focus on bridging the gaps related to skills, security, compliance, among others. A pragmatic holistic approach to hybrid cloud can drive immense business value by accelerating innovation, improving cost efficiency and increasing productivity,” said Viswanath Ramaswamy, vice president, technology, IBM Technology Sales, IBM India/ South Asia.

Respondents to the survey say cybersecurity (50%) and data governance (49%) are the top challenges to fully integrating their business ecosystems into the cloud.

Furthermore, skills and talent shortages are also impeding their business’s cloud objectives. About 66% of respondents in India say their team lacks the skills needed to be proficient. This is also preventing organisations from leveraging the power of partnerships – about 39% of respondents say a lack of technical skills is holding them back from integrating ecosystem partners into cloud environments.

“While our research found the lack of cloud skills as a major challenge, it is encouraging to note that 81% of the Indian respondents said they are creating new positions and teams to fulfil the need for more cloud skills,” Ramaswamy added.

With regulations on the rise, so too are compliance challenges. About 57% of respondents believe that ensuring compliance in the cloud is currently too difficult and 33% cite regulatory compliance issues as a key barrier for integrating workloads across private and public IT environments. These challenges span the globe and are especially prevalent in countries such as Singapore, China, India and Japan.

The survey also pointed to a strong correlation between hybrid cloud adoption and progress in digital transformation. In fact, 76% of respondents think it’s difficult to realise the full potential of a digital transformation without having a solid hybrid cloud strategy in place. However, only 39% of Indian respondents said they have proven the benefits of cloud and are now focused on using it more fully.

The IBM survey was conducted online in 12 countries, including India, among 3,014 IT and business professionals.

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