In 2023, organizations have confronted an unprecedented degree of strain to digitally remodel with the rise of generative AI in addition to imperatives equivalent to sustainability, labor productiveness and safety. The “Cloud Transformation Report,” a brand new world survey from the IBM Institute for Enterprise Worth (IBV), discovered that many main enterprises share a typical basis to digital transformation—a transparent hybrid cloud technique.¹ These companies cite a number of key advantages to utilizing a hybrid cloud strategy to gasoline enterprise transformation, together with modernization, agility, safety, sustainability and the flexibility unlock the ability of generative AI.
Right here’s a have a look at the important thing drivers that impacted cloud transformation over the previous yr and what they imply for corporations on their cloud modernization journey:
Concerns for adopting generative AI
This yr, generative AI captured the eye of enterprise leaders—but it surely additionally raised questions together with what’s the best basis to speed up and scale affect? For a lot of organizations, the reply is a hybrid cloud strategy. The brand new examine discovered that 68% of hybrid cloud adopters have already established formal, organization-wide insurance policies to direct their strategy to generative AI.
With the rise of generative AI comes an inflow of knowledge. Whereas this will gasoline super enterprise improvements, it additionally requires strategic concerns. When executing an AI technique, enterprises want to contemplate their present compute capability, the place information resides—within the cloud, on premises, on the edge—how information is accessed, crucial safety controls, and find out how to use current know-how investments successfully. Along with serving to ship enhanced reliability and efficiency, a hybrid cloud strategy can allow elevated agility with the flexibility to attach cloud and on-premises environments, eradicating obstacles to versatile AI workflows.
Addressing safety and compliance issues
In terms of generative AI, enterprises are additionally involved concerning the potential publicity of delicate information. For instance, 45% of cloud leaders cited issues about cybersecurity or privateness and confidentiality of knowledge and knowledge as the important thing impediment of their push to implement generative AI. The findings point out that extremely regulated industries are more and more weighing dangers, equivalent to safety, when contemplating the know-how. These organizations are much less more likely to have a proper strategy to AI than another industries, however they’re exhibiting progress: 57% of banks and monetary markets organizations, 54% of insurers and 54% of life sciences/pharma establishments have adopted a proper strategy to the know-how up to now.
For extremely regulated industries which can be tasked with safeguarding important information, there’s lots on the road. To keep away from blind spots, a holistic safety technique that gives visibility throughout a whole hybrid cloud infrastructure is significant to mitigate threat.
Overcoming expertise challenges
The report additionally exhibits persistent obstacles to extra widespread cloud adoption — maybe none as nice as the continued expertise hole. For instance, 58% of world determination makers say that cloud expertise stay a substantial problem and 72% of organizations have created new positions to meet the necessity for cloud expertise. Inside particular person industries, this deficiency is even better: 79% in extremely regulated industries equivalent to banking and monetary markets, in addition to 81% in transportation and journey, and 79% in chemical compounds and petroleum.
Placing sustainability initiatives within the highlight
Lately, sustainability has been tied to broader enterprise targets and turn into a bigger precedence for know-how investments for organizations throughout industries. But as generative AI grows, the rise in information processing required for AI workloads does too. This will current new challenges for organizations that wish to cut back their greenhouse gasoline (GHG) emissions.
With the best instruments in place, cloud might help enterprises monitor, handle and report on sustainability targets — together with for companions and third events. The truth is, our findings decided that 42% of world determination makers verify they’re already utilizing the cloud to assist deploy, monitor and handle sustainability targets internally.
Seeking to the longer term
With extra enterprises embarking on their AI journeys, it’s going to turn into important for these organizations to make sure they’ve the best infrastructure and expertise in place to assist these initiatives. Organizations that shift to an agile, safe information construction with a hybrid cloud structure will seemingly be the winners of tomorrow — armed with a powerful basis from which to compete sooner or later AI-driven panorama.
View the complete IBM Institute for Business Value findings. Involved in getting began in your transformation journey? Listed here are some assets:
[1] This examine was performed in partnership with Harris Ballot, an impartial analysis agency.
