Where migration toward the Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) previously happened in a gradual way, with much of the action coming from a few select verticals, this dynamic trend is now gaining broad-scale adoption in a wide range of functions and industries—and it’s only going to get more aggressive.
That’s one of the key findings in a sweeping research initiative conducted on the topic by HyTrust that surveys over 500 executives starting from the highest levels in large enterprises and SMBs alike, from a plethora of vertical industries. The HyTrust study is titled “Industry Experience: the 2016 State of the Cloud and Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) in Real-World Environments,” and it leverages the OnePoll service. It finds that many areas of operation have been migrated to the new paradigm.
“Without much fanfare, this critical technology advance has become woven into the basic fabric of businesses large and small,” said Eric Chiu, president of HyTrust. “The potential of virtualization and the cloud was always undeniable, but there was genuine concern over security and skepticism regarding the processes required. What we find in this research is that the challenges are being overcome, and every kind of function in every kind of industry is being migrated. There are some holdouts, to be sure, but they’re now the exception, and we’re betting they won’t stay that way for long.”
The extent of the migration is clear from the most basic question: “What workloads have been virtualized in your infrastructure?” The match of particular tasks in very different industries clearly cover functions that are seen as mission-critical. These include:
Tier 1 (critical) server workloads:
- Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 47%
- Healthcare/Biotech/Medtech/Life Sciences/Pharma: 55%
- Technology Companies/Corporations: 55%
Active Directory/Directory services systems:
- Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 51%
- Technology Companies/Corporations: 61%
Test/Development server workloads:
- Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 49%
- Healthcare/Biotech/Medtech/Life Sciences/Pharma: 52%
- Information research and analysis: 72%
- Technology Companies/Corporations: 72%
Network:
- Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 51%
- Technology Companies/Corporations: 68%
Storage:
- Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 53%
- Healthcare/Biotech/Medtech/Life Sciences/Pharma: 61%
The challenges
The large-scale migrations are particularly interesting in light of the many obstacles that have previously impeded planned moves to virtualized infrastructures. In fact, the survey reveals that not all concerns have been eliminated. When asked, “Which of the following issues have caused you/your organization the greatest concern, once migration to a software-defined data center has begun?” the respondents display the variety that has become a hallmark of this discipline. Again, matching functions to industries:
Data Security and breach concerns:
- Financial Services, banking, insurance, trading: 62%
- Healthcare/Biotech/Medtech/Life Sciences/Pharma: 58%
- Information research and analysis: 54%
- Manufacturing: 67%
- Technology Companies/Corporations: 68%
- Telecom: 68%
Effective monitoring and Visibility into Cloud Infrastructure
- Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 56%
- Information research and analysis: 61%
- Manufacturing: 59%
- Technology Companies/Corporations: 63%
Infrastructure-wide Security & Control
- Information research and analysis: 59%
- Manufacturing: 59%
- Technology Companies/Corporations: 66%
Next on the agenda
While the research makes clear that there is a huge amount of migration going on now, there may be much more to come. When asked what plans are there to move additional workloads to a public cloud this year, the estimates are nothing short of astounding:
- Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 82%
- Healthcare/Biotech/Medtech/Life Sciences/Pharma: 77%
- Information research and analysis: 81%
- Technology Companies/Corporations: 79%
- Retail: 53%
As mentioned above, there are still some noticeable holdouts. For example, 24% of the respondents in retail say they have no plans for more migrations, while almost as many say they’re not sure. Recruitment and HR are at least as resistant: Two-thirds of those queried, 67%, say they’re not sure about future initiatives.
There’s an app for that
The buzz of activity becomes even more revealing with a more granular look at types of technologies and related functionality being migrated. Participants were asked: “What types of applications or workloads is your organization moving to the public cloud in the future (not only in 2016, but at any time in the future)?” To start with, disaster recovery is a top priority, even for retailers, but the numbers get more ambiguous after that.
Workloads to Support Disaster Recovery
- Business Consulting and Management: 68%
- Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 67%
- Information research and analysis: 61%
- Retail: 71%
- Technology Companies/Corporations: 67%
Test/Development Server Workloads
- Business Consulting and Management: 55%
- Fin Serv, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 49%
- Information research and analysis: 54%
Active Directory/Directory Services Systems
- Business Consulting and Management: 47%
- Fin Serv, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 58%
- Retail: 35%
The platform issue
A different aspect of the variety inherent in virtualization can also be found in the choices available with regard to platforms. Survey participants were asked which platform they intended to pursue when moving (additional) workloads to a public cloud this year, and their answers include:
Amazon AWS
- Information research and analysis: 33%
- Healthcare/Biotech/Medtech/Life Sciences/Pharma: 29%
- Technology Companies/Corporations: 18%
Microsoft Azure
- Fin Serv, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 43 %
- Manufacturing: 50%
Securing the cloud
To be clear, the large-scale migrations now underway—and the additional initiatives currently in the works—are still accompanied by concerns over the security. This research effort queried respondents extensively on the issue, and there’s no doubt that most enterprises are taking numerous precautions. It’s also evident that organizations are implementing differing strategies to ensure optimal asset protection.
To offer a sharper analysis, the survey divided the questions between public and private clouds. First, survey participants were asked: “What are the data security requirements for your virtualized private cloud workloads?”
Encrypt the entire workload
- Business Consulting and Management: 39%
- Fin Serv, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 36%
- Information research and analysis: 34%
- Education and Universities: 32%
- Energy and Utilities: 27%
- Manufacturing: 26%
- Retail: 24%
Encrypt all production data in a workload
- Business Consulting and Management: 37%
- Retail: 35%
- Healthcare/Biotech/Medtech/Life Sciences/Pharma: 32%
- Fin Serv, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 24%
- Information research and analysis: 34%
- Energy and Utilities: 20%
- Manufacturing: 26%
Encrypt personally identifiable information (PII) data only
- Business Consulting and Management: 11%
- Energy and Utilities: 40%
- Education and Universities: 21%
- Information research and analysis: 16%
The security issue stays equally ambiguous when the focus turns to the other kind of option. Specifically, “What are the data security requirements for your public cloud workloads?
Encrypt the entire workload
- Business Consulting and Management: 55%
- Fin Serv, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 33%
- Information research and analysis: 32%
- Healthcare/Biotech/Medtech/Life Sciences/Pharma: 16%
- Education and Universities: 32%
- Energy and Utilities: 27%
- Manufacturing: 33%
- Retail: 29%
Encrypt all production data in a workload
- Business Consulting and Management: 18%
- Fin Serv, Banking, Insurance, Trading: 24%
- Information research and analysis: 32%
- Healthcare/Biotech/Medtech/Life Sciences/Pharma: 32%
- Education and Universities: 21%
- Energy and Utilities: 40%
- Manufacturing: 13%