In 2023, organizations have confronted an unprecedented degree of stress to digitally remodel with the rise of generative AI in addition to imperatives similar to sustainability, labor productiveness and safety. The “Cloud Transformation Report,” a brand new international 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 method to gas enterprise transformation, together with modernization, agility, safety, sustainability and the flexibility unlock the facility of generative AI.
Right here’s a take a look at the important thing drivers that impacted cloud transformation over the previous 12 months and what they imply for corporations on their cloud modernization journey:
Issues for adopting generative AI
This 12 months, generative AI captured the eye of enterprise leaders—nevertheless it additionally raised questions together with what’s the correct basis to speed up and scale affect? For a lot of organizations, the reply is a hybrid cloud method. The brand new research discovered that 68% of hybrid cloud adopters have already established formal, organization-wide insurance policies to direct their method to generative AI.
With the rise of generative AI comes an inflow of information. Whereas this may gas super enterprise improvements, it additionally requires strategic issues. When executing an AI technique, enterprises want to think about their present compute capability, the place knowledge resides—within the cloud, on premises, on the edge—how knowledge is accessed, essential safety controls, and how one can use current know-how investments successfully. Along with serving to ship enhanced reliability and efficiency, a hybrid cloud method can allow elevated agility with the flexibility to attach cloud and on-premises environments, eradicating limitations to versatile AI workflows.
Addressing safety and compliance considerations
In the case of generative AI, enterprises are additionally involved concerning the potential publicity of delicate knowledge. For instance, 45% of cloud leaders cited considerations about cybersecurity or privateness and confidentiality of information and data 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, similar to safety, when contemplating the know-how. These organizations are much less prone to have a proper method to AI than another industries, however they’re displaying progress: 57% of banks and monetary markets organizations, 54% of insurers and 54% of life sciences/pharma establishments have adopted a proper method to the know-how to date.
For extremely regulated industries which might be tasked with safeguarding essential knowledge, 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 important to mitigate threat.
Overcoming expertise challenges
The report additionally exhibits persistent obstacles to extra widespread cloud adoption — maybe none as nice as the continuing expertise hole. For instance, 58% of world resolution 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 similar 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
Just lately, sustainability has been tied to broader enterprise objectives and change into a bigger precedence for know-how investments for organizations throughout industries. But as generative AI grows, the rise in knowledge processing required for AI workloads does too. This will current new challenges for organizations that wish to scale back their greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions.
With the correct instruments in place, cloud can assist enterprises monitor, handle and report on sustainability objectives — together with for companions and third events. In reality, our findings decided that 42% of world resolution makers verify they’re already utilizing the cloud to assist deploy, monitor and handle sustainability objectives internally.
Trying to the long run
With extra enterprises embarking on their AI journeys, it should change into essential for these organizations to make sure they’ve the correct infrastructure and expertise in place to help these initiatives. Organizations that shift to an agile, safe knowledge construction with a hybrid cloud structure will probably 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 Enterprise Worth findings. Excited by getting began in your transformation journey? Listed below are some assets:
[1] This research was carried out in partnership with Harris Ballot, an impartial analysis agency.
