In 2019, research by technology giant IBM saw that 51% of executives in the Philippines adopted a single-vendor cloud approach. Fast forward to three years later, the numbers are down to only 5% realizing the benefits of hybrid or multi-cloud strategy.

The global study, conducted by IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) in cooperation with Oxford Economics, surveyed almost 7,200 C-suite executives across 28 industries and 47 countries, including the Philippines. The findings indicate that the cloud market has entered the hybrid, multi-cloud era, and concerns around vendor lock-in, security, compliance and interoperability remain paramount.

The study found that public cloud adoption is evolving toward industry clouds with nearly 70% of global respondents in the government and financial services sectors citing industry-related regulatory compliance as an obstacle to the business performance of their cloud estate.

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“Not all cloud adoption journeys are created equal,” said Christine Ravelo is Cloud, Data & AI, and Security Leader of IBM Philippines. “At the beginning of their cloud journey, many companies experimented with several different clouds. This complexity is creating cracked doors that cybercriminals are exploiting, This architecture can create a Frankenstein monster (or ‘Frankencloud’) riddled with complexity and disconnected piece parts put together, which can spiral out of control and open the company up to major security threats.”

Digital initiatives

The IBM study also saw only 1% of respondents in the electronics, insurance, manufacturing, telco, transportation, and travel industries are using a single private or public cloud in 2021. Respondents in regulated industries, government (85%) and financial services (80%), cited governance and compliance tools being able to run across multiple clouds as important to the success of the digital initiatives.

Many companies are also recognizing the drawbacks of utilizing only one cloud vendor. The study saw that nearly 79% of respondents in the Philippines said workloads being completely portable with no vendor lock-in​ is important or extremely important to the success of their digital initiatives. Eighty-six percent (86%) of Filipino respondents said vendor lock-in​ is a significant obstacle to improving business performance in most or all parts of their cloud estate, compared to only 69% globally.

The study revealed that enterprises need to assess how they use the cloud in terms of adoption, velocity, migration, speed, and cost savings opportunity. Other recommendations include: 

• Focus on security and privacy. Determine where your critical workloads reside and scrutinize who and what has access to them. Regularly test that security controls and privacy policies are being adhered to, but also that improperly configured assets and software vulnerabilities are being promptly addressed.
• Ask which workloads should move to the cloud. Take inventory of the IT environment to successfully determine which workloads and applications will yield the most value in the cloud and which are better suited to stay on-premises. 
• Make data work for you. Analyze workloads using AI-driven tools and best practices to determine where and how to put them in the right place for the right reason. 
• Set a tactical approach. Address the technology trade-offs, such as selecting the best approach to modernize specific applications and manage important issues like security, governance, and disaster recovery.
• Determine the right team. Put a cross-disciplinary team of people to work rethinking how your enterprise creates value for its customers.

“The study’s findings made it clear that, for digital transformations to be successful, security, governance and compliance tools must run across multiple clouds and be embedded throughout hybrid cloud architectures,” Christine said.