Microsoft Azure leading the pack as multi-cloud strategies set to dominate future of cloud services

Multi-cloud strategies are emerging as a dominant part of the long-term IT roadmap, with Microsoft Azure the most popular public cloud vendor, a new report has found.

Ensono released the findings of its research report, A Snapshot of the Cloud in 2021. Ensono surveyed 500 full-time professionals across the U.S. and U.K. with cloud procurement decision-making power in a variety of industries including: healthcare, financial services/insurance, retail, public sector, manufacturing, professional services and utilities.

"This report captures a clear picture of the industry and reveals how companies' investments in cloud services have changed over the past year," says Bryan Doerr, executive vice president of product and technology at Ensono.

"With nearly half of respondents indicating they've chosen a new provider in the last year, it's clear that shares of the cloud market are completely up for grabs between the major providers," he says.

"What's most important for organisations right now is investing in the right cloud strategy for their IT workloads.

More than pricing or vendor incentives, security and technical requirements are top drivers of cloud decision-making, according to the study. More than half of respondents (56%) indicated that security considerations have a "significant impact" on the final decision when choosing a provider. In addition to organisations moving toward multi-cloud strategies, private cloud environments remain important to organisations attempting to make optimal workload-to-cloud placement decisions.

Some of the key findings from the survey include:

• Microsoft Azure ranks as the most popular public cloud provider among respondents (58%), followed by Google Cloud (41%), IBM (40%) and AWS (38%). However, only 1% said they have always had the same cloud provider or platform.
• Nearly half (46%) of respondents indicated they have chosen a new provider or platform within the last year — and more than a quarter (26%) have done so in the past six months. Only 1% said they have always had the same cloud provider or platform.
• Currently, 42% of respondents are pursuing a multi-cloud strategy.
• The overwhelming majority of private cloud users (80%) said better information security was the reason for using a private cloud environment.
• 89% of healthcare organisations and 81% of public sector respondents say they will continue to have a need for private cloud in the next 5 years.

"After major disruptions in the past year, the need for a modern technology stack is fuelling cloud adoption in every industry," Doerr says.

"To capitalise on the opportunities available in the market right now, cloud providers must meet the complex security and legacy workload needs of organisations," he says.

"With the right partner, companies can harness the power of the cloud to achieve their transformation goals.