Cloud maturity lacking in APAC – IDC says MSPs could be the answer

New research has emerged that shows the majority of organisations in Asia Pacific (APAC) are struggling to cross the cloud chasm.

IDC APAC's latest study – MaturityScape Benchmark: Cloud in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) 2018 – shows that more than 85 percent of organizations in APAC are still in the early stages of cloud maturity.

However there has been progress. Compared to the 2016 rendition of the report, more than 20 percent have progressed from stage one (adhoc) to two (opportunistic).

Less organizations have crossed from stage two to three (repeatable), but IDC says this is because the gap between the two is larger.

Getting to stage three demands significant investments in technology, tools, processes and skills, all of which take time and money. The skills and internal competencies required to scale this gap are also considered relatively low in the region, with the bulk of skilled resources concentrated into large enterprises and IT service providers.

Therefore IDC says organizations that leverage externally sourced IT services like managed services are the ones that will be equipped to cross this maturity chasm. According to IDC, this is a key contributing factor to cloud maturity in developed countries like Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

IDC has determined two groups relevant to this research:

• Thrivers: Organizations in which digital transformation leadership, in aggregate, exceeded expectations and created competitive advantage.
• Survivors: Organizations in which digital transformation leadership, in aggregate, did not meet expectations or did not create any new opportunities.

According to the research giant, the gap between these two groups are narrowing because of the maturing technology that is resulting in standardization of cloud services and their ease of adoption.

It's clear that It's vital for organizations to adopt a more strategic view of cloud as an enabling technology for business transformation and innovation. IDC says faster time to value and agility is the emerging driver for cloud adoption, with cost rarely justified in the early stages as the adoption is primarily drive based on required functionalities from the business.

"Speed and agility has become the key drivers for cloud adoption. More organizations in Asia Pacific are adopting a cloud-first strategy such that cloud infrastructure has now become a preferred option for IT modernization," says IDC Asia/Pacific cloud services research director William Lee.

"Organizations need more consistent, standardized, and available automated cloud resources to enable developers and LOB teams to execute at speed and cost. Workload portability and application delivery across multiple clouds will be key to build a robust cloud services delivery platform for agility."