60% of companies’ IT modernization programs not ready for the future
Many corporate IT leaders say their organizations are not prepared for the future IT needs of the business and nearly all are moving to advance their transition to cloud infrastructure, according to an IBM survey of leaders at mid-sized and large companies in the United States and United Kingdom.
IT modernization program not yet ready for the future
Of the 380 CIOs and CTOs who participated in the survey, 60% say their company’s IT modernization program is not yet ready for the future.
24% of CIOs and CTOs surveyed say their company is just starting its IT modernization journey or has yet to begin modernizing, with about a third surveyed saying they are still in the midst of transformation.
As a result, more than 95% of IT leaders surveyed said they are looking to adopt public, hybrid or private cloud strategies. Of those, many are moving at an aggressive pace – the study reveals that 53% of respondents are aggressively pursuing a public cloud strategy, 48% a hybrid cloud strategy and 45% a private cloud strategy.
COVID-19 has accelerated the need for cloud infrastructure
The pressures on IT infrastructures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have further accelerated the need for cloud infrastructure, professional skills development, and security upgrades, the survey found. More than 60% of technology leaders surveyed say they expect increased demand for cloud infrastructure to be permanent.
Even as IT leaders are feeling increased urgency to accelerate their organizations’ transformation, migrating to a multi-cloud environment can present significant challenges to organizations with legacy applications running large data pools.
Leaders doubting their teams
What’s more, many surveyed technology leaders are not sure they have the right teams in place. A full 40% of survey respondents do not feel their teams have the right skills to fully meet their IT ambitions, and more than three in four surveyed say they will rely more on trusted partners that can provide managed infrastructure services.
67% of CIOs and CTOs surveyed cite the need for increased infrastructure flexibility as driving the digital transformation, followed by the need for competitive advantage (61%), cost savings (58%), increasing globalization (54%) and meeting client demands (45%).
While 60% of CIOs and CTOs surveyed say their company’s IT modernization is not yet ready for the future, the study revealed significant differences in the U.S. and U.K. markets. For example, while approximately 56% of U.S. respondents say they are aggressively moving their IT infrastructure to hybrid cloud, only 38% of respondents in the U.K. describe their approach as aggressive.
And while 56% of CIOs/CTOs surveyed in the U.S. say their IT infrastructures were completely prepared for the business changes brought on by COVID-19, only 23% of U.K. managers surveyed felt as prepared.