TRENDING
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Manufacturing organisations face the
constant challenge of trade-offs – they are
under pressure to meet current productivity
and operational goals in an increasingly
global and highly competitive marketplace,
but they also need to invest in future growth.
This challenge has created a demand for
new technology solutions that can help
balance the trade-off between current and
future goals. IT leaders in manufacturing
must avoid the beaten path of finding
short-term fixes for increasing revenue;
instead they should look to long-term
solutions that enable automation,
enhanced use of data and improvements in
customer experience.
The Enterprise Cloud Index findings indicate
that manufacturing leaders are aggressively
adopting new technology to embrace
modernisation instead of getting left
behind with legacy systems. The distributed
cloud model offers a solution that delivers
speed, flexibility and localisation, allowing
manufacturers to improve efficiency without
compromising quality.
While 91% of survey respondents reported
hybrid cloud as the ideal IT model, today’s
global average hybrid cloud penetration
level is at 18.5% – the disparity due in part
to challenges of transitioning to the hybrid
cloud model.
Manufacturing industries reported barriers
to adopting hybrid cloud that mirrored
global roadblocks, including limitations
in application mobility, data security or
compliance, performance, management and
a shortage of IT talent. Compared to other
industries, manufacturers reported greater
IT talent deficits in AI/ML, hybrid cloud,
Blockchain and edge computing or IoT.
Other key findings of the report include:
• A total of 43% of manufacturers
surveyed are currently using a traditional
data centre as their primary IT
infrastructure, slightly outpacing the
global average of 41%
• However, manufacturers currently
use a single public cloud service more
often than any other industry. A total
of 20% of manufacturing companies
reported using a single cloud service,
compared to the global average of
12% – a testament to the fact that
18
INTELLIGENTCIO
manufacturers are starting to turn to
the cloud as a solution, given that they
deal with legacy IT systems and cannot
handle workloads on-premises
• Manufacturers are also advancing the
movement to private cloud. A total of
56% of manufacturers surveyed said
that they run enterprise applications in
a private cloud, outpacing the global
average by 7%
• Manufacturers are struggling to control
cloud spend. One motivation for
deploying hybrid clouds is enterprises’
need to gain control over their IT spend.
Organisations that use public cloud spend
26% of their annual IT budget on public
cloud, with this percentage predicted to
increase to 35% in two years’ time. Most
notable, however, is that more than a
third (36%) of organisations using public
clouds said their spending has exceeded
their budgets
“
WHILE THE
MANUFACTURING
INDUSTRY IS
STILL FACING
OBSTACLES IN
TRANSITIONING
TO MULTI-CLOUD
USE, THIS STUDY
SHOWS US THAT
MANUFACTURING
ORGANISATIONS
ARE READY TO
ACCELERATE
GROWTH AND
TAKE THE LEAD IN
IT INNOVATION IN
THE FUTURE.
• Manufacturers chose security and
compliance slightly more often than
companies in other industries as the
top factor in deciding where to run
workloads. While 31% of respondents
across all industries and geographies
named security and compliance as the
number one decision criteria, 34% of
manufacturing organisations chose
security and compliance as the top factor
The bullish outlook for hybrid cloud
adoption globally and across industries
is reflective of an IT landscape growing
increasingly automated and flexible
enough that enterprises have the choice
to buy, build or rent their IT infrastructure
resources based on fast transforming
application requirements.
“Manufacturers are investing in modernising
their IT stack and adopting industry 4.0
solutions to keep up with ever-changing
business demands in areas like production
and supply chain management,” said Chris
Kozup, SVP of Global Marketing at Nutanix.
“A hybrid cloud infrastructure gives
manufacturers a fresh approach to
modernising legacy applications and
services, enabling manufacturing IT leaders
to focus on their long-term investments
in Big Data, IoT and next-generation
enterprise applications.
“While the manufacturing industry is
still facing obstacles in transitioning to
multi-cloud use, this study shows us that
manufacturing organisations are ready to
accelerate growth and take the lead in IT
innovation in the future.”
To create this report, Nutanix commissioned
Vanson Bourne to survey more than
2,300 IT decision makers, including 337
worldwide manufacturing and production
organisations, about where they are running
their business applications today, where they
plan to run them in the future, what their
cloud challenges are and how their cloud
initiatives stack up against other IT projects
and priorities.
The survey included respondents from
multiple industries, business sizes and
geographies in the Americas; Europe, the
Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); and Asia-
Pacific and Japan (APJ) regions. n
www.intelligentcio.com