Cloud computing is a critical technology for organizations. According to Omdia’s 2024 IT Enterprise Insights global survey, which gathered responses from nearly four thousand decision-makers, cloud services remain a top priority for global businesses in 2024 and beyond.
Globally, over 40% of all large enterprises surveyed by Omdia use three or more cloud services for their critical applications and workloads. Most large enterprises consider support for multiple providers (multicloud) and a blend of public and private clouds (hybrid cloud) to be essential for their operations.
This paper provides Omdia’s latest insights on multicloud use cases, the issues organizations face, and new research on organizations’ network connectivity configurations. Additionally, it provides recommendations for overcoming multicloud networking challenges.
Five critical multicloud network challenges:
Enterprises’ networks must adapt to changing traffic flows for applications, data, and workflows. Critical business applications, such as CRM, ERP, SCM, and HRM rely on software combinations enabled by multicloud.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is another factor that will drive changes in network traffic, with both generative AI (GenAI) and predictive AI becoming prevalent in IT environments.
Omdia’s global research identified the top five network issues caused by adopting multicloud, which are:
- Costs: Hidden egress costs and overhead expenses
- Scalability: Inflexible and static networks
- Visibility: Lack of transparency in network traffic
- Performance: Insufficient or overprovisioned bandwidth
- Security: Rising threats and risks
Essential network options for multicloud and hybrid cloud
Organizations use a variety of network options to connect multiple cloud services. Only 20% of organizations invest in business-grade internet for public cloud connectivity. However, poor application performance often results from incorrectly provisioned or unoptimized connections. General-purpose internet allows traffic to navigate global routes, leading to fluctuating performance and occasional data loss. The least expensive option is not always the best choice.
In contrast, enterprise-grade cloud connectivity is a premium service that connects users, branch sites, data centers, and cloud services across regions. As a dedicated service, it ensures QoS and optimizes data flow.
Large enterprises are increasingly adopting cloud connectivity
Omdia’s survey of large enterprises revealed that over 85% of organizations have already deployed cloud and multicloud connectivity. Another 13% plan to introduce cloud connectivity services in the next two years.
However, despite the increasing adoption of multicloud connectivity, organizations are still encountering challenges. For those organizations that have not yet adopted multicloud connectivity, the primary obstacles they need to address include:
- Preference for low-cost internet
- Perception of complexity
- Lack of perceived value
- Regulatory/compliance concerns
Recommendations for successful multicloud networking
Revisit your multicloud connectivity: Omdia’s research found that 61% of organizations have or plan to redesign or re-architect their enterprise networks around their clouds and data centers. And organizations that have completed this network reconfiguration reported an average improvement of 24% in their TVO. This metric reflects the overall value derived from the conversion, encompassing cost savings, performance enhancements, operational efficiency, and other strategic benefits.
Ensure that multicloud connectivity supports all essential features: Omdia has identified the key characteristics that define an effective multicloud network. Organizations should assess their current cloud connectivity provider(s) against these criteria to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement for a more robust multicloud strategy.
- Customer experience-driven architecture
- Effective management and tools
- Optimization and flexibility
- Seamless provisioning
- Flexible commercial agreements
- Practical billing
Expose hidden costs and security challenges: Many organizations experience ‘bill shock’ at some point in their cloud journey, which refers to unexpected spikes in costs owing to unanticipated cloud egress fees and/or overprovisioning for cloud workloads. To mitigate the risks of bill shock and enhance operational performance, organizations should proactively explore secure, integrated cloud and network solutions. Key components to consider include:
- Integrated cloud and network security
- Private WAN services
- Content delivery networks (CDN)
- SD-WAN and secure access service edge (SASE)
- Security operations (SecOps)
Leverage the right partner: Omdia finds that enterprises experience the highest satisfaction levels when they engage large telecommunications service providers as lead partners for their network services. These providers should have ready-made platforms, domain expertise, and the capability to supply, configure, and manage network services and cloud connectivity on an ongoing basis.
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