STAMFORD, Conn., Nov. 19, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enterprises worldwide are embracing the public cloud during the COVID-19 pandemic, with demand shifting toward an as-a-service IT model, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.
The ISG Provider Lens™ Public Cloud – Solutions & Services Archetype Report also finds enterprises looking to cloud providers to help them run major workloads in the cloud and enable employees to work from home as the pandemic continues. As a result, traditional software vendors, including enterprise resource planning vendors, are revamping their legacy products to work in the cloud.
“The pandemic has had a major impact on the way everyone works,” said Jan Erik Aase, director and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “Running workloads in the cloud gives enterprises the agility and scalability they need to enable a work-from-home model and continue to serve customers during pandemic lockdowns.”
The pandemic has created a huge demand for online shopping and other online services, and public cloud providers are helping customers adjust to this new normal, the report says. Cloud-based services also have enabled companies to host virtual business meetings and maintain customer support services.
Many cloud service providers, especially infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service providers, have seen record-setting growth in recent months, the report says. According to the latest ISG Index, global spending on IaaS is up nearly 20 percent through the first nine months of 2020, to $17.8 billion. Many enterprises are migrating applications to the cloud to leverage artificial intelligence and cognitive capabilities for data analysis available through providers.
The report also sees a change in the way enterprises are transitioning to the cloud. Instead of a lift-and-shift approach to moving applications, many enterprises are now looking for cloud-native tools to help with the transition. In many cases, a lift-and-shift approach later requires enterprises to refactor or re-architect the workload to drive better performance, which leads to increased costs.
The report, however, still finds strong demand for transforming legacy applications, which involves completely re-architecting and recoding workloads and moving from COBOL to a Java-based application that works seamlessly on public cloud infrastructure.
In addition, several large service providers have developed industry-specific offerings based on expertise they have gained over the years, including deep knowledge about the governance and compliance regulations required for particular industries, the report says. Many service providers are rapidly acquiring competency certifications from hyperscalers as a way to show their expertise.
Providers also are leveraging artificial intelligence-based cognitive capabilities and machine learning tools to offer high-quality public cloud migration, speed up service delivery, increase IT efficiency, automate operations, offer predictive incident management and deliver a superior user experience, the report adds. Providers have developed tools that take data from various sources to predict downtime and implement self-healing measures.
The ISG Provider Lens™ Public Cloud – Solutions & Services Archetype Report examines five different types of customers, or archetypes, that are looking for public cloud services. The report evaluates the capabilities of 38 public cloud providers to deliver services to the five archetypes:
Traditional Archetype: These buyers are slow to accept the relevance of cloud technologies for their computing needs. Their IT environments consist mainly of mainframe and legacy applications. They have not embraced cloud computing due to regulations, security issues or discomfort with the new technology. However, these companies are open to learning about cloud computing benefits and are seeking assistance to assess their computing environments and IT strategies.
Pragmatic Archetype: Most of these buyers are second- or third-generation outsourcers that have matured in terms of people, processes and practices. They are looking to engage with multiple service providers in a managed services mode. In these relationships, service providers are required to comply with service-level agreements or business-level agreements and with agreed-upon deadlines. These clients no longer micro-manage operational aspects of the cloud and enable their key providers to ensure proper monitoring and measurement of productivity.
Transformational Archetype: This buyer takes a strategic view of the entire IT ecosystem. Plans are in place to transform the current IT setup to a cloud environment. However, transformational clients will not force-fit legacy infrastructure and applications into the cloud if strategic value will not be realized. They are willing to take risks to achieve strategic value. Their goals are to have quicker, more closely integrated and user-friendly applications, platforms, and systems in place.
Highly Regulated Archetype: For these buyers, security is the top priority. They strictly adhere to the regulations and compliance guidelines for their industries. These buyers are primarily from industries such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, energy, manufacturing, the public sector, banking, financial services and insurance — all of which require confidential data be protected at all costs. They are open to new, secure ways to run applications, including DevSecOps and zero-trust security.
Pioneering Archetype: This buyer is an early adopter of cloud technologies and follows a “cloud-first” approach. The focus is on using “born-in-the-cloud” applications to leverage cloud-native capabilities that are used to develop applications that are packaged in containers, deployed as microservices, and managed on elastic infrastructure through Agile DevOps processes and continuous delivery workflows. These clients are not encumbered by the requirements of legacy operations. They consider IT as a change agent and an enabler of revenue and profit growth.
Among the providers ISG evaluated, Accenture and IBM were named leaders across three archetypes, and Capgemini, Coforge, HCL, TCS and Wipro were named leaders across two. Birlasoft, Cognizant, Computacenter, Cloudreach, Deloitte, Hexaware, Hitachi Vantara, Infosys, Microland, Mindtree, NTT DATA, PwC, Rackspace Technology, Tech Mahindra, Unisys and UST Global were all named leaders in one archetype.
The ISG Provider Lens™ Public Cloud – Solutions & Services Archetype Report is available to subscribers or for immediate, one-time purchase on this webpage.
About ISG Provider Lens™ Research
The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG's enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across Europe and Latin America, as well as in the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, the U.K., France, the Nordics, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.
A companion research series, the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.
Starting this year, each ISG Provider Lens™ study will include a Global Summary to help enterprise subscribers better understand provider capabilities across all geographic markets covered by that study. All ISG Provider Lens™ reports also will now include an Enterprise Context feature to help executives quickly identify key insights related to their roles and responsibilities.
About ISG
ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including more than 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.
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