According to the results of IBM’s new global study on cloud transformation that surveyed almost 7,200 C-suite executives across 28 industries in 47 countries – including more than 140 in Nigeria – there has been a drastic shift in business needs.

The study, conducted by IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) in cooperation with Oxford Economics, revealed thatno respondents in Nigeria reported using a single private or public cloud in 2021, down from 38 percent in 2019 – establishing hybrid cloud as the dominant IT architecture.

The findings indicate that the cloud market has entered the hybrid, multicloud era and concerns around vendor lock-in, security, compliance and interoperability remain paramount.

The study also revealed that 59 percent of respondents noted the lack of interoperability among clouds was an obstacle to improving business performance in some or most parts of their cloud estate.

“Organisations across Nigeria have shown increased confidence in hybrid cloud models to deliver greater innovation while reducing costs, driving efficiency and ensuring security and compliance. This will drive the next wave of digital transformation for organisations here as they set out to deliver superior customer experiences,” says Dipo Faulkner, General Manager IBM West Africa.

The study found that a majority of respondents recognised that comprehensive to advanced cloud capabilities were required for the successful execution of digital initiatives – with 77 percent  stating that this was crucial to building ecosystem platforms and 86 percent revealing this was required to improve customer experiences.

While the hybrid cloud approach has taken hold, respondents in Nigeria revealed that technology debt or legacy brownfields were the biggest obstacles to improving business performance – with 68 percent revealing that this was an obstacle in some or most parts of their cloud estate.

Cyber threats are at an all-time high ¹

Infrastructure complexity is creating cracked doors that cybercriminals are exploiting. The study revealed the importance of data security, as 87 percent of respondents said data security being embedded throughout the cloud architecture​ is important or extremely important, in most cases, to successful digital initiatives.

Companies are denouncing vendor lock-in

According to the study, nearly 83 percent of respondents said workloads being completely portable with no vendor lock-in​ is important to the success of their digital initiatives. Only 50 percent of respondents reported battling with vendor lock-in, stating this is an obstacle to improving business performance in some or most parts of their cloud estate.

Public cloud adoption is evolving towards industry clouds

The study found that nearly 56 percent of respondents cited industry-related regulatory compliance as an obstacle to the business performance of their cloud estate.

The study revealed that enterprises need to assess how they use the cloud in terms of adoption, velocity, migration, speed, and cost savings opportunity. Other recommendations include:

• Focus on security and privacy – determine where your critical workloads reside and scrutinize who and what has access to them. Regularly test that security controls and privacy policies are being adhered to, but also that improperly configured assets and software vulnerabilities are being promptly addressed.
• Ask which workloads should move to the cloud – take inventory of the IT environment to successfully determine which workloads and applications will yield the most value in the cloud and which are better suited to stay on-premises. 
• Make data work for you – analyze workloads using AI driven tools and best practices to determine where and how to put them in the right place for the right reason.
• Set a tactical approach – address the technology trade-offs, such as selecting the best approach to modernize specific applications and manage important issues like security, governance, and disaster recovery.
• Determine the right team – put a cross-disciplinary team of people to work rethinking how your enterprise creates value for its customers.