People power: Investing in talent for hybrid cloud success

Fujitsu / November 3, 2022

Successfully implementing a hybrid cloud environment is challenging. Therefore, employing the right talent to manage it is crucial.

In an era when public cloud computing is so well established, with so many obvious benefits, there are still many reasons why companies maintain on-premises infrastructure or “private cloud”. Regulatory compliance, security, latency, and legacy apps too complex to migrate are the main motives.

What results is a “hybrid cloud” — a mix of public and private cloud usage – that now constitutes the standard IT environment in nearly all organizations.

But no matter how pervasive and effective the hybrid cloud has become; it has its complexities. You can’t just spin up public cloud capabilities alongside a private cloud and expect everything to work out fine. Gartner's recent research predicts that 60% of infrastructure and operations leaders will experience public cloud-migration cost overruns in the next three years.

People underpin effective deployment
Don’t waste investment
Keep employees empowered
Create the right culture
Collaborating with trusted partners

People underpin effective deployment

These regular cost overruns highlight a more detailed picture of inadequate planning, often caused by skills shortages: Many organizations don’t have and can’t find people with the skills and experience needed to guide these projects home on time and budget.

New research from Fujitsu backs this up. It shows a quarter (24%) of companies say a lack of skills in the workforce is their biggest concern when it comes to managing their hybrid cloud environment.

The research identified a small group of companies that have already used hybrid cloud infrastructures to build resilience and accelerate business transformation goals. These hybrid cloud leaders, representing a third (33%) of the sample, are investing in skills to a much greater extent than their peers: 38% provide continuous training to their IT employees, compared to 20% of the rest.

Don’t waste investment

Clients are making substantial investments to ensure security for their hybrid cloud environments, but this involves very complex technological requirements. Investment in training is essential to ensure that the required skills are available to reduce the emerging security risks and take full advantage of this tech expenditure. To achieve that level of security, organizations need to train their employees in new skills. They also need to invest in training their people to act securely, to ensure that the investment in the technical security countermeasures required to protect a hybrid cloud environment is not wasted by an absent-minded employee.

Keep employees empowered

Investment made by the leaders is paying off, as 49% believe their hybrid cloud approach has enhanced their product and service innovation in the past year. Organizations that have provided ongoing training to their IT employees or created a dedicated cloud center of excellence team have seen more benefits than those where training is not prioritized.

Although these leading firms are reaping the benefits of investing in skills, many still have significant ground to make up. The data indicates that fewer than half of the leaders currently enjoy these benefits. This is a widespread challenge for the industry. A recent global IT survey found that three-quarters of IT leaders experience skills gaps on their teams, but only 56% have plans to train existing staff. Companies must focus on recruitment and employee empowerment, with a view to long-term retention.

Create the right culture

A shift to a new cloud environment calls for significant changes in roles and responsibilities in the IT team and beyond. It’s a message that is getting through to progressive organizations. When we spoke with Sandeep Bhardwaj, at Asahi Europe and International’s Global Head of Cloud and Platform, told Fujitsu that a positive, collaborative culture is essential to successful implementation. “First of all, we need to have a common mindset to have that common direction,” he said. “It’s important to take into account the emotions of people who think it's not going to be the right choice and bring them on board.”

Collaborating with trusted partners

By investing in their people and ensuring training is continuous, businesses stand to ensure their cloud strategy pays off. Collaborating with trusted partners and benefiting from their expertise is essential too. It can help companies make this cultural shift and propel them towards greater hybrid cloud success. The survey shows this clearly: Hybrid cloud leaders are twice as likely to collaborate with a third-party supplier to help with their hybrid cloud transformation and more than twice as likely to outsource hybrid cloud management. This points to a willingness to leverage the deep expertise of a specialist third-party, like Fujitsu, in implementing cloud transformation instead of going it alone.

Want to know more? Read the full report “Unlocking the Secrets of Hybrid Cloud Leaders” and take your business to the next level.

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