Survey: IT Directors Say ‘Mission-Critical’ Cloud Will Change IT Operations 
A new survey finds a growing number of IT directors say cloud options for running their mission-critical applications are getting more appealing. IT execs also say cloud will change how they do IT operations management, although not all respondents are sure exactly how. IDN speaks with David Link, CEO of ScienceLogic, the firm behind the survey.
A growing number of IT directors say cloud options for running their mission-critical applications are getting more appealing, according to a new survey. IT execs also say cloud will change how they do IT operations management.
And, while not all respondents are sure exactly how they will deliver cloud-friendly IT operations, they are all asking tons of good questions.
All these insights come courtesy of ScienceLogic, a provider of IT operations and management solutions, which conducted a survey of more than 100 IT directors across North America. The company found IT enthusiastic about using the cloud to run applications and willing to invest in new staff, tooling and management capabilities.
David Link, CEO of ScienceLogic, reviewed the survey’s key findings with IDN. Let’s get started:
- Cloud for Runtime Beyond Test Phase – Set To Rise. Almost four-fifths (79%) of IT directors said they are now running at least one production application in the cloud. However, a vast majority (64%) of these report running less than a quarter of their current production applications in the cloud.
“Enterprises are clearly moving to cloud in significant numbers, even a quarter is a big deal,” Link told IDN. “With so much growth to come, we think this survey shows that IT operations managers are now trying to figure out just which apps are right for the cloud and also how they can use the cloud to get a lower-cost compute model that can easily scale up and scale down.”
- Dark Side of Runtime Cloud Prompts Caution. Despite the bullish outlook, IT managers in ScienceLogic’s survey also remain cautious about just how many applications they should migrate to private or hybrid clouds
Link told IDN this better-safe-than-sorry attitude reflects the fact there are still unknowns out there about cloud and runtime environments – especially over IT operations and management.
“Our customers in mid-sized and large enterprises are really thinking deeply not just about dev/ops clouds, but how to plan for on-going application performance,” including management, monitoring and meeting service levels, Link told IDN. “If in-house IT staff are not convinced they can deliver the service levels the business needs, they might slow down [their cloud adoption] until they know they can manage all that.”
- IT Decisionmakers Willing to Invest in Mission-Critical Cloud Operations. To manage cloud-based IT operations, the survey found IT directors willing to make investments in people, tools and technologies. In specific, Link shared these stats from the ScienceLogic survey:
65% plan to use on-premise tools to monitor the performance of services they run in the cloud
“We’ve seen with our customers that performance management in the cloud is simply different from on-premise, and they’ll willing to invest in new ways to assure those performance levels and SLA,” Link told IDN. “And customers believe that the management tools built 15 years ago or so for their data center operations won’t turn out to be the tools they’ll use to effectively manage a distributed compute environment with cloud.”
64% anticipate they will need new management tools as they move more systems and services to the cloud
47% expect to train existing IT operations staff for the cloud rather than add staff
31% expect to hire additional cloud-trained staff
- Questions About “If” or “Whether” an MSP Can (or Should) Do It All.
One eye-popping stat from the survey is that fewer than one in five IT operations managers plan to use an outside MSP (managed service provider) to provide 100% of what they need to manage cloud-based mission-critical apps. Only 17% expect to rely “solely” on their cloud service providers to provide performance metrics, the survey said.
“A lot of customers want strong assurances that their cloud-based resources will run just the same as they do on-premise. So, given that, any service providers, even those with some management, will probably need to step up their game and offer a whole new set of tools and instrumentations,” Link told IDN.
He shared an example that paints the picture: “Even today with Amazon, one of the largest cloud providers out there, you can’t log on to check certain metrics. That will have to change for IT managers to fully trust cloud providers [with management of cloud-based apps],” Link said.
- Next Steps on the Road To Cloud Certainty.
Given the changing environment and ecosystem for cloud-based operations, a good percentage of IT directors (22%) from the survey remains unsure about their plans. “Uncertainties about the best ways to profile applications for the cloud in operations, especially when it comes to managing and meeting performance concerns, is slowing down some decisions to move applications to the cloud at many companies,” Link said.
This is causing IT managers to ask more questions about cloud’s impact on operations at the applications level and below. Link told IDN that based on his survey (as well as interactions with customers and prospects) these questions are becoming prevalent:
What is the usage profile of these applications?
Does the app have a profile that it can just never go down?
How do I get deeper transparency and at more levels?
How do I get real-time data, not just historic data about applications, operations and service levels?
Can I get “end-to-end’ visibility across cloud and traditional infrastructure?
ScienceLogic provides business service delivery and application performance solutions that work across physical, virtual and cloud environments.
