Cloud Computing Landscape More Diverse Than Expected According to New Research

Companies Use Multiple Public Cloud Providers, Multiple Private Cloud Platforms and Depend Heavily on Hybrid Cloud

Foster City, CA – January 21, 2020: The reality of cloud computing in today’s US-based businesses is a surprisingly complex mixture of multiple public cloud providers, private cloud platforms and a stronger dependence on hybrid cloud computing models (those that combine public cloud platforms such as Amazon’s AWS, Microsoft’s Azure, and Google’s GCP along with on-site data centers) than most people realize. A new study from TECHnalysis Research quantifies that companies are using an average of 3.1 different public cloud providers, 1.6 different private cloud platforms, and 3.7 different cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) applications within their IT environments and that 40% of workloads are run in private or hybrid clouds. In short, the report shows that we’re in a hybrid and multi-cloud world.

The study is based on an online survey of 600 US-based companies that have been using cloud computing within their organization for an average of over 4 years. Specifically, 200 IT decision makers directly involved with cloud computing initiatives from medium-sized companies (those having from 100-999 employees) and 400 from large enterprises (those having 1,000 or more employees) were asked a range of questions about their cloud computing providers, types of cloud-based workloads, reasons for moving to the cloud, and much more.

“The common perceptions about cloud computing have ranged from presumptions that everything was moving to the cloud and that on-site data centers within companies were essentially dead, to companies picking a single cloud service provider and doing everything there,” noted Bob O’Donnell, the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research and author of the report. “The reality is actually much different from either of these, as companies are taking a very multifaceted approach to the cloud that essentially focuses on finding the right solution for the right workload, regardless of its physical location and even platform.”

One of the more interesting data points from the study was the diversity of cloud types that organizations are using to run their various workloads. As Fig. 1 illustrates, only about 29% of workloads are running in the public cloud, while 31% are still on-premise legacy applications, and the remaining 40% are a nearly even split between Hybrid Cloud and Private Cloud.


Fig. 1
That diversity extends to the public cloud providers they’re working with and the types of workloads that they’re using at each of the different providers. As the data from Table 1 illustrates, companies are choosing different cloud providers for different types of tasks, highlighting the growing complexity of the cloud computing market.

Top 5 Workloads Per Cloud Provider
Microsoft Azure	Amazon AWS	Google GCP
Database	Web/Content Hosting	Database
Industry Market Solutions	Analytics	Software Development/DevOps
Web/Content Hosting	Database	Industry Market Solutions
IoT/Data Streaming	AI/Cognitive/Machine Learning	Analytics
Software Development/DevOps	IoT/Data Streaming	Legacy/App Migration to Containers

Table 1
The study also dove into the reasons why companies chose to move certain types of workloads to the cloud and why certain other ones aren’t being moved to the cloud. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, many of the reasons are identical: security, performance, and cost came up both as reasons for and against, showing that the challenges of making the move to the cloud can still be confusing for many organizations.

The highlights of the TECHnalysis Research Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Study are available in PDF format and can be downloaded for free here. The complete 123-slide version of the report with detailed breakdowns for every question and additional analysis is available for purchase. For additional information, please e-mail the author at bob@technalysisresearch.com.

Founded by technology market research veteran Bob O’Donnell, TECHnalysis Research, LLC provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community.