Enterprises need a new cloud operating model that balances agility with control to optimize how they plan, buy and procure workloads across their hybrid multicloud environments. At the same time, IT leaders need a clear path to multicloud management that allows users to access services and tools at the speed they need while balancing the control IT organizations require.

To achieve this goal, IT leaders need to minimize risk by providing security-rich access to compliant tools and services; standardize access to pre-approved tools and services; and reduce the complexity from using multiple tools, systems and processes.

This paper pulls together highlights from a recent survey conducted by IBM Market Development & Insights. Click through the boxes to read what IT leaders are saying about the challenges of hybrid multicloud complexity and how the right management tools and services can accelerate digital transformation.

To learn more, access the full reports from each section of the paper.

It’s no surprise that using multiple cloud providers can create consumption issues. Employees expect fast self-service, which doesn’t always match with compliance and security rules. A recent survey conducted by IBM Market Development & Insights found that IT leaders need to manage workloads across their organization to alleviate risk without impacting procurement speed.

The evidence is in the numbers: The majority of respondents ranked controlled access to hybrid multicloud services through a single application as a vital capability. Yet only one in five surveyed is confident in their company’s multicloud governance systems. Participants identified the following core challenges associated with managing IT across cloud environments:

• Security and compliance
• Complex environments
• Multiple user interfaces
• Lack of visibility into IT operations, costs and asset utilization

Companies can solve for those challenges by using managed cloud services and a multicloud management platform, which helps IT organizations provision compliant workloads and track orders against budgets. With 89 percent of enterprises expecting to maintain or increase cloud providers in the next two years, the timing is right to increase consumption visibility and decrease complexity.

Modern business is well on its way to cloud. A recent IBM Market Development & Insights (MD&I) study found that 89 percent of organizations expect to increase or maintain their number of cloud providers over the next two years, while the use of managed cloud services is expected to triple.

There’s no way around it — as enterprises rely on more platforms to move and optimize their workloads in the cloud, IT operations get more complicated. Only one-quarter of IT leaders said they feel confident in their ability to effectively monitor and manage end-to-end IT operations. When data insights are not used cohesively, the business can suffer consequences:

• Fragmented visibility into IT operations
• Excessive cost and complexity
• Slow problem identification and remediation
• Increased exposure to risk
• Inconsistent monitoring and management across cloud providers

To combat these challenges, businesses are turning to managed cloud services and the use of consoles that provide end-to-end visibility and actionable insights across hybrid multicloud environments. Artificial intelligence for IT operations, or AIOps, enhances traditional IT operations by aggregating data from multiple sources and employing automation, advanced analytics and AI to identify and resolve problems faster, helping businesses provide a better experience for their customers.

Without visibility and governance over cloud resources, wasteful and inefficient cloud usage can cause costs to skyrocket. A recent study from IBM Market Development & Insights (MD&I) found that only one in five IT leaders has a strong sense of confidence in the tools and processes their company has in place to ensure cloud governance and compliance.

Using the incorrect tools to manage cloud platforms across a hybrid multicloud environment can result in problems, including:

• Difficulty controlling budget spend: Overseeing multiple IT tools, systems and processes can be challenging. Only 10 percent of IT leaders surveyed said they are confident in their ability to effectively monitor and manage their cloud spend.
• Incomplete overview of cloud use: If you don't know how much you're using, it's hard to eliminate waste. Thirty-seven percent of IT leaders said they struggle with a lack of real-time visibility into costs and asset utilization across clouds.
• Increased complexity: Complexity goes hand-in-hand with hybrid multicloud environments. Half of the IT leaders surveyed cited an increase in complexity as a primary challenge for their organizations.

Not all management tools are built to address the challenges of a multicloud environment. IT leaders are increasingly choosing managed cloud services and cloud management platforms to provide the tools they need, resulting in improved visibility, reduced time to value and increased operation efficiency.