Red Hat Global Customer Tech Outlook 2018: Customers doing more with existing IT investments, expanding the role of cloud initiatives

Red Hat Global
Customer Tech Outlook 2018: Customers doing more with existing IT investments,
expanding the role of cloud initiatives

By Red Hat

The beginning of any new year is a time of reflection for
many IT departments across industries and organizations big and small. At Red
Hat, this means it is time once again to hear directly from our customers what
is top-of-mind for their business in the new year. We surveyed more than 400
Red Hat customers from around the globe about their 2018 priorities, including
top challenges, budget allocation, cloud deployment strategies, and plans for
emerging technologies.

Last year’s survey revealed that most
respondents were on the digital transformation journey and looking to shift
their investments to modern infrastructure and applications. The Red Hat Global
Customer Tech Outlook 2018 saw a bit of a shift from previous years, however,
and some findings highlighted respondents’ mindshift towards doing more with
existing IT investments, while others
exemplified the role cloud initiatives are playing within organizations.

Here’s what we learned from the Red Hat Global
Customer Tech Outlook 2018:

IT spend is shifting: While spend in
2017 focused on optimizing existing IT, most respondents are planning to spend
more of their budgets in the following areas: delivering cloud infrastructure
and services (36%); integrating data and applications (76%); and developing and
deploying modern applications (30%).

Cloud initiatives are expected to continue
growing and maturing in 2018: As in 2017, funding for cloud infrastructure
was cited as a top focus for investments among survey respondents in 2018
(36%), with hybrid and multi-cloud favored. Most organizations surveyed (61%) also now define their cloud
infrastructure strategies as hybrid, as compared to last year, when it was
a split between hybrid (30%) and private (38%).

While hybrid
cloud is the hot strategy, some respondents are still going beyond hybrid
coordination to workload portability across more than one cloud concurrently,
using multi-cloud strategies for their apps. About 37% of responding organizations are moving towards a multi-cloud
future, either deploying or planning to deploy a multi-cloud infrastructure
in 2018.

Modernizing
existing IT investments still a top challenge (and priority) for many: While most organizations were tackling digital
transformation according to our 2017 survey, this year one priority for many
respondents is addressing the challenges associated with optimizing and
modernizing existing IT investments, which
42% of survey respondents ranked as a top challenge in 2018. Additional top
challenges include improving security (47%), automating processes (36%), and
integration of data, processes and apps (26%). Additionally, 31% of respondents
consider modernizing existing IT investments a funding priority this year.

As we reviewed the results, a couple in
particular surprised us:

Modernize first, transform second
— OR digital transformation by any other name? Everyone is talking about
digital transformation, but are most organizations executing on those
initiatives? Surprisingly, our data showed that only 19% of respondents plan to
execute on digital transformation initiatives in 2018. Because “modernizing
existing IT” remains a top challenge (42%), we believe this shows that
respondents are focusing on optimizing those investments and creating a more
agile infrastructure before moving ahead with full digital transformation. That
said, we also see evidence that organizations are implementing the building
blocks of digital transformation—with investments in integration, cloud
infrastructure, and modern apps. This is perhaps a good indication that among
enterprise customers, this is simply how they are delivering more modern
services now—no transformation tag needed.

Emerging technologies are just
that—still emerging. Over 50% of respondents reported they have no plans to
conduct research or implement artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning
(ML) solutions in 2018. A little over 40% said the same of the Internet of
Things (IoT). For most IT organizations, these emerging technology areas are
still emerging and not a top priority in 2018. As upstream open source
innovation advances these areas, we expect to see adoption plans follow suit in
future surveys.

We’re entering 2018, and for many
organizations, cloud strategies are still coming together. One-third of
respondents say their organizations do not have a defined cloud strategy. This
may be an indication that enterprise customers are still carefully watching the
ever-evolving cloud landscape. For IT leaders who have defined their
organization’s cloud strategy, we see this as an indication that they may need
to more clearly articulate that strategy across their organizations.

We’ve pulled together an infographic on
all of the results of the Red Hat Global Customer Tech Outlook 2018 below.
Check it out or download here.

Methodology

Red Hat conducted an online survey in September 2017 using
TechValidate of a pool of Red Hat customers about their tech priorities and
insights moving into 2018. Respondents were from all over the globe,
representing the following regions: Asia Pacific; Europe, Middle East, Africa;
Latin America; and North America. The largest percentage of respondents were
from large and medium enterprises (53.5%), with the remaining respondents from
small businesses (16%); Global 500 companies (10.9%); educational institutions
(4.9%); state & local governments (4%); Fortune 500 companies (4%); S&P
500 companies (2%); non-profit, membership organizations, and foundations (2%);
and federal government (1.8%). Respondents represented the following
industries: computer software, hardware, and services (19.2%); financial
services (10.2%); telecommunications (9.2%); government (7.3%); healthcare
(6.2%); educational institution (6%); energy and utilities (5.7%); retail (5%);
media and entertainment (4%); aerospace and defense (3.8%), industrial
manufacturing (3.6%); electronics (3.3%); transportation services (3.1%);
automotive and transport (2.6%); professional services (2.6%); non-profit,
foundation, and membership organizations (2.4%); consumer products &
services (1.7%); food and wholesale distribution (.007%); security products and
services (.007%); agriculture (.004%); chemicals (.004%); construction (.004%);
environmental services and equipment (.004%); metals and mining (.004%);
engineering (.002%); and real estate (.002%).

Note: Numbers may not
add up to 100 percent due to rounding.