Toggle Menu 1 of 17 Introduction 5 Numbers to Remember 76 % Are already multi-cloud 34 % Call digital transformation a top multi-cloud driver 57 % Say skills shortage is a top cloud challenge 47 % Say security is a top cloud inhibitor 46 % Say COVID-19 has not sped cloud adoption Multi-cloud is the way to go. It’s that simple. — survey respondent Multi-Cloud Grabs a Strong Foothold Multi-cloud is now an everyday reality. Already, ¾ of survey respondents employ a multi-cloud architecture (more than one cloud, public or private). In two years, almost 9 in 10 will do so. The prevalence of Cloud Centers of Excellence (CCoE) is also growing, especially among organizations with larger cloud budgets. Almost ⅔ of companies with annual cloud budgets of $5 million or more operated a CCoE, compared to just 40% of all respondents. Multi-cloud adoption is important for us ... It allows us to experiment with emerging technologies that [are] only available at certain providers while running the main load at the other provider. — survey respondent Cloud/multi-cloud adoption Today In 2 years 76% Multi-cloud 24% Single cloud Not surprisingly, multi-cloud adoption skews heavily toward larger enterprises, but that gap closes over time: Multi-cloud adoption by organization size 60% Small businesses (<100 EMPLOYEES) 76% Midsize companies (101 - 5,000 EMPLOYEES) 90% Large enterprises (>5,000 EMPLOYEES) AWS Remains the Top Cloud Provider AWS holds a commanding cloud market share across every region, industry, and organization size. Despite worries about vendor lock-in, that dominance isn’t expected to fade. AWS was significantly less popular among consumer goods/retail companies: 27% said they had no plans to use the market leader in the next two years. Cloud providers used/planned to use Today In 2 years Use of non-AWS cloud providers is much higher outside North America, for example: Planned Alibaba Cloud usage in 2 years Multi-Cloud Is Working Just as with multi-cloud adoption, multi-cloud success correlates with organization size: Has multi-cloud helped achieve your business goals? Multi-cloud success by organization size 42% Small businesses 50% Midsize companies 64% Large enterprises We are a global company with 100K+ employees. No one cloud offers everything we need (services, regions, government requirements, etc.). — survey respondent Multi-Cloud Brings Multiple Benefits, Led by Digital Transformation While digital transformation was the most-often-named multi-cloud driver, respondents found benefits in a wide range of ways. What are the business and technology factors driving your multi-cloud adoption? [Select 3] DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AVOID SINGLE CLOUD VENDOR LOCK-IN COST REDUCTION SCALING Show all Digital transformation ranked highest among respondents from: 50% Large enterprises 51% Latin America 43% Asia Pacific 41% Financial services Multiple public cloud adoption enables us to overcome the limitations with single vendor lock-in, and allow us to take competitive benefits of different vendors. — survey respondent Multi-Cloud Is Tightly Connected to Other Modern Technology Initiatives In large organizations, multi-cloud usage is typically correlated with other initiatives such as infrastructure as code, container orchestration, application delivery automation, secrets management, service mesh, and more. And adoption of many of those correlated technologies is expected to almost double in the next year. Today In 1 year Current status of key modernization initiatives INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE APPLICATION DELIVERY AUTOMATION CONTAINER ORCHESTRATION SECRETS MANAGEMENT COMPLETE PLANNED/IN PROGRESS Service mesh adoption is expected to grow 2.5x — from 11% today to 28% in a year (with another 21% in process). Cost, Skills Shortages, Workflow Issues Among Top Cloud Challenges As cloud and multi-cloud become the standard, there are still inhibitors to cloud adoption, and challenges to operationalizing multi-cloud. Behind cost and security concerns (more on this in the next section) and skills shortages was workflow problems as a result of complexity. What are the primary inhibitors to your cloud program? [Select 3] COST CONCERNS SECURITY CONCERNS LACK OF IN-HOUSE SKILLS HYBRID CLOUD COMPLEXITY Show all Cost concerns seen as a cloud inhibitor, by company size 58% Small businesses 45% Large enterprises Specific cloud inhibitors and challenges vary widely across regions, industry, and company size, as well as by component of the technology stack. Top cloud inhibitors by industry Software or services Cost 54% Financial services Security 59% Public sector Lack of skills 53% Healthcare and biotech Security 52% Consumer goods and retail Lack of skills 51% Entertainment and media Cost 60% Telco Cost 53% Top Challenges to Operationalize Multi-cloud When it comes to the challenges hindering operationalizing multi-cloud, respondents had similar concerns. What are the most significant challenges hindering your ability to operationalize multi-cloud? [Select 3] SKILLS SHORTAGES INCONSISTENT WORKFLOWS ACROSS CLOUD ENVIRONMENTS SILOS/POOR COLLABORATION/COMPLEX PROCESSES BUDGET CONSTRAINTS THAT AFFECT HEADCOUNT INFRASTRUCTURE NOT USED EFFICIENTLY OR SHARED DIFFICULTY MANAGING SECURITY AND GOVERNANCE Show all Cloud Challenges Across Infrastructure Layers Cloud challenges are consistent across industries and geographies, as well as provisioning, networking, application deployment, and security components — with staff/skilling issues cited as the top concern for each. What are the most significant cloud challenges for each component of your cloud efforts? Provisioning Networking Security Application deployment STAFF/SKILLING ISSUES MANUAL PROCESSES SPEED/PACE OF CHANGE UNCONTROLLED COSTS Show all Large enterprises (37%) were more than twice as likely to be concerned about teams working in silos than were small businesses (17%). Multi-Cloud Security Concerns: Lack of Skills and Tooling Top the List Cloud security remains in the spotlight, and is both an adoption driver for multi-cloud and a barrier. As noted above, almost half of respondents named security concerns a top-three cloud inhibitor, but security and governance were mentioned in the top three multi-cloud drivers by 16% of respondents. Below are multiple data points that reveal the specific security issues respondents are worried about. What are your top cloud security concerns? [Select 3] DATA/PRIVACY PROTECTION DATA THEFT REGULATORY COMPLIANCE SOFTWARE VULNERABILITIES THREAT DETECTION AND REMEDIATION Show all What’s keeping organizations from solving those security threats? Again, staff/skilling issues top the list of security issues, but insufficient tooling was a bigger issue for security than for other cloud components. What are the most significant cloud challenges for the security component of your cloud efforts? STAFF/SKILLING ISSUES INSUFFICIENT TOOLING NO REAL-TIME VISIBILITY/INSIGHT SPEED/PACE OF CHANGE MANUAL PROCESS SILOED TEAMS PRESSURE TO CHANGE SHIFT TO REMOTE WORK SHADOW IT UNCONTROLLED COSTS Cloud services allow more granular security controls. — Security engineer survey respondent Cloud Is Not Just a Pandemic Response The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc around the world, and driven a huge boom in internet usage. But its effect on multi-cloud and other technology adoption has been surprisingly complex. The pandemic was cited as a multi-cloud driver by just 7% of respondents, yet more than half said COVID had accelerated their cloud or multi-cloud adoption. However, 46% of respondents said COVID didn’t impact their cloud efforts. Notably, 39% of respondents said COVID caused them to use more open source software. High COVID-19 impacts were more than twice as prevalent in large enterprises (14%) than in small organizations (5%). Only 32% of large enterprises said COVID-19 did not impact their digital transformation timelines, compared to well over half of small businesses (58%). COVID's cloud impact 26% Moderate impact(accelerated 1-2 yr) 9% High impact(accelerated2+ yr) 19% Low impact(accelerated6-12 mo) 46% No impact Has COVID-19 accelerated your organization's cloud or multi-cloud adoption in these areas? INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE CONTAINER ORCHESTRATION COMPLIANCE AND GOVERNANCE NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE AUTOMATION SELF-SERVICE INFRASTRUCTURE Show all Companies Are Investing Big Money in Multi-Cloud A third of respondents are spending more than $2 million a year on multi-cloud initiatives, and 6% are investing more than $50 million a year. North American organizations are relatively big spenders — 40% of respondents spend more than $2 million a year and 18% spend more than $10 million per year. But around a third of respondents in Latin America (37%), Europe (32%), and Asia-Pacific (30%) spend less than $100,000. Looked at by industry, software and services companies keep tighter reins on their budget, with 33% spending less than $100,000 on their multi-cloud initiatives. That may not be as surprising as it sounds, though, as this still may represent significant spend for startups and smaller organizations. What is your organization's annual multi-cloud budget? <$100K 27% $100K → $2M 40% $2M → $10M 18% > $10M 15% Cost concerns were cited by more than half (51%) of respondents as a primary cloud inhibitor, yet cost reductions were cited by 28% of respondents as a multi-cloud driver. Managing Cloud Spend Isn’t Always Easy Cloud cost equations can be almost as complex as the technology itself. 39% of respondents said their organization overspent on the cloud, but much of that overspend was expected. And 9% of organizations spent less than projected. Did your organization’s 2020 projected cloud spend align with your actual cloud spend? 12% UNDERSPENT 49% WITHIN BUDGET 39% OVERSPENT Factors that caused 2020 cloud overspending 29% Shifting priorities 21% Unexpected event:COVID-19 14% No guardrails tomanage resources 13% Lack of toolingstandardization 5% Unexpected event:not COVID-19 5% Acquisition 13% Other Healthcare (19%) and telcos (18%) reported the most unexpected overspending, while the financial services (32%) and media (31%) firms had the most expected overspending. Even more revealing, the biggest single drivers of cloud overspending were accelerated priorities and COVID-19. But for more than a quarter of organizations, cloud overspending was due to a combination of the lack of guardrails to efficiently manage resource utilization and lack of standardized tooling. The bigger the organization's cloud budget, the more likely they were to overspend: Almost half (46%) of companies budgeting $2 - $10 million on cloud overspent, compared to just a quarter (27%) of companies budgeting less than $100,000. Open Source Tools Are the Most Popular Option Building on open source software is the most popular choice for infrastructure automation tools across all infrastructure categories. But running OSS security tools yourself — while still the number one option — is significantly less popular than for other cloud components. The security arena also had the highest percentage of respondents who buy commercial tools. Infrastructure automation tools used or planned to use Provisioning Networking Security Application deployment 12% Build from scratch,run it myself 42% Build on opensource, run itmyself 25% Use open sourceas a service 13% Buy commercialtools, run itmyself 8% Buy commercialtools as aservice The market for security tools skews toward commercial products, with 25% of respondents buying and running commercial tools themselves and another 18% using commercial tools as a service. Infrastructure Automation Tools Are Critical for Almost Everyone Nearly all respondents ranked infrastructure automation tools “important” or “extremely important” to overcome challenges required to operationalize their multi-cloud environments. As you’d expect, companies spending more on cloud believe infrastructure automation tools are more important. Financial and entertainment/media firms found these tools more important than did public sector organizations. How important are infrastructure automation tools for your organization? 70% ExtremelyImportant 24% Important 5% SomewhatImportant 1% NotImportant Provisioning and application deployment tools lead the way Almost every organization is already using or planning to use infrastructure automation tools across all four cloud operations components, but provisioning and application deployment tools are the most widely used. What categories of infrastructure automation tools are in use or planned? Provisioning Networking Security Application deployment 75% Currently use 22% Plan to use 3% No plans to use Tool usage is also highly correlated with cloud spending. For example, provisioning tools are currently used by just 65% of companies spending less than $100,000, but by 79% of companies spending $2 million or more — a pattern repeated to a lesser extent across all four cloud components. Regionally, European respondents consistently claim higher tool usage, while those in Asia-Pacific report the lowest tool usage. Software/services firms are the most avid users of networking tools (62%) while only 47% of the public sector use them. Security tools are most heavily used in the financial industry (56%), while only 41% of public sector respondents use them. The need for infrastructure automation tools is even stronger for larger organizations and those who spend the most on their multi-cloud efforts. Consistent and Automated Management Can Help Use Cloud Resources Effectively Consistent and automated management helps companies operationalize their multi-clouds in many ways. And the top choices did not vary much across geographic regions or company size. How would consistent and automated management help operationalize multi-cloud? [Select 3] BETTER UTILIZATION OF CLOUD RESOURCES MORE FLEXIBLE IT INFRASTRUCTURE SELF-SERVICE INFRASTRUCTURE Show all Better utilization of cloud resources was cited as helping cloud operations by almost half (48%) of all respondents, and more than half of consumer/retail shops, healthcare companies, telcos, and entertainment/media firms. Which Vendors and Technologies are Strategic Players in the Cloud Operating Model? Moving to a cloud operating model is a complex process relying upon multiple vendors and key technologies. But which ones do organizations see as most strategic? In addition to the companies and technologies listed below, Microsoft, Atlassian (and its Bitbucket source code repository hosting service), Elastic, and New Relic earned significant numbers of write-in votes. Apart from public cloud vendors, what other vendors or technologies are most strategic? HASHICORP 73% KUBERNETES 65% GITHUB 54% GITLAB 32% VMWARE 28% REDHAT 25% SERVICENOW 23% SPLUNK 22% CISCO 21% DATADOG 20% MONGODB 19% PALO ALTO 15% F5 14% GOOGLE ISTIO 12% SNOWFLAKE 10% NETAPP 7% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Note: Survey participants were practitioners and decision makers who had opted in to HashiCorp emails. A high ranking for HashiCorp tools isn’t surprising, but provides a useful benchmark for other responses. The most popular cloud operating model tools were HashiCorp Terraform (25%) and Kubernetes (18%). Methodology The 2021 HashiCorp State of Cloud Strategy Survey was conducted in February of 2021. HashiCorp reached out to ~300,000 people for whom we had opt-in email addresses. To encourage responses, we offered an incentive drawing. We received 3,205 responses from around the world, though not all respondents answered all 34 questions. Industry SOFTWARE OR SERVICES FINANCIAL SERVICES PUBLIC SECTOR HEALTHCARE OR BIOTECH CONSUMER GOODS OR RETAIL ENTERTAINMENT OR MEDIA TELCO TRANSPORTATION ENERGY OR UTILITIES HOSPITALITY OR TRAVEL AGRICULTURE OR FOOD PRODUCTION Job Role 58% Practitioner 28% Technicaldecision-maker 7% Businessdecision-maker 7% Other/noresponse Location 39% North America 34% Europe 20% Asia-Pacific 6% Latin America 1% No response Company size 28% < 100employees 42% 101 - 5,000employees 30% >5,000employees I agree to HashiCorp’s Privacy Policy.* Subscribe to Newsletter PROVISION Multi-Cloud Infrastructure SECURE Multi-Cloud Security CONNECT Multi-Cloud Networking RUN Multi-Cloud Orchestration PRODUCTS Terraform Vault Consul Nomad Vagrant Packer Boundary Waypoint Sentinel RESOURCES Blog Tutorials Community Events Integrations Library Partners Podcast Support Training COMPANY About Us JobsWE'RE HIRING Press Center Brand Contact Us System Status Cookie Manager Terms of Use Security Privacy Trademark Policy Trade Controls stdin: is not a tty We use cookies & other similar technology to collect data to improve your experience on our site, as described in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. 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