WHAT DO BIGFOOT and qualified cloud engineers have in common? They’re both elusive, according to the Challenges of Cloud Migration report from Wakefield Research and Logicworks, a cloud migration and managed services provider.
The new research finds that a whopping 94% of IT decision makers polled from medium enterprises say they face barriers to cloud success, with a shortage of talent a top barrier. Indeed, nearly 2 in 3 agree that it’s harder to find a qualified engineer than it is to find Bigfoot, and 86% say a shortage of qualified engineers will slow down cloud projects in 2020. A talent drought means IT decision makers have to worry about poaching too, with 86% of respondents acknowledging they are contacted more than once a quarter by recruiters and 77% indicating that turnover is disruptive to cloud operations.
Other barriers to implementing a cloud strategy include security concerns (48%), the time it takes to make decisions (42%), lack of financial investment (37%), lack of defined strategy (35%), high staff turnover (34%), and lack of stakeholder buy-in (31%).
Respondents (76%) cite a lack of understanding among company leadership about the time and cost of cloud management. Some of the issues respondents believe leadership doesn’t understand include: the effort required for cloud management (49%), the time required for cloud migration (46%), how data is kept secure in the cloud (42%), and how the cloud really works (39%). Notably, only 18% of respondents believe company leadership understands everything about the cloud.
Still, 99% of respondents say their company will invest in the cloud this year, but indicate that tools are being prioritized over strategy, with 61% planning to invest in better cloud tools, while only 39% plan on getting more stakeholder buy-in.
The good news for channel pros? Forty percent of IT leaders plan to hire outside consultants for help with the cloud in 2020.
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