ISG Provider Lens™ report sees enterprises turning to service providers as interest in public cloud grows significantly in the U.K.
Enterprises in the U.K. are increasingly embracing a cloud-first approach to their IT investments and are looking to service providers to help them migrate more of their workloads to the public cloud, according to a new report published by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.
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“Even if ‘cloud-everything’ is still out of reach for many U.K. enterprises, the momentum is growing, with many companies increasingly migrating more of their IT workloads to the cloud and taking on more complex migration projects”
The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Public Cloud – Services & Solutions Report for the U.K. finds many large U.K. enterprises interested in hybrid cloud environments, which enable continued use of legacy IT systems, even though an increasing number of companies anticipate a time when they would migrate all of their IT assets to the cloud. Small and medium-sized enterprises, meanwhile, are looking at infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) options to replace their depreciated hardware assets.
The move to the cloud is expected to be the primary driver of IT market growth in the U.K. in the coming years, said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research.
“Even if ‘cloud-everything’ is still out of reach for many U.K. enterprises, the momentum is growing, with many companies increasingly migrating more of their IT workloads to the cloud and taking on more complex migration projects,” he said.
Businesses across the U.K. are seeing the value of cloud services and solutions to better meet customer needs, the report says. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed many to consider public cloud services, as customer buying behavior has shifted from physical to digital shopping. Companies see cloud adoption as a way to stay competitive in the global market.
A growing number of U.K. companies are focused on implementing a multicloud approach. Many are outsourcing their multicloud environments and classic data centers to global and regional IT service providers, the report adds. By selecting the right technology and business partners, companies are able to focus on their core business functions and business expansion plans. In many cases, cost reduction is the primary driver for U.K. businesses to outsource their cloud services.
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The report also sees a demand for integrated AI-led cloud managed services from U.K. enterprises. Managed services are growing in importance as businesses look to multicloud setups to drive their digital transformation journeys. Enterprises do not wish to limit themselves to just one hyperscaler, because each one has particular strengths and different pricing; instead, they are more interested in creating the right partner ecosystem involving several cloud platforms and service providers.
There are some barriers to a multicloud setup, the report adds. Companies often seek help with orchestration, which involves several moving parts in a complex setup to be operated in the public cloud. Enterprises are also worried about public cloud vendor lock-in and about interoperability between two or more cloud providers.
The report also notes that the U.K. government is focused on building a world-class digital economy, with hyperscaler cloud providers becoming increasingly important in the public sector’s digital plans.
The report sees public cloud service providers in the U.K. moving away from pricing based on time and materials and on key responsibility areas, with more service-level agreements now featuring output-based pricing. Under these SLAs, clients pay for the results obtained during the engagement. The trend toward outcome-based pricing is expected to continue as service providers face fierce competition.
The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Public Cloud – Services & Solutions Report for the U.K. evaluates the capabilities of 55 providers across six quadrants: Consulting and Transformational Services for Large Accounts, Consulting and Transformational Services for the Midmarket, Managed Public Cloud Services for Large Accounts, Managed Public Cloud Services for the Midmarket, Hyperscale Infrastructure and Platform Services, and SAP HANA Infrastructure Services.
The report names Rackspace Technology as a Leader in three quadrants and Accenture, Atos, AWS, CANCOM (Telefonica Tech), Capgemini, Claranet, Coforge, Computacenter, Ensono, Fujitsu, HCL, Hexaware, IBM, Infosys, Microsoft, TCS and Wipro as Leaders in two. Cloudreach, Cognizant, Google, Tech Mahindra and Unisys are named Leaders in one quadrant.
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In addition, Mindtree was named a Rising Star—a company with “promising portfolios” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition—in two quadrants. Claranet, Computacenter, N-iX, Rackspace Technology and Tech Mahindra are named Rising Stars in one quadrant.
Customized versions of the report are available from AWS, Claranet, N-iX and Unisys.