A new global survey from IBM (NYSE: IBM) has revealed that in India, 64% of hybrid cloud users have an organisation-wide policy and/or approach for the use of Generative AI (GenAI). However, barriers that once slowed down hybrid cloud adoption seem to be impeding the implementation of GenAI. It’s believed that cloud leaders are concerned about the challenges associated with the privacy and confidentiality of data and information when adopting GenAI. In addition to the ability to unlock the power of GenAI being cited as one of the benefits of a hybrid cloud approach, leaders agreed that a cloud environment is essential for managing sustainability initiatives at an enterprise level, but workforce deficiencies in cloud skills are impacting implementation.
According to an official release, the IBM Cloud Transformation Report 2023 commissioned by the IBM Institute for Business Value and conducted by independent research firm, The Harris Poll, was created to help organisations map their cloud transformation and empower them to self-classify their progress. Reportedly, built on a foundation that leverages insights from cloud professionals, enterprises can use the index to gain metrics that can help quantify their progress and uncover areas of opportunity and growth. It’s believed that over 3,000 IT and business decision-makers in 12 countries and across 23 industries were surveyed.
Based on the survey’s results, in India, on average 68% of the business leaders surveyed agreed that lack of cloud skills remains a challenge in their digital transformation journeys, which is higher than the global average of 58% – ranking second to Japan (75%). However, about 85% of the surveyed organisations said they have created new positions to fulfil the need for cloud skills. From what it’s understood, Indian organisations are leading the efforts to close the skills gap, followed by those surveyed in the United States of America (80%), United Kingdom (77%), Germany (72%), Spain (72%) and Australia (70%). In India, about 36% of cloud leaders expressed concern about cybersecurity or the privacy and confidentiality of data and information when adopting GenAI. Moreover, 60% of cloud leaders cited security and compliance as reasons for moving workloads from public clouds to private clouds or on-premises data centres, which represents an increase of 18% from the previous year.
Data supplied by the survey mentioned that 43% of decision-makers surveyed in India agreed that they use cloud to help deploy, track, and manage sustainability goals internally, while 44% said they use cloud to help deploy, track, and manage sustainability goals for third parties. About 92% of the organisations surveyed in India agreed that open innovation with business partners is the biggest driver for sustainability initiatives – with India ranking the highest of all countries surveyed alongside Brazil.
“As GenAI gains momentum in India, organisations need to harness the power of a hybrid cloud approach to tackle challenges that are coming to the forefront. Investing in the right cloud technologies and tools will help businesses tackle increasing security and compliance concerns and deliver on their sustainability goals. As evidenced by the report, hybrid cloud models aided by the right talent capabilities should play a role in shaping the success of business transformation initiatives. About 85% of respondents have said they are creating new job positions to fulfil the need for cloud skills in this Generative AI era,” Viswanath Ramaswamy, vice-president – technology, IBM India and South Asia, said.