As new streams of data are continuing to appear, from mobile apps to artificial intelligence, companies in the future will rely heavily on cloud and digital transformation to minimize complexity, TriCore says.

The study is based on survey results from more than 200 industry professionals. The research outlines businesses state of operations, biggest changes expected and greatest needs for the digital age.

Here are some key results from the survey:

Public Cloud Considerations: Cloud initiatives are underway for companies in the mid-market up through the Fortune 500, though IT leaders continue to struggle with what to migrate, when to migrate and how best to execute the process. More than half of those surveyed plan to migrate web applications and development systems to the public cloud in the next year, prioritizing these over other migrations. More than two thirds have 25 percent or less of their infrastructure in the public cloud.

Running Smarter Still on Prem: Whether running on Oracle EBS, PeopleSoft or SAP, companies rely on ERP systems to run their businesses. Twenty percent of respondents expect to migrate ERP systems to public cloud in the next year, which may indicate the importance of hybrid cloud environments for companies to manage business-critical operations on premise alongside other applications and platforms in the public cloud.

Addressing the IT Talent Gap: As public cloud demands grow, and IT infrastructure continues to merge, application and development support will play an increasingly larger role for IT departments, TriCore says. According to the survey, 56 percent of respondents agree or strongly agree that filling gaps in IT talent is a concern, while nearly half agree or strongly agree that acquiring talent for legacy systems is a major need.

Prepping for Digital Transformation: With the increased amount of data in today’s IT environment — from machine data to social media data to transactional data and everything in between — the need for managed service providers to make sense of it all has never been more important, TriCore says. More than 50 percent of respondents plan on outsourcing their IT infrastructure in the future, and respondents anticipate a nearly 20 percent increase in applications being outsourced in the future as well. 

“As worldwide spending on cloud continues to grow, and with the increased amount of data in today’s IT environment, IT leaders need to heavily consider the keys to IT success when migrating to a cloud-based environment,” said Mark Clayman, CEO and president of TriCore Solutions.

Source: TriCore Solutions