When it comes to the future of cloud services, according to research from Ensono, multi-cloud strategies are set to dominate.

Ensono has released the findings of its research report, ‘A snapshot of the cloud in 2021.’

The company surveyed 500 full-time professionals across the US and UK with cloud procurement decision-making power in a variety of industries, including: healthcare, financial services/insurance, retail, public sector, manufacturing, professional services and utilities.

The report revealed that multi-cloud strategies are emerging as a dominant part of respondents’ long-term IT roadmap, with 42% pursuing such a strategy.  

In addition, Microsoft Azure was the most-often cited public cloud vendor amongst the surveyed population (58%), followed by Google Cloud (41%), IBM (40%) and AWS (38%).

Nearly half (46%) of respondents indicated they have chosen a new provider or platform within the last year — and more than a quarter (26%) have done so in the past six months. Only 1% said they have always had the same cloud provider or platform.

“This report captures a clear picture of the industry and reveals how companies’ investments in cloud services have changed over the past year,” said Bryan Doerr, executive vice president of product and technology.

“With nearly half of respondents indicating they’ve chosen a new provider in the last year, it’s clear that shares of the cloud market are completely up for grabs between the major providers.

“What’s most important for organisations right now is investing in the right cloud strategy for their IT workloads.”

More than pricing or vendor incentives, security and technical requirements are top drivers of cloud decision-making, according to the study.

Fifty-six percent of respondents indicated that security considerations have a ‘significant impact’ on the final decision when choosing a provider.

In addition to organisations moving toward multi-cloud strategies, private cloud environments remain important to organisations attempting to make optimal workload-to-cloud placement decisions.

“After major disruptions in the past year, the need for a modern technology stack is fuelling cloud adoption in every industry,” Doerr continued.

“To capitalise on the opportunities available in the market right now, cloud providers must meet the complex security and legacy workload needs of organisations.

“With the right partner, companies can harness the power of the cloud to achieve their transformation goals.”