Additionally, 82% of participants in the UKCloud study expressed agreement that their senior leadership “understands and values progressive technology”, and 85% said that they would prefer multi-cloud solutions.
These findings show a predominant desire across the board to migrate all IT infrastructure to the cloud, but that ‘perfect solution’ isn’t readily available to all companies just yet.
Despite the UK government adopting a ‘Cloud First policy’ in 2013, and the establishment of companies such as NHSX and Defence Digital to help overcome cloud challenges in the public sector, struggles are still occurring.
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“We have been monitoring the adoption of cloud-based services across the UK for the past ten years,” said Alex Hilton, chief executive at the Cloud Industry Forum. “We have seen unprecedented change take place in that time, with many companies now realising the potential of cloud services helping them fulfil their digital transformation goals.
“These journeys may have started a long time ago, but they are far from over. Rapidly evolving business challenges mean that diversity and collaboration are necessary to move forward.
“A cloud-led strategy must be at the heart of any digital transformation.”
Despite apparent understanding of cloud tech on the part of decision-makers, over three-quarters of participating companies cited ‘lack of clear policy/strategy’ as a major challenge encountered during plans for cloud adoption.
Another frequently cited cause for concern was security, which was cited by 85.2%.
Also, vendor lock-in was identified as a fear by 78%, which could explain a prominent preference for multi-cloud solutions, and 78.3% declared a lack of skills or resources needed for cloud adoption, such as automation or DevOps.
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Simon Hansford, CEO of UKCloud, said: “The issues raised in the report are being addressed at a policy level in government at the moment. There is no perfect cloud solution – rather different clouds to meet different needs.
“UK public sector organisations need choice and options in order to meet demand for cloud-based data and workloads. Organisations understand cloud-first is not cloud-only.
“Some of them, like the Food Standards Agency, have already fully moved to the public cloud. Others, like the Ministry of Defence, have a hybrid, multi-cloud strategy.
“The public sector understands the detail of the policy, including the fact it enables organisations to form a cloud strategy that’s right for them. Different organisations face different sets of challenges when it comes to cloud, and there is not a one-size-fits-all solution.”
The study by UKCloud surveyed 302 representatives of companies within the public sector, including UK governmental bodies (102), health and life science firms (100), and defence and national security bodies (100).
