In January , RightScale conducted its sixth annual State of the Cloud Survey of the l atest cloud computing trend s , with a focus on infrastructure-as-a-service. In , we see several new themes emerging: Their answers provide a comprehensive perspective on the state of the cloud today. The survey asked 1, IT professionals about their adoption of cloud infrastructure and related technologies.

Forty-eight percent of the respondents represented enterprises with more than 1, employees. The margin of error is 3. We highlight several key findings from the survey in this blog post. For the complete survey results, download the RightScale State of the Cloud Report. Hybrid Cloud Is the Preferred Enterprise Strategy, but Private Cloud Adoption Fell. Cloud Users Are Running Applications in Multiple Clouds.

Companies Run a Majority of Workloads in Cloud. Enterprise Central IT Teams Take a Stronger Cloud Role. Cloud Challenges Decline Overall: Expertise, Security, and Spend Tie for 1.

Significant Wasted Cloud Spend Drives Users to Focus on Costs. Docker Shoots Into the Lead for DevOps Tools.

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Azure Increases Market Penetration, Reducing the AWS Lead. Public Cloud Users Still Have a Larger Footprint in AWS.

Private Cloud Adoption Flattens. The percent of respondents now adopting private cloud is 72 percent, down from 77 percent last year.

In total, 95 percent of respondents are now using cloud. The percentage of enterprises that have a strategy to use multiple clouds grew to 85 percent vs. There was also an increase in the number of enterprises planning for multiple public clouds up from 16 percent to 20 percent and a concurrent decrease in those planning for multiple private clouds down from 11 percent to 7 percent. Companies that use public cloud are already running applications in an average of 1.

While fewer companies are using private clouds, those that do use more, running applications in an average of 2. Companies now run 79 percent of workloads in cloud, with 41 percent of workloads in public cloud and 38 percent in private cloud.

Enterprises run 75 percent of workloads in cloud with more in private cloud 43 percent vs. SMBs run 83 percent of workloads in cloud with more in public cloud 50 percent vs. This year we saw a strong shift toward centralization, with more central IT teams taking a broader view of their role in cloud. However, there is now a significant gap between the view of central IT and that of the business units they support.

This year expertise, security, and spend were all tied for the top challenge with 25 percent of respondents citing each as a significant challenge. Concerns about security fell to 25 percent vs. Managing cloud spend fell only slightly from 26 to 25 percent. Even as managing cloud costs becomes a top challenge, cloud users underestimate the amount of wasted cloud spend.

Respondents estimate 30 percent waste, while RightScale has measured actual waste between 30 and 45 percent. This increased concern about costs has made optimizing cloud costs the top initiative for across all cloud users 53 percent and especially in mature cloud users 64 percent.

As part of adopting DevOps processes, companies often choose to implement new tools that allow them to standardize and automate deployment and configuration of servers and applications. These tools include configuration management tools such as Chef, Puppet, and Ansible and, more recently, container technologies, such as Docker and container orchestration and scheduling tools such as Kubernetes, Swarm, and Mesosphere.

The meteoric rise in the use of containers now makes Docker the top DevOps tool among those included in our survey. Overall Docker adoption surged to 35 percent, taking the lead over Chef and Puppet at 28 percent each. Note that we did not ask about continuous integration tools such as Jenkins, Travis, and others. The State of the Cloud Survey reveals that although AWS continues to lead in public cloud adoption 57 percent of respondents currently run applications in AWS , this number has stayed flat since both and It is important to note that while the percentage of companies running at least one application in AWS is flat, the number of applications and VMs they are running is increasing, thereby driving increased revenue for AWS.

Google also increased adoption from 10 to 15 percent. The public cloud adoption numbers above indicate the number of respondents who are running any workloads in a particular cloud. However, it is also important to look at the number of workloads or VMs that are running in each cloud.

The chart below shows the number of VMs being run. So although AWS adoption is flat, it shows the largest footprint for public clouds with 8 percent running more than 1, VMs and 28 percent running more than VMs.

In comparison, Azure only has 3 percent running more than 1, VMs and and 13 percent running more than VMs. Across all sizes of organizations, VMware vSphere continues to lead with 42 percent adoption, slightly below last year 44 percent. OpenStack 20 percent and VMware vCloud Suite 19 percent were also flat in growth, with OpenStack barely eking into the 2 slot.

Microsoft System Center showed 3 percent growth, which is right at the 3 percent margin of error. Public Cloud Adoption Grows, While Private Cloud Wanes. The State of the Cloud Survey shows that while hybrid cloud remains the preferred enterprise strategy, public cloud adoption is growing while private cloud adoption flattened and fewer companies are prioritizing building a private cloud. AWS leads in public cloud adoption despite staying flat for the last two years in the number of respondents using it.

However, respondents are running more VMs in AWS than in other public clouds, which explains the AWS lead in revenue. Google also made gains and still remains in the 3 position. Enterprise central IT teams are taking a stronger role in cloud adoption. However, business units seem reluctant to give up authority. Cloud governance continues to progress, which will serve to help increase alignment between central IT and the business units they support.

With increasing maturity of both cloud users and cloud providers, we are seeing an across-the-board reduction in cloud challenges. Unlike last year when concern about resources and expertise was the most widespread 32 percent of users , this year security, spend, and expertise tied for the largest concern, albeit with only 25 percent of users expressing concern about each. As adoption grows, cloud bills and cost concerns are also growing. As a result, the most cited challenge among mature cloud users was managing cloud costs.

Most organizations, however, continue to underestimate the level of waste in cloud spend 30 percent when compared to actual waste between 30 and 45 percent measured by RightScale. Although only a minority of cloud users have taken action to reduce waste, they are now turning their focus to this issue, making it the top initiative for , followed closely by migrating more workloads to cloud.

The use of DevOps practices and tools continues to increase, with enterprises moving beyond piecemeal adoption to company-wide DevOps programs. This year Docker surged to become the top DevOps tool in the survey, seemingly at the expense of configuration management tools such as Puppet and Chef, which showed declines in adoption.

Download the RightScale State of the Cloud Report for the complete survey results. Use of Charts and Data In This Report. We encourage the re-use of data, charts, and text published in this report under the terms of this Creative Commons Attribution 4. You are free to share and make commercial use of this work as long as you attribute the RightScale State of the Cloud Report as stipulated in the terms of the license. View the discussion thread. Skip to main content. Search form RightScale Home.

More Search form RightScale Home. February 15, , Posted by Kim Weins Tweet. Private cloud adoption fell from 77 percent to 72 percent, also bringing hybrid cloud adoption down from 71 percent to 67 percent year-over-year.

Cloud Users Are Running Applications in Multiple Clouds Cloud users are running applications in an average of 1.

Moving to a Cloud: Top 5 Barriers to Cloud Adoption - And How to Break Them Down.

Companies Run a Majority of Workloads in Cloud Respondents run 41 percent of workloads in public cloud and 38 percent in private cloud. Among enterprises, respondents run 32 percent of workloads in public cloud and 43 percent in private cloud.

Concerns about security also fell to 25 percent vs. The most cited challenge among mature cloud users is managing costs 24 percent.

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Significant Wasted Cloud Spend Drives Users to Focus on Costs Cloud users underestimate the amount of wasted cloud spend. Optimizing cloud costs is the top initiative across all cloud users 53 percent and especially among mature cloud users 64 percent. Docker Shoots Into the Lead for DevOps Tools Overall Docker adoption surges to 35 percent, taking the lead over Chef and Puppet at 28 percent each. Kubernetes adoption also grew strongly to 14 percent from 7 percent in Azure Increases Market Penetration, Reducing the AWS Lead Overall Azure adoption grew from 20 to 34 percent of respondents, while AWS stayed flat at 57 percent of respondents.

Google also grew from 10 to 15 percent to maintain third position. Public Cloud Users Still Have a Larger Footprint in AWS AWS holds a significant lead in the number of VMs its users are running: VMware vSphere continues to lead with 42 percent adoption, slightly below last year 44 percent.

Cloud Users Are Running Applications in Multiple Clouds Companies that use public cloud are already running applications in an average of 1.

Enterprise Central IT Teams Take a Stronger Cloud Role This year we saw a strong shift toward centralization, with more central IT teams taking a broader view of their role in cloud. Significant Wasted Cloud Spend Drives Users to Focus on Costs Even as managing cloud costs becomes a top challenge, cloud users underestimate the amount of wasted cloud spend. Docker Shoots Into the Lead for DevOps Tools As part of adopting DevOps processes, companies often choose to implement new tools that allow them to standardize and automate deployment and configuration of servers and applications.

Azure Increases Market Penetration, Reducing the AWS Lead The State of the Cloud Survey reveals that although AWS continues to lead in public cloud adoption 57 percent of respondents currently run applications in AWS , this number has stayed flat since both and Public Cloud Users Still Have a Larger Footprint in AWS The public cloud adoption numbers above indicate the number of respondents who are running any workloads in a particular cloud. Public Cloud Adoption Grows, While Private Cloud Wanes The State of the Cloud Survey shows that while hybrid cloud remains the preferred enterprise strategy, public cloud adoption is growing while private cloud adoption flattened and fewer companies are prioritizing building a private cloud.

Use of Charts and Data In This Report We encourage the re-use of data, charts, and text published in this report under the terms of this Creative Commons Attribution 4. Read more articles on Cloud Computing Trends: Popular Posts Cloud Computing Trends: AWS Reserved Instances vs. Google Committed Use Discounts. AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud Pricing: How Much Are You Wasting? How to Compare AWS vs Azure vs Google vs SoftLayer. How Telcos and Other MSPs Are Succeeding in Cloud.

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