The 2022 Cloud and Infrastructure Report from Tech Research Asia (TRA) and Datacom shares insights from 650 Senior IT decision makers across Australia and New Zealand, and provides an opportunity to evaluate critical shifts in the priorities and decisions being made by senior leaders.
Business priorities shifting to risk management and innovation
Customers remain the top priority for many New Zealand businesses but where cost control, operations, and survival were dominating the agenda because of pandemic lockdowns, companies on both sides of the Tasman are now focusing on risk management.
Innovation is also receiving attention from businesses in Australia and New Zealand, with an investment in agile, scalable platforms and processes creating a digital platform for new ways of working.
IT management priorities: cybersecurity rises to the top
One notable shift was the industry-wide rise in the importance of cybersecurity, shifting to the #1 IT management priority for both Australian and New Zealand organisations.
Across both markets, TRA is also observing a concentrated focus on operational excellence tied to “modernisation”.
Cloud strategy: mixed environments and workload-by-workload playbook
Workload location drivers have seen a noticeable shift, moving away from concerns about security and employee experience in 2020, to a focus on business continuity, application performance, growth, and innovation. These focus areas are acting as the key strategic drivers for cloud strategy in 2022.
IT skills and resourcing: strong demand for analysts, project managers and in-house capabilities
People and skills are fundamental pillars of every IT engagement and organisations are looking closely at how to balance resourcing costs while delivering on performance. Resources being sought in market are trending at businesses looking for : 1) someone to “do the boring stuff” more cost effectively, or 2) someone who can offer specialised skills for innovation.
The results confirm broader market trends with an increased number of projects requiring analysts and project skills as well as digital experience.
Top challenges in cloud and infrastructure: budget is still #1
Budget constraints continue to be nominated as the top challenge for businesses. Power and cooling have risen above security and privacy while recruiting or retaining skilled staff, and a lack of quantifiable business results and the pace of growth continue to create challenges.
You can find the entire TRA and Datacom 2022 Cloud and Infrastructure Report here.