The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated adoption of hybrid cloud systems among UK end user organisations. According to a report from Information Services Group (ISG), UK enterprise clients are embracing hybrid cloud environments, as well as artificial intelligence to optimise IT assets, costs, productivity and capacity, while reducing short term risks.
The pandemic has placed immense pressure on CIOs and chief technology officers to deliver digital transformation and reduced costs, reversing a moderate drop in IT outsourcing deals across verticals in the UK over the last five years, the ISG Provider Lens 2021 report found.
“UK enterprises are turning to IT outsourcing to maximise both growth and productivity for a transformed post-pandemic economy,” said Steve Hall, president, EMEA, and global head of digital solutions for ISG.
“Companies have started re-evaluating the balance between the IT resources they keep inhouse and those they seek from partners,” Hall added.
In the study, respondents listed cost optimisation as the primary motivator for choosing to outsource. Business transformation and higher service quality were listed as the second biggest factors.
Organisations in the travel, hospitality and retail sectors are among those forming outsourcing partnerships and renewing existing deals to reduce costs.
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical, technology, utility and other enterprises continue to pour funds into technologies like cloud, network and data operations to support artificial intelligence and machine learning.
In the past couple of years, several UK companies have implemented software-defined data centres and hyper converged infrastructure (HCI), especially those developed with container services for cloud native applications, the report found.
