Misalignment between cloud and network teams puts enterprise cloud initiatives at risk: Study

72% of enterprises struggle to realize the full value of their cloud initiatives, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) and BlueCat. Much of that can be tied to their failure to adequately integrate traditional on-premises network infrastructure teams into the cloud journey. EMA found that collaboration challenges between networking and cloud teams have directly resulted in the following consequences in the past year:

• Security & compliance issues (such as compliance violation, data leaks, and financial loss) at 73% of organizations
• IT operations issues (such as service performance problems and downtime) at 89% of organizations
• Business-level issues (such as productivity loss, cost overruns, and customer loyalty challenges) at 82% of organizations

The report also identifies the benefits of integration to all sorts of functions, like DNS and IP space management, compliance, and network security, which are critical to successful cloud adoption.

The research, based on a survey of 212 networking and cloud professionals and authored by Shamus McGillicuddy, Vice President of Research, Network Management at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), explores the state of collaboration between network and cloud teams, and its impact on hybrid cloud initiatives at enterprises employing more than 2,500 people.

“The cloud is a critical undertaking, and we know that dysfunction between these two teams can derail enterprises’ success,” says Stephen Devito, CEO at BlueCat Networks. “At BlueCat, we’re committed to helping our clients navigate the nuances of the journey to the cloud, and this research offers readers both strategic and tactical guidance around improving their chances of successful hybrid cloud adoption.”

Leaders and practitioners alike will find rich perspectives from the cloud and networking trenches in the research analysis, as well as data that outlines the biggest benefits of alignment between these two teams and suggested steps for alleviating the dysfunction.

“Applications are migrating to the cloud every day, so there is no time to waste,” says McGillicuddy. “Industry leaders must recognize that the networking team offers intrinsic value to a cloud adoption initiative, and they should necessarily be an equal partner in the journey. Letting things like DNS and IP addressing right at the beginning of a cloud initiative can save millions of dollars and years in project time.”