One of the leading independent providers of flash data for the cloud, Pure Storage, has released its Evolution global research survey exploring the ways businesses in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) and the rest of the world are balancing infrastructure and applications.
About 500 decision makers in the MEA region took part in the survey. The results showed that 72% of the respondents defined themselves as information-based companies, embracing digital transformation. According to the study, the main factors behind the adoption of digital solutions in the region were new business models (52%). The need for faster innovation (47%) was also mentioned as a valid reason; as well as customer demand (47%), the attraction of new clients (47%), competition (43%), cost-saving strategies (42%).
Another proof that the companies in MEA are now facing digital transformation is that 77% of them replied that the requests for real-time analytics and interactive simulations have increased compared to the same period last year. Nowadays, the digital solutions are driving on average 47% of the revenue of the businesses in the region.
However, the study has also shown that despite the growth, there were factors which prevent companies from going truly digital. At first place, 53% of the respondents claimed technical complexity was an issue. For another 41% of them, the reliance on IT to deliver strategy was a problem. In addition to that, businesses still lack confidence where to allocate specific workloads:
On average, the MEA companies have been running almost half of the applications (48%) with traditional on-premise IT. That was higher than the public cloud (23%) and private cloud (24%). Security was quoted as the main reason by 57% of the respondents to keep using the traditional on-premise IT. At the same time, 69% of the respondents claimed they would increase their public cloud usage in the next two years. The private cloud and SaaS usage are also projected to grow during the same period.
The researchers also found out that 76% of the MEA businesses thought that cloud and on-site should not compete but complement.
James Petter, Vice President, EMEA at Pure Storage commented that although the companies in the region have made giant steps towards digital transformation in the recent years, there were still barriers to overcome. The study revealed that cloud confusion was evident mainly in workload fragmentation and cloud repatriation:
As data volumes continue to grow and unlock greater opportunities, managing and harnessing data with a future-proofed approach is essential for organizations in the region.
PureStorage will take part at GITEX 2017 where it will share more information about the recent findings and will showcase its all-flash data platform.