
VMware Research and Insights
Plotting the Path to the Digital-First Enterprise
Business apps are driving more revenue than ever, with 90% of enterprises reporting at an increase revenue growth from apps in the past year. No wonder IT leaders have their sights set on running apps in the cloud.
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Three cloud-centric strategies are on the enterprise IT agenda.

Smart
Migration
Migrate all suitable apps from the data center to the cloud

Multi-Cloud Management
Achieve consistency, visibility and control over all deployed workloads

Cloud Native
Apps
Embrace containers and Kubernetes for all net-new apps
These long-term, complex strategies may take more than one year to complete. Some organizations may never complete them.
Across industries, most enterprises are pursuing at least one of the three strategies.
are migrating apps to cloud
are taking on multi-cloud management
are building cloud native apps
Charting the evolution of these cloud strategies
See what’s fueling the enterprise appetite for each of these strategies.
Cloud strategies are being held back by various roadblocks.
Cloud strategies are being held back by various roadblocks.

Roadblocks as ranked by IT leaders:
- 1 Security concerns for cloud-based apps
- 2 Difficulty migrating remaining legacy apps
- 3 Managing migration to multiple platforms
- 4 Regulatory or industry compliance post-migration
- 5 Specialized skills required to manage public clouds

Roadblocks as ranked by IT leaders:
- 1 Increased complexity of cloud-specific tools
- 2 Incompatibility between data center and public clouds
- 3 Risks related to security, data or privacy
- 4 Increased or unplanned costs
- 5 Specialized skills required to manage public clouds

Roadblocks as ranked by IT leaders:
- 1 Security concerns for cloud-native apps
- 2 Technical skills gap to manage containers and Kubernetes
- 3 Developer teams are not using cloud-native frameworks
- 4 Operations teams are not using cloud-native frameworks
- 5 Lack of cloud infrastructure
Across the strategies, three challenges appear repeatedly.
Technology isn’t the only driver of success. IT leaders have their sights set on process change, too.

Expanded executive sponsorship of cloud strategies

Proof of new revenue generation opportunities

Improved collaboration between departments and teams
Explore how VMware Cross-Cloud™ services can help your organization achieve more with its cloud initiatives
Background and methodology
Countries
Organizations
Software developers
C-Suite technology decision makers (CIO, CTO, CISO, etc.)
The VMware Executive Pulse Q1 study was fielded between March 2022 and April 2022. The study is fielded each quarter by Qualtrics.
Custom research was conducted in the Americas (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, U.S.), Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, U.K., Spain, Sweden, Russia) and Asia Pacific (Australia, China, India, Japan, Singapore) using web-based surveys.
Responses were collected from 459 C-Suite and senior technology decision-maker respondents involved in app and infrastructure platform decisions, with a balance of VMware and non-VMware customers. The sample targeted 48% commercial (1,000-4,999 employees), and 52% large enterprise (5,000+ employees).
The VMware Executive Pulse Q4 study was fielded between December 2021 and January 2022. The study is fielded each quarter by Qualtrics.
Custom research was conducted in the Americas (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, U.S.), Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, U.K., Spain, Sweden, Russia) and Asia Pacific (Australia, China, India, Japan, Singapore) using web-based surveys.
Responses were collected from 457 C-Suite and senior technology decision-maker respondents involved in app and infrastructure platform decisions, with a balance of 37% VMware and 63% non-VMware customers. The sample targeted 52% commercial (1,000-4,999 employees), and 48% large enterprise (5,000+ employees).
The VMware FY23 Workloads Tracker study was fielded on behalf of VMware by Management Insight Technologies between October 2021 and January 2022.
The custom research was conducted in North America (U.S. and Canada), Western Europe (U.K., Germany and France) and APAC (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India and China) using a combination of web and telephone interviews.
Responses were collected from 1,700 IT leaders, IT decision-makers, and developers who specialize in decision making for application workloads and infrastructure deployments. The sample targeted 10% SMB (2-999 employees), 30% commercial (1,000-4,999 employees), and 60% enterprise (5,000+ employees)