ANZ companies surveyed agree that cloud is key to 2023 strategy

Photo by Scott Webb

Akamai Technologies, Inc has revealed that 96% of channel partners in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) agreed that cloud is important to their customers’ 2023 strategy, with most respondents (48%) estimating that 21-40% of IT budgets would be spent on cloud.

The findings are in line with results of the survey that found that 95 percent of partners in the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region agreed that cloud computing would be key to their 2023 strategy.

However, not all APJ businesses plan to or are able to invest heavily in the space. Willingness to spend varies greatly, with 27% planning to spend below 20% of their IT budget on cloud and 33% planning to spend above 40% of their budget.

Results are based on a survey of 386 respondents across Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), Japan, China, India, Singapore, and South Korea. The survey was conducted to glean insights into partners’ perspectives on IT budget priorities, and their customers’ 2023 cloud strategy.

“In our conversations with partners, we see that organisations are walking the fine line between investing in cloud as well as being frugal in light of the macroeconomic headwinds. We believe the solution lies in working with a developer-friendly cloud and compute ecosystem that can offer them both flexibility and cost-effectiveness, while avoiding bill shock,” explained Tatsuya Suzuki, Regional VP, APJ Carrier and Channel, Akamai.

“Even as the industry landscape continues to evolve and increase in complexity, Akamai seeks to accelerate the ambitions of our partners as they help their customers harness the potential of the cloud. We will offer expanded product roadmaps in the new year, across the areas of cloud, security, and delivery to achieve the overarching goal of making life better for billions of people, billions of times a day,” concluded Suzuki.

Understanding cloud priorities across the APJ region

Upon analysis of country-specific data, Akamai’s findings revealed significant differences in the willingness to spend on cloud despite an overarching agreement on the importance of cloud technology.

Specifically, Vietnam (31%), Indonesia (27%), and India (23%) had the highest percentages in terms of respondents who said the proportion of IT budget spent on cloud would be 60% and up.

Conversely, Thailand (50%), Japan (49%) and Taiwan (40%) had the highest percentages for respondents who indicated that the proportion of IT budget spent on cloud would be below 20%.

“While most organisations acknowledge the importance of cloud, many are apprehensive about investing their IT budgets in this technology, given concerns of costs and how this will affect other overarching IT priorities. These sentiments are clear from the latest insights we have gathered from our partners, and this is why Akamai is investing heavily in scaling our cloud computing capabilities,” explained Suzuki.

“We believe that organisations need more options for their cloud needs, particularly those that are easy to use and developer friendly with transparent, attractive pricing, and we are able to provision for these needs with Akamai Connected Cloud,” he continued.

Security remains a key priority for ANZ partners in 2023

While cloud remains top of mind, so too is security which continues to be an overarching priority for ANZ partners, with the rise of data breaches in the past months.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre’s (ACSC) third Annual Cyber Threat Report threat report, revealed that the agency had received over 76,000 cybercrime reports last financial year – a 13 per cent increase from the year before.

“In the coming months, we are likely to see an increase in the number and sophistication of cyber-attacks and larger scale data breaches, causing more disruption. There is also a risk of complacency from breach fatigue. Many organisations will focus on improving the security of their supply chain as part of ensuring positive business outcomes,” explained Mark Trumble, APAC Head of Portfolio – Cyber Security, Fujitsu Australia, and New Zealand.”

To account for these challenges, partners are increasingly looking to provide a range of products and services for customers that embed different layers of security and in-depth defense.

Previous articleAI and Machine Learning pose the most significant cyber risks
Next articleTop five cybersecurity red flags in APAC