The study "Multi-Cloud and Cloud Managed Services in the Manufacturing Environment", commissioned by cloud service provider Rackspace, shows that the two most important challenges are the implementation of IoT and Industry 4.0 initiatives (45%) and IT security (40%). This demonstrates the massive importance of IT in the manufacturing sector.

According to the study results, the industry sees a major value contribution from cloud solutions above all in the business challenges of cost and efficiency pressure in IT operations (78%), opening up new customer groups and markets (74%) and opening up new markets and regions (71%). The cloud also facilitates the expansion of the product and service portfolio (59%) and the development of new business partnerships (56%). "By using cloud solutions, SMEs can significantly reduce their IT expenditure and increase the efficiency of their processes," explains Jens Puhle, Sales Director Germany at Rackspace.

According to PAC, approval of the reasons that inhibit cloud use has decreased significantly over the last 12 months. The complexity of cloud solutions and concerns regarding availability, performance and compliance are currently seen as the biggest obstacles. With regard to the multi-cloud, 39% of respondents see very great or great challenges in terms of technological complexity. According to the survey results, the cloud strategies of manufacturing companies are quite differentiated. The focus is on the use of best-of-breed solutions - i.e. the selection of the most suitable solution for a task, even if this may increase the management effort. Here, 21% say that it is completely true that they are currently pursuing a best-of-breed approach, while the figure for future strategy is as high as 34%.

Where will the cloud go in the future? Companies sometimes see their future cloud strategy as very different from the current one.

© PAC

There is also a preference for a private cloud approach: although only five percent currently say "strongly agree", the figure for the future strategy is 30 percent. This becomes even clearer when the "somewhat true" category is also considered. In this case, a total of 64 percent currently prefer the private cloud approach - 79 percent with regard to the future strategy (see bar chart). However, according to PAC, public cloud offerings are also heavily used. Accordingly, multi-cloud solutions will make up the majority of operating modes in the future.

As the desired multi-cloud solutions are complex, all respondents are using (45%), planning (37%) or discussing (18%) collaboration with external service providers. Industry knowledge (90 percent) and certifications (84 percent) of the provider as well as experienced employees in this field (62 percent) and verifiable expertise in cloud transformation/operations (52 percent) are considered very important here.

Methodology: From February to March 2018, a total of 120 IT and department managers in companies with 250 or more employees from the manufacturing industry were surveyed by telephone (CATI) in Germany and Switzerland on the use of cloud services. The distribution by size category was chosen to ensure a sufficient number of interviews per group for statistical analysis.