While the very definition of “multicloud” can mean many different things, what it usually boils down to is where workloads should reside and the parameters used to determine those locations. Forrester Research Inc. has compiled extensive business data from its clients and research initiatives that shines light on the inherent complexities of moving to multicloud environments.

Lauren Nelson (pictured), principal analyst at Forrester, spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and guest host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor), principal at The CTO Advisor, during the Commvault GO event in Nashville, Tennessee. They discussed common difficulties that can be faced when moving to multicloud, as well as what prompts organizations to adopt multicloud strategies. (* Disclosure below.)

[Editor’s note: The following answers have been condensed for clarity.]

Miniman: When I talk to users about the multicloud strategy that they’re figuring out, it’s one of those things that’s revisited quite often. What’s your research showing [as to] the state of cloud and how cloud migration fits into it?

Nelson: You have two really big topics right now in the cloud space. You’ve got the migration side, and you’ve got the multicloud side. You have migration that is not software as a service migration, but rather migrating an application to an infrastructure as a service environment, and that is difficult.

Companies don’t look at the challenges or the architectural changes from moving to vertical scaling to horizontal, especially if you look at small, mid-size organizations. They’re looking at cloud migration as a data center replacement method. However, if you look at the average enterprise, that’s not the typical story. What they’re looking at is a few apps driven by location or app-specific support that they’re planning to get from their service provider of choice. And they’re moving this app for specific reasons.

A number of organizations say they are multicloud, and then they have various definitions of what multicloud means for them. Multicloud is either public and private, private and some public cloud usage, multiple public, non-cloud plus cloud. It’s all over the map. I think organizations are starting to take a step back, starting to think about, “How does my cloud strategy map to my larger organizational values?” It should seem obvious that should have been done from the start, but for many organizations it’s a unique step that they’re doing this year, of being more pragmatic on how they … approach cloud — not trying to force-fit deployment models and look at the real opportunities that are there.

Townsend: For multicloud, I think customers are starting to look back and really wonder, “Do I need that complexity? Is it really worth the effort?” I think customers underestimate the complexity of having a data strategy unique to cloud versus their data strategy on-prem. Are you seeing the same, that customers are realizing they can’t just take their on-prem data strategy to the cloud?

Nelson: It’s the classic analyst response … it depends! There are some organizations that are literally creating two different data hubs with different access levels and different apps that users are allowed to connect to based on what the classification is for that particular data. It’s this theme of zero-trust model of: “How do you secure from the data out?” Simply put, some data sets are more valuable than others.

I think that one of the big topics in the upcoming year is: “If I’m going to multicloud, if I’m going to take on that effort, why am I doing that? Why am I taking on this as an important app? Is it because of fear of lock-in and flexibility long term? And if I do that, what are the implications in terms of data both security wise and cost wise?”

Miniman: What differentiates a customer who can really start moving up the stack, being more strategic, having IT answering to the business and doing things with their data versus the laggards out there? Is there anything that you’re finding in your research as to what separates those leaders from laggards?

Nelson: Vendors look for changes in executive boards — so, typically, new folks coming in, trying to change the way things are being done. In other organizations, there’s the classic “they’re threatened by others in their industry” or believe they’ll be threatened soon. For some organizations, it happens to be the right place, the right time. They have a leader they can trust, that they believe will head this cloud strategy and that can tackle some of these challenges.

For many organizations, there’s the desire and some action, but often times the action is delayed. They face very stagnant cloud strategies; they face very stagnant data problems, because they’re either missing cash or missing the ear of their executive board. Or they have the wrong individuals trying to take the torch forward. So it takes a lot of critical self-reflection as an organization. That isn’t easy.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Commvault GO 2018. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Commvault GO event. Neither Commvault Systems Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE