Organizations urgently need new tools to drive management and automation of hybrid and multi-cloud environments, a leading analyst has claimed.

Scott Raynovich, founder of Futuriom, said the need has been made clear by the large numbers of organizations pursuing a greater variety of public, private, and hybrid cloud models. Futuriom’s newly released report on hybrid cloud looks at aspects of hybrid and multi-cloud adoption, including the main drivers, challenges, and tools need to build a hybrid cloud environment.

“As organizations accelerate their digital transformation and cloud development plans, they are considering new hybrid and multi-cloud architectures to take advantage of the best cloud technology resources, wherever they reside,” commented Raynovich. “These new architectures need to give IT, network, and cybersecurity the capabilities to manage applications and assets on premises, in a cloud, or in multiple clouds.”

Raynovich added that there are many drivers of the move to multi-cloud and hybrid cloud: “There’s digital transformation projects, hybrid work arrangements, automation, and data analytics efforts enabled by cloud-based artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), among others. Data can reside anywhere. More than ever, organizations want to connect and integrate multiple resources in the cloud and on premises. But this task isn’t simple. The shift to hybrid and multi-cloud means not only more options, it also means managing pitfalls such as costs, security, and data governance – just to name a few of the challenges.”

He added that Futuriom believes these trends will drive the development of a new market for multi-cloud and hybrid cloud automation tools. Growing out of the market known as cloud management, multi-cloud and hybrid cloud management is more sophisticated, requiring understanding and integration with many types of cloud platforms. He said organizations need better tools to scale and balance infrastructure resources, take advantage of hybrid cloud options such as bursting, and address the governance concerns for both private and public clouds.