The cloud represents the most critical aspect of digital transformation, according to respondents to the 2021 Frost & Sullivan Global Cloud User survey. As such, companies continue to build out their hybrid, multicloud environments to support strategic business goals, such as agility and improved customer experience. In the tenth annual survey of IT decision-makers responsible for cloud implementations, respondents representing a range of industries, company sizes, and world regions share their perceptions, plans, and behaviors related to cloud infrastructure, choice of a public cloud provider, data growth, and managed services. Among interesting findings: • Increasing digitalization is driving growth across all cloud and traditional IT models. Businesses deploying apps in edge or colocation facilities will double in the next two years. • The increasing complexity and urgency associated with digital transformation is driving more businesses to engage with managed service providers. Top-used services relate to optimization of workloads and costs. • Becoming more “data-centric” is a priority for 61% of respondents, who report average data growth of 44% per year. The survey results offer enterprises and IT service providers a glimpse of the near-future of the cloud market. Author: Lynda Stadtmueller