HONG KONG, CHINA - Media OutReach - 17 January 2019 - NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), the information and communications technology (ICT) solutions andinternational communications business within the NTT Group (TYO: 9432), todayannounced that 44 per cent of enterprises in Asia-Pacific are going ahead with implementinga hybrid cloud without a formal strategy in place, according to a new 451Research survey whitepaper.

The survey whitepaper"Going Hybrid: Demand for Cloud and Managed Services Across Asia-Pacific", wascommissioned by NTT Communications in partnership with VMware,Inc. and conducted in six countries (Australia, Hong Kong,Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand) in Q3 2018. It analyzes prevailingtechnology choices, service provider preferences, service priorities, andmeasures of hybrid cloud strategy and execution.

Multi-cloudhas become the norm for mostenterprisesacross Asia Pacific. Over 90 per cent of businesses surveyed havemultiple cloud environments with varying degrees of interoperability, andmore than half said they are already using a hybrid cloud. However, nearly 44per cent have begun implementing hybrid cloud pilots without an overarchinghybrid strategy in place.

"Alarmingly asignificant portion of large enterprises lack a formal hybrid-cloud strategy.While they recognize the potential benefits, they underestimate the technicalcomplexity which may derail their business modernization efforts if they do nothave a future-proof hybrid cloud plan," said Dave Scott, Solutions Director,NTT Communications Managed Services.

Three different paths to hybrid cloud migration: cloud-first,lift-and-shift, and refactor-and-shift

Enterprises are foundto be actively considering an off-premises cloud as a critical component oftheir business modernization strategy, while a hybrid cloud offers intermediarysteps in their business transformation. The survey found that more than half ofenterprises primarily emphasize migrating workloads from their internalenvironments when deploying into a public cloud. However, there is nopredominate approach to their cloud migration - currently 28 per cent arefocused on a 'lift and shift' approach and another 28 per cent are refactoringbefore moving. Another third are focused on the public cloud for net newapplications.

In terms of hybridworkload deployment plans, there is little uniformity across all the businesses.In the next two years, CRM/sales and marketing (49 per cent), database and datawarehousing (48 per cent) and file and content storage (47 per cent) will bethe key focus for workloads to be shifted to hybrid cloud environments, up from25, 28 and 28 per cent respectively. The strong traction indicates enterprises'growing confidence in hybrid cloud to support their full spectrum of businessrequirements and application portfolios.

Managed services: course-correction required for enterpriseslacking a well-thought-out hybrid cloud and security strategy  

Another keyconsideration to drive hybrid cloud migration is security and compliance, which95 per cent of enterprises rated as their top requirement. In addition, nearly half of respondents pointed to improvements in the consistency ofsecurity policies across environments and better management of risk --challenges that can emerge as businesses begin to employ multiple cloudenvironments.

Enterprises embarkingon a hybrid cloud strategy must ensure they build in security, but designingand applying security for hybrid cloud is challenging, and a task that issometimes outside the capabilities of an organization's own security team. Morethan 50 per cent of enterprises pointed to the fact that they use managedservices at some point in their cloud journey.

Beyond security,enterprises are also turning to managed services providers that support boththe initial design and implementation of hybrid cloud, as well as its ongoingoperation, to continually optimize workloads between various infrastructureenvironments for the best mix of performance, availability, security and cost.

"End-to-end managedservices and compliant-ready security management are increasingly becoming astrategy to future proof a company's business growth paths," Scott added.

All enterprises areat different stages in designing, implementing and operating their workloads orsystems in a hybrid cloud environment. NTT Communications' ManagedServices is well positioned to offer smart, reliable and secure ITsolutions through their full spectrum of managed services. For instance, enterprisescan immediately tap into NTT Communications' global resources and capabilitiessuch as high-speed networks, a global footprint of data centers and cloudservices, with only a single contract and one service-level agreement(SLA).

To learn more aboutthe state of hybrid cloud adoption in Asia Pacific, download the full reporthere: www.nttcominsight.com/go-hybrid

About the research

451Research carried out an independent study of 464 IT decision-makersrepresenting Asia- Pacific's largest businesses in key vertical markets in Q3of 2018. Businesses surveyed have 1,000-100,000+ employees, and more thanthree-quarters have annual revenue of more than US$1 billion. Based on theresults of that study, this report provides insight about hybrid cloud planningand management, drivers and inhibitors, and factors that are influencing thechoice of platforms, tools, technologies and managed services, both currentlyand in the next couple of years.

About NTT Communications

NTTCommunications solves the world's technology challenges by helping enterprisesovercome complexity and risk in their ICT environments with managed ITinfrastructure solutions. These solutions are backed by our worldwideinfrastructure, including industry leading, global tier-1 public and private networksreaching over 190 countries/regions, and more than 400,000m² ofthe world's most advanced data center facilities. Our global professionalservices teams provide consultation and architecture for the resiliency andsecurity required for your business success, and our scale and globalcapabilities are unsurpassed. Combined with NTT DATA, NTT DOCOMO, NTT Security,and Dimension Data, we are NTT Group.

Please visit www.ntt.com.hk | www.hknet.com | www.facebook.com/nttca | www.linkedin.com/company/ntt-com-asia-limited for furtherinformation.