Syneto and the Polytechnic University of Milan: Syneto supports the Research of the Cloud Transformation Observatory in bringing SMEs to the Hybrid Cloud

Syneto has embraced and developed a hybrid cloud model because it considers it to be the best way for businesses to manage their data in today’s business environment. We have decided to support the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano to support research in the field of cloud development. we could not miss the opportunity to support the Polytechnic in its mission and build with them the most coherent transition models for Italian SMEs.

Research and innovation: The Digital Innovation Observatories

The Digital Innovation Observatories of the School of Management (part of Politecnico di Milano) were founded in 1999, with the main purpose of raising awareness and promoting digital innovation.

The 40+ Observatories bring together a team of almost 100 professors, researchers and analysts. The team develops research on topics related to digital innovation within companies (including SMBs) and public authorities.

The Cloud Transformation Observatory is one of the Observatories that focus on digital solutions. As a company that has interest in the cloud in all its forms, Syneto has been collaborating with Politecnico di Milano in order to support innovation and research in the field of the cloud and particularly the hybrid cloud.

The reality of Cloud Transformation

The Italian Cloud market has been maturing slowly and surely in recent years. Businesses are choosing a Cloud model for strategic reasons and for the long-term benefits it offers. Moreover, in a dynamic digital economy, dynamic models such as the Hybrid Cloud and the Multi Cloud have gained increased popularity.

Research done by The Cloud Transformation Observatory has shown that the Italian Cloud market has grown considerably in the last years. If it was worth 234 billion Euros in 2018, it has grown to 2,77 billion in 2019 – an 18% increase. Out of this, the Public and Hybrid Cloud market has shown the biggest growth, 25%, a percentage that is higher than that on the international market (21%).

“The missing ingredients”

In this context, it was interesting for Syneto to find out how the Italian market is embracing the cloud and what are the challenges that business are facing in their journey. For this reason, Syneto has partnered with the Cloud Transformation Observatory to research what the “missing ingredients” that are stopping today’s businesses to embrace a hybrid cloud model and the benefits it offers.

In order to achieve this mission, the Cloud Observatory has conducted a series of events, but also surveys and interviews:

• 7 events that facilitated dialogue between CIOs and It vendors
• 3 surveys: one focused on entrepreneurship, another on SMEs and one on the digital supply chain
• 63 interviews with IT companies regarding investments and cloud adoption

So what are the “missing ingredients” that are stopping Italian businesses from taking advantage of the benefits offered by the Cloud?

1. A strategic vision – or the inability to understand the Cloud model and its long-term benefits.
2. Organizational maturity – There are still few companies that promote Cloud Transformation on the Italian market.
3. Work models – or the ability to see the Cloud as technological layer for a profound transformation of the role of IT in the company.
4. Skills – 58% of organizations have declared to lack various skills needed for Cloud adoption – from the ability to understand the right profiles, to finding candidates on the market and training them.

Hybrid Cloud: the benefits

We have already seen that the Italian market, just like the international market in general, has been embracing the Hybrid cloud more and more. But why exactly is this happening? Some of the benefits highlighted by the research of the Cloud Transformation Observatory are:

• Service continuity
• Systems scalability
• A lower risk of lock-in by the Cloud provider
• Cost optimization
• Better functionalities to support the processes
• Cost optimization

Syneto has been honoured to be a partner of the Cloud Transformation Observatory. We believe that the research conducted by the Observatory is extremely relevant for all Italian companies and we want to keep sharing these relevant results, as well as to help all Italian SMEs benefit from what Hybrid Cloud offers.