Published on the 24/10/2024 | Written by Heather Wright

But budgets are proving a barrier…

Growth might be the top business priority for local organisations, but it’s cybersecurity and IT platforms which are the big investment priorities in Australia and New Zealand, as companies focus on getting the most out of their existing tech while also pushing ahead with modernisation work.

Datacom’s fifth annual Cloud Report showed that for the second year in a row top line growth was the key priority for organisations on both sides of the Tasman. Cost management was second for both countries, followed by customer management and, in the case of New Zealand, risk management, which tied with customer management – specifically attracting new customers – for third.

“If organisations get their platforms and cloud strategy right, the foundation is there for every aspect of their business.”

The story when it comes to spend, however, is a little different, with cybersecurity topping the list for Australian organisations for the third year in a row. This year, the cybersecurity focus is around security information, analytics and threat intelligence. But while cybersecurity might be getting the lion’s share of budget allocation, most companies are falling short when it comes to actually having the strategies and budget to back up their intentions, the report suggests.

It says nearly 50 percent of the 532 organisations surveyed in Australia, don’t have a cloud security strategy. Even less – under 40 percent – have an AI security strategy, despite 54 percent of Australian companies flagging the adoption and use of AI as bringing extra data security concerns.

It’s a similar story in New Zealand where cybersecurity, while not the top technology investment priority, came in at third, and sharing that spot with CX and digital tech. Twenty percent of the 200-plus Kiwi respondents said they had ‘sufficient budget investment’. More than 50 percent, however, did have a cloud security strategy, though mirroring Australia, less than 40 percent had an AI security strategy and 52 percent said AI was bringing added security concerns.

New Zealand’s focus on IT platforms comes for the second year in a row.

Mike Walls, Datacom cloud director, says prioritisation of IT platforms has been a consistent theme with organisations identifying it as their number one or number two tech priority every year since the report began.

“It makes sense – if organisations get their platforms and cloud strategy right, the foundation is there for every aspect of their business, including better security and future growth.”

Operational tech, specifically focused around building/environmental management systems, took second spot for tech priorities for Kiwi organisations.

Management priorities across the two countries were also aligned, though in slightly different orders.

In Australia, keeping existing IT running was top of the list, followed by modernising technology to create better performance, efficiencies and lower costs, along with recognition of the need to improve security, governance and compliance postures.

In New Zealand, it was modernising technology, which lead the priorities, followed by the drive to keep current IT systems up and running, and improving security, governance, risk and compliance abilities.

Security was the key driver for modernisation, which across both countries is focused on re-platforming or the ‘lift, tinker and shift’ option, refactoring aka converting to cloud native or microservices, or SaaS. Nearly 20 percent of Australian organisations and 15 percent of Kiwi organisations were opting for a ‘retain’ approach of keeping applications in place.

Moving, or maintaining, everything on private cloud services from an external service provider was the number one workload strategy for organisations across Australia and New Zealand. Kiwi companies were, however, more keen to embrace hybrid IT with a push towards using on-premises, while Australian organisations had SaaS as the second highest rank strategy.

The report also notes that around two-thirds of application workloads across A/NZ are now being processed on public or private cloud platforms, yet only a third of organisations have an official hybrid cloud strategy.

Asked to identify what needs to change to derive real benefits from their IT platforms and infrastructure, the top three areas of focus are people, skills and training; governance of cloud use; and implementing the right structures.

The push for AI was also driving preference for private cloud over running their own platform or running a solution in a public cloud.