How are different industries using cloud tech in 2023?

We all know cloud is table stakes, but how do different industries use the technology? We blind surveyed more than 1,000 leaders and technologists at every organizational level and across the globe to find out.

Dig into the findings for each industry:

• Financial services
• Manufacturing
• Technology
• Healthcare

Organizations in the financial services companies are the most likely to operate in a multicloud environment, with 84% of companies reporting their environment uses multiple platforms. While these companies tend to prioritize the top 3 platforms (AWS, Azure, and GCP), they’re also the industry most likely to include Oracle in their multicloud mix.

So it’s good that its cloud engineers are also the most likely to have significant experience in more than one cloud provider. In fact, more than 90% of cloud engineers in financial services say they have significant experience with Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Oracle.

In addition to using the most platforms, 53% of financial services companies adopt cloud features and services as soon as they’re released.

Organizations in the financial services industry—more so than other industries—are using the cloud to create new operational processes and expand into new markets. But not without challenges. 

While clear and accurate measurement of cloud services is a lesser concern, leaders in financial services struggle with security concerns and constraints. This might be due to more than 75% of financial services companies not extending cloud learning opportunities to their non-technical teams—a move that, according to a Gartner survey, creates more opportunities for security failures.

However, for their technical teams, financial services companies lead the charge in tracking course consumption. They’re also more likely to set dedicated learning time for their technical teams and include learning as a part of role responsibilities.

But there’s a disconnect between leaders and technologists when it comes to how that learning time should be prioritized. Leaders say their top skills gaps are cloud architecture and security, while their technologists report data and automation as their top skills gaps.

And yet, 88% of leaders and technologists are very confident they have the skills for their current workloads. Leaders aren’t taking any bets, though. 49% are hiring for security roles in 2023 and 46% are hiring for data analytics, engineering, or storage roles.

Nearly half of financial services companies reported completing a layoff, with another 50% saying they’re planning one for the next 12 months. Of the 50% reporting a future layoff, 15% have already completed one.

While cloud roles were relatively secure in the first round (41% of leaders reporting less than 25% of cloud roles were impacted), that’s not true for future layoffs. 44% of leaders are reporting more than 50% of their impacted roles will be cloud roles.

Like the financial services industry, there’s a disconnect over skills gaps between leaders and technologists in the manufacturing industry. Technologists rank infrastructure as their top skills gap, while only 12% of leaders agree it’s in the top three. Leaders are instead prioritizing security, with more than half looking to fill security roles in 2023. 

Regardless, 85% of leaders and technologists in the manufacturing industry are very confident in the skills they have to master their current cloud roles.

One would assume that the industry with the most software-oriented workforce would have the most experienced workers. Surprisingly not. The technology industry is more than twice as likely to have brand-new cloud talent than other industries surveyed. More shocking than that, they’re also less likely to have cloud engineers with significant cloud-related experience than the financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing industries.

Unlike other industries, AWS is the primary cloud platform technology companies use for their cloud companies. But Azure and GCP were tied for a close second, with 58% of tech leaders reporting they use those platforms. 63% of them reported operating inside a multicloud environment. More than half reported choosing multicloud to improve resiliency, enable flexibility, or leverage “best of breed” cloud-native services.

Like in other industries, security remains the top challenge for tech companies. Where they deviate is in how they use cloud technology. While other industries are using cloud to develop new operational methods or processes, tech companies are focused on optimizing costs and expanding their product or service offerings.

Unsurprisingly, tech companies are the most likely to have a documented cloud learning strategy and include cloud learning as part of their team’s role responsibilities. And their leaders and technologists are on similar wavelengths when it comes to their skills gaps. Both leaders and technologists identified cloud architecture and cloud security as their top two skills gaps. 

But the biggest challenge tech companies face right now is layoffs.

Tech companies were the most likely to have experienced a layoff in the last 12 months. They were also the most likely to see cloud roles eliminated, with 39% of leaders reporting more than 50% of their cloud roles lost. But nearly half of tech companies are planning for a future layoff. What’s most shocking is that of those companies planning for a layoff in the next 12 months, 75% of them had already experienced one.

Technologists’ cloud computing skills are either all or nothing in healthcare. While 20% said they were new to cloud and looking to build basic skills, 60% said they have significant cloud-related experience with one or more cloud platforms. And those skills are predominantly in GCP (83%) and Azure (80%). Healthcare is the only industry where more of its technologists had skills with Oracle (76%) than the market leader, AWS (63%).

Healthcare organizations are the least likely to use multiple platforms, though half reported multicloud environments. They predominantly use GCP (61%) and Azure (54%), but AWS isn’t far behind. 49% of healthcare leaders report it’s part of their cloud infrastructure.