CloudBolt Software has released its latest research report, ‘Filling The Gap: Service Providers Increasingly Important Role in Multi-Cloud/Multi-Tool Success'.

The report is based on a survey of over 300 senior-level employees at enterprises around the world conducted on the Pulse research platform, a Gartner-owned research subsidiary.

The survey aimed to uncover enterprise sentiment regarding cloud-oriented services providers and identify exactly which services and capabilities enterprises need providers to enable and fulfil in increasingly multi-cloud/hybrid cloud environments.

The results were significant. Overall, 80% of enterprises said they are so frustrated with their existing provider, they are actively looking to replace them within the next twelve months.

CloudBolt CEO Jeff Kukowsi commented on this finding.

He says, "What is causing such widespread dissatisfaction with CSPs and MSPs? The core issues are growing complexity in multi-cloud environments, and a widening skills gap among both enterprises and service providers.

"With multi-cloud architectures growing more complex and expensive, enterprises lack the in-house personnel and expertise to tame the chaos and runaway costs that arise, so they turn to CSPs and MSPs.

"However, service providers are experiencing a skills gap of their own. The personnel issues caused by the pandemic, along with the resulting Great Resignation and decrease in employee loyalty, have created severe challenges in hiring and retaining employees with the skills that are so desperately needed today.

"This skills gap among providers prevents them from becoming the deep, strategic partner their customers need."

According to the survey, the dissatisfaction among respondents centred around service providers:

• Inability to properly optimise cloud spend (60%)
• Limited or non-existent multi-cloud options (58%)
• Inability to better enable cloud automation (50%)
• Inability to provide visibility across cloud spend (41%)
• Inability to automatically remediate cloud spend inefficiencies (24%)

There is good news, however. Respondents still overwhelmingly believe that MSPs/CSPs can enhance and improve their multi-cloud/multi-tool infrastructure and fill the gaps they have internally.

Specifically:

• 85% believe their MSPs/CSPs can more easily pull together all aspects of digital transformation than the enterprise alone
• 91% believe their MSPs/CSPs increase agility so the enterprise can better capitalise on cloud-related initiatives
• 82% believe their MSPs/CSPs reduce time to market for their customers
• 81% believe their MSPs/CSPs save them money

Most significantly, 97% said they would be willing to pay a premium to a service provider that delivered on the current shortcomings they identified with their current vendor; 79% said they would pay 5% or more.

CloudBolt director MSP/CSP Practice William Norton says, “Our latest CII report reveals a golden opportunity for service providers in the current multi-cloud landscape.

"Customers are telling them exactly what capabilities they need, and that they're willing to pay a premium to get them. The study aligns with what we hear from our global MSPs/CSPs that leverage CloudBolt to provide essential new capabilities that accelerate their customers' success.

"Ultimately, it's about filling the skills gaps, automating wherever possible, and adding more value at every turn. As the survey revealed, service providers able to offer what customers need most will experience a watershed moment where they significantly increase net-new business while profoundly reducing the risk of churn.