In our previous blog, Event Insights: Why Is Private Cloud Seeing a Resurgence?, we explored what is driving interest in private cloud, driven by evolving business needs and market dynamics. Now, we focus on hybrid cloud strategies and the human side of cloud transformation. While technology lays the groundwork, success depends on bringing teams together, addressing resistance, and driving meaningful organisational change. As companies embrace cloud solutions, it’s crucial to recognise that technology alone does not guarantee success — effective social engineering and organisational change are just as important.
Insights from Cloud Providers
The shift towards hybrid and private cloud solutions hasn’t gone unnoticed by hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and of course VMware. These providers are actively redefining their strategies to embrace hybridity — a concept that prioritises seamless integration and dynamic workload mobility across public, private, and edge environments. This evolution reflects the increasing need for organisations to adopt solutions that are not only flexible but also tailored to specific compliance, performance, and cost demands.
At a recent event, we explored VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF): a Public Cloud Experience on premise. Solutions such as like VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) exemplify how cloud providers are enabling organisations to combine the benefits of public and private cloud environments. VCF provides a unified platform for managing workloads across multiple environments.
Why Hybridity Matters
Discussions with cloud leaders reveal that hybridity addresses three critical enterprise needs.
First, organisations are moving away from static infrastructure models, seeking solutions that enable workloads to shift fluidly between environments. This flexibility improves resource utilisation while aligning infrastructure with evolving business requirements.
Second, industries operating under strict compliance frameworks demand environments that guarantee data sovereignty and adhere to local regulations. Providers are tailoring hybrid solutions to meet these needs, allowing enterprises to satisfy governance obligations without sacrificing scalability.
Finally, hybrid models strike a balance between cost and efficiency. By using private cloud for steady workloads and leveraging public cloud for demand spikes, organisations can optimise expenses and reduce the unpredictability often associated with public cloud pricing.
Together, these insights highlight why hybridity has become a cornerstone of modern cloud strategies.
And while hybridity addresses technical challenges, the most significant barriers to cloud success are often organisational.
The Role of Social Engineering in Technical Change
The resurgence of private cloud isn’t just about technology – it’s about people. This is a topic we’ve talked about for some time, but it became strikingly clear at a recent event we hosted – Behind the Curtain at VMware Explore. Senior change leaders with decades of experience in delivering complex technology transformations shared their lived experiences of exactly this challenge: the organisational hurdles that accompany technical cloud change initiatives.
Despite advancements in cloud infrastructure and tools, the most significant obstacles often lie in the business environment rather than in the technology itself. A key theme was stakeholder alignment. Cloud transformation projects span IT, compliance, finance, and operations, each with differing priorities – security for compliance teams, cost management for finance, and operational efficiency for IT. Aligning these groups requires a shared understanding of objectives and benefits, something easier said than done in large, complex organisations.
Cultural resistance was another recurring issue. Teams entrenched in legacy systems, processes and ways of working often resist change, particularly when the benefits aren’t clearly communicated. Leaders at the event shared how failure to articulate the value of private or hybrid cloud solutions – not just in technical terms but in how they improve workflows or reduce risks – can lead to widespread resistance and stalled initiatives.
Equally critical is leadership buy-in. Successful cloud transformations demand more than approval; they require active advocacy from leaders who can champion the vision, address concerns, and drive momentum. However, even experienced leaders may underestimate the organisational inertia they must overcome, leaving projects vulnerable to hesitation or outright pushback.
A unanimous truth was highlighted at the event; technical engineering is only half the battle in cloud transformation. The other half lies in social engineering – creating the environment for success by aligning stakeholders, fostering collaboration, and ensuring teams embrace change. For these senior leaders, this wasn’t theory but a lived reality, seen time and again in their decades of delivering complex transformations. Addressing the human side of change is the only way to ensure that even the best-engineered solutions achieve their full potential.
Related Reading: Building Resilient Teams
A Match Made in Heaven
Whatever your the cloud strategy it is that best fits your business goals, technology alone isn’t enough. The true enabler of cloud transformation lies in addressing the human factors—aligning stakeholders, overcoming cultural resistance, and fostering strong leadership advocacy.
The organisations that succeed are those that recognise the interplay between technical and social engineering, taking deliberate steps to align their cloud strategies with both technological goals and organisational realities.
At Perform Partners, we understand that every transformation is as unique as the organisation behind it. With a tailored, people-first approach, we’re here to help you navigate the complexities of hybrid cloud and ensure your solutions deliver real value. Let’s shape the future of your cloud journey—together.
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