Bengaluru, Feb 26 (IANS): Cloud transformation ranks among the top three priorities for CIOs in India but only 24 per cent of these enterprises currently have well-defined strategic objectives aligned to migrating applications to the Cloud, a new report said on Wednesday.

According to enterprise software firm VMware, along with Frost & Sullivan, leading global research and consulting firm, more than 70 per cent of enterprises surveyed have started to use cloud services.

"From the enterprises that we assessed, we saw that although Public Cloud is the most used model, Hybrid Cloud is expected to be an industry standard within the coming years and is expected to nearly double in next 2-3 years," said Apalak Ghosh, Programme Manager and Head of Cloud Computing, Frost & Sullivan.

More than 60 per cent of enterprises surveyed said that they are using cloud services but do not have strategic objectives aligned with cloud migration.

"Adoption of cloud native technologies can give Indian companies an advantage in today's dynamic business environment, helping to promote the Industry 4.0 in the country," said Pradeep Nair, VP, and MD, VMware India.

IT leaders need to consider cloud as a strategic business enabler, rather than solely to solve tactical problems.

Hybrid and multi-cloud environments are gaining in-roads as businesses seek flexible IT environments, and vendors introduce new management platforms that support a variety of services and protocols, said the survey.

Hybrid cloud adoption is expected to double in the next two years.

More than 65 per cent of organizations said that a lack of highly trained experts is a challenge for managing Hybrid Cloud environments

"Enterprises need to up-skill and train the IT/Technology team to enable effective management and enablement of Hybrid IT environments," the report added.