Asia Pacific businesses shift toward multi-hybrid Cloud to power AI: Dell study

Organisations across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region are rapidly overhauling their digital foundations, moving away from ‘cloud-first’ mandates in favour of flexible, multi-hybrid cloud strategies, a study has found. According to the study released by Dell Technologies and IDC, modernising private cloud infrastructure has become a business necessity to stay competitive and unlock the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Companies shifting to multi-hybrid cloud

The report says that the demand for IT environments that can adapt to changing customer needs is at an all-time high. According to the IDC report, 46% of organisations in APAC now name cloud migration as their top strategy for modernising infrastructure.

Rather than sticking with a single provider, leading enterprises are embracing a “multi-hybrid” model, which, the report says, allows businesses to mix public cloud services with modernised private clouds, giving them better financial control and the ability to move workloads where they perform best.

The report also claims that one of the most striking trends identified in the research is “workload repatriation”, which is the process of moving data and applications from the public cloud back to private or local environments.

This trend is particularly powerful in India, where 96% of organisations plan to repatriate some of their workloads. The primary drivers for this shift include, Cybersecurity for tighter control over sensitive data; reducing latency for high-speed tasks, and ensuring infrastructure is used as efficiently as possible.

How AI is helping in infrastructure change and challenges

The report pointed out that the rise of AI is a major catalyst for these infrastructure changes. To get the most out of AI, companies require high-performance computing, massive storage and fast networking. The study suggests that a hybrid cloud approach is the most practical way to support AI while managing the high costs and security requirements associated with modern data workloads. By using “disaggregated infrastructure,” companies can scale their computing power and storage independently.

Modernisation is not without its challenges. Tech leaders across APAC are struggling to integrate new cloud solutions with older, “legacy” systems. In India, companies also have to balance their digital growth with sustainability goals and the availability of physical power and space for data centers.

“Organizations are telling us that continuous modernization isn’t just an IT directive—it’s a business necessity. Companies want the freedom to choose, evolve, and innovate, backed by flexible, open architectures,” said Venkat Sitaram, Senior Director & Country Head at Dell Technologies India.