Trends in Next Generation Data Center Infrastructure
Survey Summary Between October 2017 and January 2018 Gatepoint Research invited selected executives to participate in a survey themed Trends in Next Generation Data Center Infrastructure. Candidates were invited via email and 80 executives have participated to date. Management levels represented are predominantly IT senior decision makers: 5% hold the title CxO, 21% are VPs, 74% are Directors. Survey participants represent firms from a wide variety of industries including business and consumer services, education, financial services, healthcare, media, primary and general manufacturing, mining, retail and wholesale trade, telecom, transportation, and utilities. Responders work for firms with a wide range of revenue levels: 60% work in Fortune 1000 companies with revenues over $1.5 billion; 19% work in Mid-Market or Large firms whose revenues are between $250 million and $1.5 billion; 21% work in Small companies with less than $250 million in revenues. 100% of responders participated voluntarily; none were engaged using telemarketing.
Executive Overview With companies needing to deploy software more frequently than in the past, there s tremendous pressure on IT departments to instantly provision resources to get new applications up and running quickly. Are IT organizations considering hyper converged infrastructures to elevate business agility? This survey asks respondents to report: Their opinion of hyper converged infrastructure technology. What vendors are included in their current infrastructure? What workloads do they run in the datacenter, and do they have an on-premise current cloud environment? How open is their organization to new technology and approaches?
What is your opinion of hyper converged infrastructure? We're currently using HCI 28% Planning to move there; our on-prem workloads require it 19% It's worth considering, but currently skeptical 12% No plans to use this type of infrastructure; we run everything on the cloud 6% Don't know enough about it 35% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% While slightly more than one fourth of respondents are using HCI, 35% of respondents don t know enough about it to have an opinion.
How much of your job involves deploying or managing infrastructure? 30% 25% 27% 20% 15% 21% 20% 20% 10% 10% 5% 0% 1 2 3 4 5 I am just peripherally involved It s a major part of my job 30% of respondents say a significant to major part of their job involves deploying or managing infrastructure.
How many vendors are part of your IT infrastructure? 1 Vendor 15% 5 or more Vendors 41% 2 to 4 Vendors 44% The great majority of respondents use multiple vendors in their IT infrastructure; 44% use up to four vendors, and 41% report using five or more. Just 15% rely on a single vendor.
What major IT projects are you driving within the next 18 months? Other 7% Data Center consolidation 10% Storage refresh 15% Server refresh 11% Cloud initiative (moving workloads to public cloud) 57% Moving workloads to the public cloud is the most common major IT project over the next year and a half. 57% of respondents identify it as a top initiative.
What workloads do you run in your data center? Server virtualization 88% Databases 86% Virtual desktops 60% Big Data applications 48% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Most commonly run in data centers are server virtualization and databases. Relatively fewer respondents run virtual desktops (60%) and Big Data apps (48%).
What best describes your relationship with the application owner? 60% 50% 53% 40% 30% 28% 20% 18% 10% 0% I am the app owner I directly serve the app owner I don't work with app owners More than half of the respondents serve the application owner in some capacity.
Does your organization have an on-premises cloud environment? Yes, it works great! 15% Yes, but there's room for improvement 33% No, we are just about virtualized 40% No, we evaluated it but didn't go that way 12% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% An on-premises cloud environment has been deployed to varying degrees of success by 48% of respondents organizations. Another 40% are moving to a virtualized environment.
How open is your organization to considering new technology or new approaches? Very open; our IT culture is to push the boundaries 15% Open, but cautious; we have a healthy desire to try what's new 37% Neutral; everything is decided on a case-by-case basis 32% Somewhat negative; we are slow to adopt new technologies 8% Closed; the culture of our organization is very conservative 6% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% More respondents are open to new technologies or approaches than not. 52% qualified their organization as open to very open, while only 14% say they are slow or closed to new technologies.
Profile of Responders: Industry Sectors Wholesale Trade 10% Utilities 8% Retail Trade 7% Consumer Services 6% Mining 4% Transportation 4% Telecom Services 3% Business Services 11% Other 10% Healthcare 3% Media 1% Mfg - Primary 13% Financial Services 15% Education 3% Mfg - General 14% Responders represent a wide variety of industries.
Profile of Responders: Revenue <$250 million 21% $250-500 million 3% $500 million - $1.5 billion 16% >$1.5billion 60% 60% of those surveyed work in Fortune 1000 companies with revenues over $1.5 billion.
Profile of Responders: Job Level CxO 5% Manager 24% VP 21% Director 50% 76% of those surveyed hold director or executive level positions in their organizations.
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