North American enterprises plan to increase their data center infrastructure spending by an average of 25 percent in 2011, according to a survey. Cloud technologies will play a major role in this expansion and are among the top three expected data centers changes.
The survey also found that interest in 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) equals or exceeds interest in 40GE, despite the lack of available products.
Fiber Channel is the most used SAN technology, but respondents show strong interest in next generation FCoE (Fiber Channel over Ethernet) to streamline their data center networks
Comment from Matthias Machowinski, Infonetics Research's directing analyst for enterprise networks and video: 2010 was a strong year for data center network equipment sales, due to a rebound from bare-bones 2009 spending levels and, more importantly, fundamental trends favoring investments in the data center, such as the explosion of content and traffic, use of virtualization, and increasingly, cloud-based services and architectures. For 2011, we expect tempering but still robust growth in sales, and the biggest opportunities for vendors is in helping companies grow their data center infrastructure sustainably, such as through the use of products that dramatically increase price-to-performance or improve management in highly virtualized environments.
About the survey: For its Data Center Deployment Strategies survey, published in February 2011, Infonetics asked data center purchase decision-makers at 115 North American companies with 100 or more employees about their data center plans over the next 2 years. Survey respondents were asked to rate drivers for data center investments, technologies, applications, equipment and software, as well as their use of, plans for, and preferred features for data center technologies, including security, virtualization, storage, cloud-based services, servers, Ethernet switches, and more. The report includes responses to 2 open-ended questions about use and plans for cloud-based services and the top 3 major changes they plan to make to their data centers.
Contact: http://www.infonetics.com/login
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Cloud Seen As Viable Disaster Recovery Option
The cloud is perceived by nearly half of respondents to a survey to be a viable option for disaster recovery, however many have yet to overcome security and reliability concerns. The cost of information technology (IT) downtime is still elusive - 54 percent cannot quantify the cost of an hour of downtime. At the application level, availability has never been more critical. Microsoft Exchange and SQL ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively as the top mission-critical applications.
-- Disaster Recovery and the Cloud: The cloud is gaining traction. Forty-four percent of respondents consider the cloud to be a viable option for disaster recovery. Thirty percent do not, and 26 percent are unsure. For those who do not consider the cloud to be viable for DR, the majority (34 percent) say it is due to their lack of confidence in cloud security. Yet, 72 percent of those surveyed run mission-critical applications on virtual machines.
-- The Cost and Impact of Downtime: Twenty-three percent of respondents have had an IT outage for more than one full business day, and only five percent report never experiencing an outage. Hardware or software problems cause most of the IT outages (43 percent of respondents), while others reported power or datacenter outages (35 percent), natural disasters (8 percent), human error (6 percent) and other (8 percent). Downtime is painful, and workers require instant fixes. Almost half (47 percent) of the IT personnel surveyed received immediate notification of downtime. Thirty-six percent were alerted when people tried to access an application, and only 17 percent were not aware of an outage. Surprisingly, 54 percent of respondents do not know the hourly cost of downtime. Of those who do, 16 percent rated it greater than $10,000, 7 percent rated it between $5,001 and $10,000, and the rest rated it under $5,000. Downtime frequency during the past year ranged from zero (31 percent) to once (32 percent), twice (21 percent) and three or more times (16 percent).
-- Application Availability: Seventy-six percent of surveyed organizations identify their most critical applications. In order of priority, respondents ranked them as follows: 1. Microsoft Exchange (30 percent), 2. Microsoft SQL (26 percent), 3. Microsoft Sharepoint (13 percent), 4. Blackberry Enterprise Server (11 percent). The consequences of application downtime ranged from reduced employee productivity (30 percent), to revenue loss (26 percent), damaged corporate reputation (23 percent) and missed service levels (19 percent). Forty-four percent reported that more than 1,000 people rely on their No. 1 mission critical application each day. And 69 percent require access to that application 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
About the survey: Neverfail, a global software company specializing in continuous availability software for disaster recovery and high availability, conducted the survey among 1,473 SME and Enterprise IT professionals in the U.S. regarding their disaster recovery plans and practices.
Contact: http://www.neverfailgroup.com
-- Disaster Recovery and the Cloud: The cloud is gaining traction. Forty-four percent of respondents consider the cloud to be a viable option for disaster recovery. Thirty percent do not, and 26 percent are unsure. For those who do not consider the cloud to be viable for DR, the majority (34 percent) say it is due to their lack of confidence in cloud security. Yet, 72 percent of those surveyed run mission-critical applications on virtual machines.
-- The Cost and Impact of Downtime: Twenty-three percent of respondents have had an IT outage for more than one full business day, and only five percent report never experiencing an outage. Hardware or software problems cause most of the IT outages (43 percent of respondents), while others reported power or datacenter outages (35 percent), natural disasters (8 percent), human error (6 percent) and other (8 percent). Downtime is painful, and workers require instant fixes. Almost half (47 percent) of the IT personnel surveyed received immediate notification of downtime. Thirty-six percent were alerted when people tried to access an application, and only 17 percent were not aware of an outage. Surprisingly, 54 percent of respondents do not know the hourly cost of downtime. Of those who do, 16 percent rated it greater than $10,000, 7 percent rated it between $5,001 and $10,000, and the rest rated it under $5,000. Downtime frequency during the past year ranged from zero (31 percent) to once (32 percent), twice (21 percent) and three or more times (16 percent).
-- Application Availability: Seventy-six percent of surveyed organizations identify their most critical applications. In order of priority, respondents ranked them as follows: 1. Microsoft Exchange (30 percent), 2. Microsoft SQL (26 percent), 3. Microsoft Sharepoint (13 percent), 4. Blackberry Enterprise Server (11 percent). The consequences of application downtime ranged from reduced employee productivity (30 percent), to revenue loss (26 percent), damaged corporate reputation (23 percent) and missed service levels (19 percent). Forty-four percent reported that more than 1,000 people rely on their No. 1 mission critical application each day. And 69 percent require access to that application 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
About the survey: Neverfail, a global software company specializing in continuous availability software for disaster recovery and high availability, conducted the survey among 1,473 SME and Enterprise IT professionals in the U.S. regarding their disaster recovery plans and practices.
Contact: http://www.neverfailgroup.com
Obstacles Hinder Greater Short-Term Adoption Of Cloud Computing Among Consumers
As the growth of connected devices is expected to reach 22 billion within the next decade, according to IMS Research, there will be a greater need for consumers to move their data to cloud-based services. However, while nearly half of consumers are aware of the cloud, only nine percent acknowledge that they fully understand it, according to a survey.
Cloud computing is used to describe applications and services hosted and run on servers connected to the Internet that end users do not have to maintain or support. Consumers are increasingly in need of cloud-based services with data spread across multiple devices, including laptops, cell phones and tablet computers. As 4G data networks begin to roll out over the next year, consumers will be consuming and needing to access greater amounts of data across all of their connected devices.
However, while there is a general understanding of what the cloud is, 62 percent of consumers don't fully understand what it does. Interest in storing data within the cloud is significantly higher in younger consumers, with approximately 60 percent of users between the ages of 18-35 interested in moving their data to the cloud. In older age groups, though, that number drops significantly, with only an average of 25 percent of users over the age of 50 interested in moving their data to the cloud.
There are also concerns among consumers about moving their data to the cloud. Sixty-one percent of consumers surveyed said that they are concerned about the security of their content if they were to store it in the cloud. Additionally, 47 percent of consumers surveyed said they would never use the cloud unless they have a simple and easy way to store their content, while 39 percent say they are concerned about the ability to play content on different devices from the cloud. This statistic in particular points to the need for greater compatibility and accessibility to content across devices, so that the same content purchased for one device can be accessed across multiple devices.
Comment from Rob Barrish, senior vice president of GfK Business & Technology: Consumers are now facing similar challenges once only faced by enterprises in needing to securely manage massive amounts of data. When rolling out cloud-based services, it will be important for marketers to keep in mind that consumers want to be able to access content on all of their devices across multiple platforms ... Because security of the data within the cloud is the biggest concern across all age groups, marketers need to address this up front when communicating the benefits of using cloud-based apps and services. There's also an overall need for greater education about the cloud in order to move consumers from general understanding to active utilization.
About the survey: The survey was conducted from March 4-6, 2011, by GfK Business & Technology, a division of GfK Custom Research North America. This online survey is based on interviews with 1,000 adults age 18 or older sampled from GfK's national online panel. The data were weighted to match national online norms of age, sex, education, race, and region using targets provided by GfK Mediamark Research & Intelligence (GfK MRI).
Contact: http://www.gfkamerica.com
Cloud computing is used to describe applications and services hosted and run on servers connected to the Internet that end users do not have to maintain or support. Consumers are increasingly in need of cloud-based services with data spread across multiple devices, including laptops, cell phones and tablet computers. As 4G data networks begin to roll out over the next year, consumers will be consuming and needing to access greater amounts of data across all of their connected devices.
However, while there is a general understanding of what the cloud is, 62 percent of consumers don't fully understand what it does. Interest in storing data within the cloud is significantly higher in younger consumers, with approximately 60 percent of users between the ages of 18-35 interested in moving their data to the cloud. In older age groups, though, that number drops significantly, with only an average of 25 percent of users over the age of 50 interested in moving their data to the cloud.
There are also concerns among consumers about moving their data to the cloud. Sixty-one percent of consumers surveyed said that they are concerned about the security of their content if they were to store it in the cloud. Additionally, 47 percent of consumers surveyed said they would never use the cloud unless they have a simple and easy way to store their content, while 39 percent say they are concerned about the ability to play content on different devices from the cloud. This statistic in particular points to the need for greater compatibility and accessibility to content across devices, so that the same content purchased for one device can be accessed across multiple devices.
Comment from Rob Barrish, senior vice president of GfK Business & Technology: Consumers are now facing similar challenges once only faced by enterprises in needing to securely manage massive amounts of data. When rolling out cloud-based services, it will be important for marketers to keep in mind that consumers want to be able to access content on all of their devices across multiple platforms ... Because security of the data within the cloud is the biggest concern across all age groups, marketers need to address this up front when communicating the benefits of using cloud-based apps and services. There's also an overall need for greater education about the cloud in order to move consumers from general understanding to active utilization.
About the survey: The survey was conducted from March 4-6, 2011, by GfK Business & Technology, a division of GfK Custom Research North America. This online survey is based on interviews with 1,000 adults age 18 or older sampled from GfK's national online panel. The data were weighted to match national online norms of age, sex, education, race, and region using targets provided by GfK Mediamark Research & Intelligence (GfK MRI).
Contact: http://www.gfkamerica.com
Increasing Opportunities For Hosting Services To Benefit From Selling Cloud Services.
Research sponsored by Microsoft on how cloud computing will impact small and midsize businesses (SMBs) in the next three years has found that 39 percent of SMBs expect to be paying for one or more cloud services within three years, an increase of 34 percent from the current 29 percent. It also finds that the number of cloud services SMBs pay for will nearly double in most countries over the next three years.
The findings show an increasing opportunity for hosting service providers to profit in the cloud from offering services such as collaboration, data storage and backup, or business-class email.
Some key findings include the following:
-- Those SMBs paying for cloud services will be using 3.3 services, up from fewer than two services today.
-- Past experience with support from a service provider is a key driver of service provider selection among SMBs. Eighty-two percent of SMBs say buying cloud services from a provider with local presence is critical or important.
-- The larger the business, the more likely it is to pay for cloud services. For example, 56 percent of companies with 51-250 employees will pay for an average of 3.7 services within three years.
-- Within three years, 43 percent of workloads will become paid cloud services, but 28 percent will remain on-premises, and 29 percent will be free or bundled with other services.
The 2011 study indicates that in most countries, cloud service adoption is not limited to SMBs that see themselves as fast growers. The study showed little difference in adoption rates between SMBs that expect to grow in the next three years (42 percent) and those solely focused on profitability (40 percent).
Growth companies want a scalable environment that can meet their expanding needs, with an affordable, pay-as-you-go pricing model that eliminates the need for over-investment in IT. SMBs that want to maintain their size, but want to become more profitable, seek cost-effective, efficient solutions that match their needs for predictability and low overhead cost. Cloud services can serve both sets of criteria.
The study also looked at adoption of software as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and found that SMBs that are adopting both SaaS and IaaS services are larger, more growth-oriented and more interested in additional services, such as unified communications and remote desktop support. This provides an opportunity for hosting service providers to offer both SaaS and IaaS in order to acquire and retain high-value customers and maximize revenue per customer.
Comment from Marco Limena, vice president, Business Channels, Worldwide Communications Sector at Microsoft: Cloud adoption will be gradual, and SMBs will continue to operate in a hybrid model with an increasing blend between off-premises and traditional on-premises infrastructure, for the foreseeable future. As cloud computing becomes more ubiquitous and SMBs' existing IT becomes outdated, adoption will grow rapidly. Hosting service providers should consider the appropriate sales, delivery and support models to target larger SMB customers that are more likely to pay for cloud services.
Comment from Andy Burton, CEO, Fasthosts Internet Ltd.: As SMBs continue to transition to cloud services, hosting service providers, VARs and SIs will have a major role to play as advisors and providers of IT services in hybrid environments. Hosting providers have expertise in selling cloud services while VARs and SIs have experience selling to SMBs. Fasthosts is helping to bridge this gap by helping VARs and SIs white-label cloud services and deliver them as if they were their own.
About the survey: The "Microsoft SMB Cloud Adoption Study 2011" research report was designed and conducted in conjunction with Edge Strategies Inc. (http://www.edgestrategies.com) in December 2010. The research questioned 3,258 SMBs that employ up to 250 employees across 16 countries worldwide: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.
Contact: http://www.microsoft.com
The findings show an increasing opportunity for hosting service providers to profit in the cloud from offering services such as collaboration, data storage and backup, or business-class email.
Some key findings include the following:
-- Those SMBs paying for cloud services will be using 3.3 services, up from fewer than two services today.
-- Past experience with support from a service provider is a key driver of service provider selection among SMBs. Eighty-two percent of SMBs say buying cloud services from a provider with local presence is critical or important.
-- The larger the business, the more likely it is to pay for cloud services. For example, 56 percent of companies with 51-250 employees will pay for an average of 3.7 services within three years.
-- Within three years, 43 percent of workloads will become paid cloud services, but 28 percent will remain on-premises, and 29 percent will be free or bundled with other services.
The 2011 study indicates that in most countries, cloud service adoption is not limited to SMBs that see themselves as fast growers. The study showed little difference in adoption rates between SMBs that expect to grow in the next three years (42 percent) and those solely focused on profitability (40 percent).
Growth companies want a scalable environment that can meet their expanding needs, with an affordable, pay-as-you-go pricing model that eliminates the need for over-investment in IT. SMBs that want to maintain their size, but want to become more profitable, seek cost-effective, efficient solutions that match their needs for predictability and low overhead cost. Cloud services can serve both sets of criteria.
The study also looked at adoption of software as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and found that SMBs that are adopting both SaaS and IaaS services are larger, more growth-oriented and more interested in additional services, such as unified communications and remote desktop support. This provides an opportunity for hosting service providers to offer both SaaS and IaaS in order to acquire and retain high-value customers and maximize revenue per customer.
Comment from Marco Limena, vice president, Business Channels, Worldwide Communications Sector at Microsoft: Cloud adoption will be gradual, and SMBs will continue to operate in a hybrid model with an increasing blend between off-premises and traditional on-premises infrastructure, for the foreseeable future. As cloud computing becomes more ubiquitous and SMBs' existing IT becomes outdated, adoption will grow rapidly. Hosting service providers should consider the appropriate sales, delivery and support models to target larger SMB customers that are more likely to pay for cloud services.
Comment from Andy Burton, CEO, Fasthosts Internet Ltd.: As SMBs continue to transition to cloud services, hosting service providers, VARs and SIs will have a major role to play as advisors and providers of IT services in hybrid environments. Hosting providers have expertise in selling cloud services while VARs and SIs have experience selling to SMBs. Fasthosts is helping to bridge this gap by helping VARs and SIs white-label cloud services and deliver them as if they were their own.
About the survey: The "Microsoft SMB Cloud Adoption Study 2011" research report was designed and conducted in conjunction with Edge Strategies Inc. (http://www.edgestrategies.com) in December 2010. The research questioned 3,258 SMBs that employ up to 250 employees across 16 countries worldwide: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.
Contact: http://www.microsoft.com
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Restrictive Email Policies Create Hidden Security Risks
Seventy-nine percent percent of all employees send work emails from their personal email accounts, with 1 in 5 saying they do this on a regular basis. Awareness of the security risks this behavior poses does not act as a deterrent: 71 percent of people questioned recognize that there is an additional risk in sending work documents outside the corporate email environment, but 47 percent of these same respondents feel it is acceptable to send work emails and documents to personal email accounts anyway, according to a survey.
The most important conclusion is that IT departments worldwide are fighting a losing battle in seeking to constrain employees' behavior through policy alone. Today's information workers, or "Generation Gmail," want to be able to use email as flexibly in the workplace as they can in their personal lives. When employees are unable to work the way they want to using corporate technology, they are willing to work around these issues by using personal email accounts.
A new approach is needed in order to empower employees while protecting corporate intellectual property and ensuring regulatory compliance.
Despite the limitations imposed by corporate IT being a major driver for employees to use personal accounts, the research suggests that moving from a "controlling" to an "empowering" environment will not by itself be enough. Only 40 percent of respondents said that they would be less likely to use their personal email account for work purposes if they had an unlimited work mailbox, a figure that should seemingly be higher if the mailbox size concern was alleviated. This shows that a technological solution is also needed to ensure compliant email behavior and reduce the need to work around the limitations of corporate email.
Additional key findings of the research included:
-- 66 percent of employees responded that email is their favorite means of communication.
-- When asked what the reasons were to use personal accounts for work purposes, 71 percent responded that it was to work on documents remotely, 21 percent said it was to send files too big for their company mailbox; 18 percent wanted to take documents with them when they left a company; and 9 percent simply didn't want to carry their laptop home.
-- Only half of email workers (54 percent) say that their company has an email policy, 29 percent say there is no email policy and 1 in 6 (17 percent) don't even know.
-- At companies where email policies exist, 42 percent of these policies cover email management and only 30 percent include issues relating to email retention. Most policies are related to the appropriate use of email (88 percent) in the business.
-- 4 in 10 (40 percent) of corporate email users think that their organization's email policy could be better communicated.
-- When asked to rank their biggest frustrations with work email, 39 percent of respondents said managing mailbox contents to keep it within certain limits; 25 percent were frustrated about messages saying their mailbox was full; 17 percent felt the inability to send/receive messages when over a size limit was frustrating; 15 percent were frustrated that they had to send emails to personal accounts; and 6 percent were frustrated by having to use tools like YouSendIt to send large files.
Comment from Peter Bauer, CEO and co-founder of Mimecast: Email policies need to evolve to reflect both the high level of sophistication amongst users and the changing communications landscape within companies. Although individuals are seemingly aware of the risks of sending work documents outside the corporate email environment, this awareness is not translating into safer behavior. A significant portion of this group still believes that sending work documents to personal email accounts is acceptable. Getting employees to care about this risk is only part of the solution; employers must take responsibility for closing this disconnect through a holistic effort encompassing email systems, policy and culture. The most progressive companies will be those whose email systems and policies support the needs of both the business and its employees.
About the survey: Mimecast commissioned Loudhouse, an independent marketing research consultancy, to conduct this survey on how attitudes to corporate email use are evolving and how progressive employers are managing this core communication channel. The research comprised a total of more than 2,400 online interviews with corporate email users worldwide.
Contact: http://www.mimecast.com/GenerationGmail
The most important conclusion is that IT departments worldwide are fighting a losing battle in seeking to constrain employees' behavior through policy alone. Today's information workers, or "Generation Gmail," want to be able to use email as flexibly in the workplace as they can in their personal lives. When employees are unable to work the way they want to using corporate technology, they are willing to work around these issues by using personal email accounts.
A new approach is needed in order to empower employees while protecting corporate intellectual property and ensuring regulatory compliance.
Despite the limitations imposed by corporate IT being a major driver for employees to use personal accounts, the research suggests that moving from a "controlling" to an "empowering" environment will not by itself be enough. Only 40 percent of respondents said that they would be less likely to use their personal email account for work purposes if they had an unlimited work mailbox, a figure that should seemingly be higher if the mailbox size concern was alleviated. This shows that a technological solution is also needed to ensure compliant email behavior and reduce the need to work around the limitations of corporate email.
Additional key findings of the research included:
-- 66 percent of employees responded that email is their favorite means of communication.
-- When asked what the reasons were to use personal accounts for work purposes, 71 percent responded that it was to work on documents remotely, 21 percent said it was to send files too big for their company mailbox; 18 percent wanted to take documents with them when they left a company; and 9 percent simply didn't want to carry their laptop home.
-- Only half of email workers (54 percent) say that their company has an email policy, 29 percent say there is no email policy and 1 in 6 (17 percent) don't even know.
-- At companies where email policies exist, 42 percent of these policies cover email management and only 30 percent include issues relating to email retention. Most policies are related to the appropriate use of email (88 percent) in the business.
-- 4 in 10 (40 percent) of corporate email users think that their organization's email policy could be better communicated.
-- When asked to rank their biggest frustrations with work email, 39 percent of respondents said managing mailbox contents to keep it within certain limits; 25 percent were frustrated about messages saying their mailbox was full; 17 percent felt the inability to send/receive messages when over a size limit was frustrating; 15 percent were frustrated that they had to send emails to personal accounts; and 6 percent were frustrated by having to use tools like YouSendIt to send large files.
Comment from Peter Bauer, CEO and co-founder of Mimecast: Email policies need to evolve to reflect both the high level of sophistication amongst users and the changing communications landscape within companies. Although individuals are seemingly aware of the risks of sending work documents outside the corporate email environment, this awareness is not translating into safer behavior. A significant portion of this group still believes that sending work documents to personal email accounts is acceptable. Getting employees to care about this risk is only part of the solution; employers must take responsibility for closing this disconnect through a holistic effort encompassing email systems, policy and culture. The most progressive companies will be those whose email systems and policies support the needs of both the business and its employees.
About the survey: Mimecast commissioned Loudhouse, an independent marketing research consultancy, to conduct this survey on how attitudes to corporate email use are evolving and how progressive employers are managing this core communication channel. The research comprised a total of more than 2,400 online interviews with corporate email users worldwide.
Contact: http://www.mimecast.com/GenerationGmail
"Jury Is Still Out" On Cost Benefits Of The Cloud
While enterprise CIOs anticipate making a significant investment in private and public cloud technologies over the next twelve months, the majority of IT decision makers don't have the necessary metrics to build an intelligent business case for moving applications and infrastructure components to the cloud, a survey of CIOs has found.
Moreover, the vast majority of those surveyed indicated that they neither possess the ability to track utilization nor are they able to recover these costs via "chargeback" or "showback" methods, further complicating their ability to calculate ROI for the business.
Key findings of the survey:
-- 80 percent of respondents get some amount of their current server infrastructure delivered through a private cloud, however, nearly 90 percent report they are not charging end-users based on their private cloud consumption, representing a significant gap in financial transparency and accountability of IT service costs.
-- While a majority of IT executives (64 percent) believe that tracking utilization levels of virtualized and cloud infrastructures will be "important" or "very important" during the next 12 months, nearly 40 percent said they are not currently tracking utilization levels of virtualized and cloud infrastructure.
-- Almost 90 percent of IT leaders surveyed believe it will be either "important" or "very critical" to improve IT services tracking in virtualized and cloud environments in the coming year.
-- 80 percent of IT executives surveyed believe metrics related to cloud would grow in importance over the next 12 months and almost 75 percent believe there is very high value in being able to accurately measure the COGS for their cloud-based operations.
-- Nearly one-half of executives surveyed (48 percent) report the cost of cloud services to their business units as a lump sum of all IT costs, while more than 20 percent do not provide any reporting back to their business units.
Comment from Keith Muma, vice president of the Worldwide Executive Council: Our research shows that while enterprise CIOs remain enchanted by the cloud and the promise of instant scalability and automated provisioning, they're still struggling to understand the economic drivers behind the cloud decision. Like a traditional supply chain manager, CIOs must be able to calculate their Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) to build a strong business case for the cloud. This survey demonstrates that fundamental metrics like tracking, utilization, and the ability to present a 'bill of IT' back to the business will become essential to CIOs as their cloud strategies mature.
Comment from Chris Pick, chief marketing officer at Apptio: Everyone is talking about how the cloud is transforming IT but too little is being said about the economic drivers that ultimately support the cloud decision. As this survey demonstrates, most CIOs do not have the ability to precisely calculate what it costs to deliver IT services to the business. Without a solid understanding of their fully loaded baseline costs, they're unable to benchmark their own services to third-party cloud providers and consequently, they're incapable of delivering IT services at market rates. Technology Business Management solutions such as those provided by Apptio empower CIOs with the intelligence they need to fully understand when it does -- and does not -- make sense to move application and infrastructure components to internal or external cloud.
About the survey: The Worldwide Executive Council (WEC) interviewed 100 U.S. CIOs from firms representing a broad range of vertical industries, including financial services, communications, business services, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, media, engineering/construction, aerospace, oil and gas, wholesale/distribution, utilities, government and entertainment. All CIOs interviewed work at firms with at least $50 million in annual revenues and indicated that their IT organization employ a shared services model, supporting multiple business units, functions, or departments with shared IT resources.The survey is titled "IT Survey on Cloud Computing, Virtualization, and IT Financial Services."
Contact: http://www.apptio.com
Moreover, the vast majority of those surveyed indicated that they neither possess the ability to track utilization nor are they able to recover these costs via "chargeback" or "showback" methods, further complicating their ability to calculate ROI for the business.
Key findings of the survey:
-- 80 percent of respondents get some amount of their current server infrastructure delivered through a private cloud, however, nearly 90 percent report they are not charging end-users based on their private cloud consumption, representing a significant gap in financial transparency and accountability of IT service costs.
-- While a majority of IT executives (64 percent) believe that tracking utilization levels of virtualized and cloud infrastructures will be "important" or "very important" during the next 12 months, nearly 40 percent said they are not currently tracking utilization levels of virtualized and cloud infrastructure.
-- Almost 90 percent of IT leaders surveyed believe it will be either "important" or "very critical" to improve IT services tracking in virtualized and cloud environments in the coming year.
-- 80 percent of IT executives surveyed believe metrics related to cloud would grow in importance over the next 12 months and almost 75 percent believe there is very high value in being able to accurately measure the COGS for their cloud-based operations.
-- Nearly one-half of executives surveyed (48 percent) report the cost of cloud services to their business units as a lump sum of all IT costs, while more than 20 percent do not provide any reporting back to their business units.
Comment from Keith Muma, vice president of the Worldwide Executive Council: Our research shows that while enterprise CIOs remain enchanted by the cloud and the promise of instant scalability and automated provisioning, they're still struggling to understand the economic drivers behind the cloud decision. Like a traditional supply chain manager, CIOs must be able to calculate their Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) to build a strong business case for the cloud. This survey demonstrates that fundamental metrics like tracking, utilization, and the ability to present a 'bill of IT' back to the business will become essential to CIOs as their cloud strategies mature.
Comment from Chris Pick, chief marketing officer at Apptio: Everyone is talking about how the cloud is transforming IT but too little is being said about the economic drivers that ultimately support the cloud decision. As this survey demonstrates, most CIOs do not have the ability to precisely calculate what it costs to deliver IT services to the business. Without a solid understanding of their fully loaded baseline costs, they're unable to benchmark their own services to third-party cloud providers and consequently, they're incapable of delivering IT services at market rates. Technology Business Management solutions such as those provided by Apptio empower CIOs with the intelligence they need to fully understand when it does -- and does not -- make sense to move application and infrastructure components to internal or external cloud.
About the survey: The Worldwide Executive Council (WEC) interviewed 100 U.S. CIOs from firms representing a broad range of vertical industries, including financial services, communications, business services, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, media, engineering/construction, aerospace, oil and gas, wholesale/distribution, utilities, government and entertainment. All CIOs interviewed work at firms with at least $50 million in annual revenues and indicated that their IT organization employ a shared services model, supporting multiple business units, functions, or departments with shared IT resources.The survey is titled "IT Survey on Cloud Computing, Virtualization, and IT Financial Services."
Contact: http://www.apptio.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)