Managing disparate virtual, physical and cloud resources is a growing challenge because of added complexity for organizations protecting and recovering mission critical applications and data, a study has found. Virtual systems are not properly protected.
The study highlights that 44 percent of data on virtual systems is not regularly backed up and only one in five respondents use replication and failover technologies to protect virtual environments. Respondents also indicated that 60 percent of virtualized servers are not covered in their current disaster recovery (DR) plans. This is up significantly from the 45 percent reported by respondents in 2009.
1) Inadequate Tools, Security and Control: Using multiple tools that manage and protect applications and data in virtual environments causes major difficulties for data center managers. In particular, nearly six in 10 of these respondents (58 percent) who encountered problems protecting mission-critical applications in virtual and physical environments reported this to be a large challenge for their organization.
In terms of cloud computing, respondents reported that their organization runs approximately 50 percent of mission-critical applications in the cloud. Two-thirds of respondents (66 percent) report that security is the main concern of putting applications in the cloud. However, the biggest challenge respondents face when implementing cloud computing and storage is the ability to control failovers and make resources highly available (55 percent).
2) Resource and Storage Constraints Hamper Backup: Respondents state that 82 percent of backups occur only weekly or less frequently, rather than daily. Resource constraints, lack of storage capacity, and incomplete adoption of advanced and more efficient protection methods hamper rapid deployment of virtual environments. In particular:
-- 59 percent of respondents identified resource constraints (people, budget, and space) as the top challenge when backing up virtual machines.
-- Respondents state that the lack of available primary (57 percent) and backup storage (60 percent) hampers protecting mission critical data.
-- 50 percent of respondents use advanced methods (clientless) to reduce the impact of virtual machine backups.
3) The Downtime and Recovery Gap: The time required to recover from an outage is twice as long as respondents perceive it to be. When asked if a significant disaster were to occur at their organization that destroyed the main data center, respondents indicated that:
-- They expected the downtime per outage to be two hours to be up and running after an outage.
-- This is an improvement from 2009, when they reported it would take four hours to be up and running after an outage.
-- The median downtime per outage in the last 12 months was five hours, more than doubling the two hour expectation.
-- Organizations experienced on average four downtime incidents in the past 12 months.
4) Major Causes of Downtime: Asked what caused their organization to experience downtime over the past five years, respondents reported their outages were mainly from system upgrades, power outages and failures and cyber attacks. Specifically:
-- 72 percent experienced an outage from system upgrades, resulting in 50.9 hours of downtime.
-- 70 percent experienced an outage from power outages and failures, resulting in 11.3 hours of downtime.
-- 63 percent experienced an outage from cyber attacks over the past 12 months resulting in 52.7 hours of downtime.
There is a gap between those organizations that experience power outages and failures and those who have conducted an impact assessment for power outages and failures: Surprisingly, only 26 percent of respondents' organizations have conducted a power outage and failure impact assessment.
Comment from said Dan Lamorena, director, Storage and Availability Management Group, Symantec: While organizations are adopting new technologies such as virtualization and the cloud to reduce costs and enhance disaster recovery efforts, they are currently adding more complexity to their environments and leaving mission critical applications and data unprotected. We expect to see organizations adopt tools that provide a holistic solution with a consistent set of policies across all environments. Data center managers should simplify and standardize so they can focus on fundamental best practices that help reduce downtime.
Recommendations: Treat all environments the same: Ensure that mission-critical data and applications are treated the same across environments (virtual, cloud, physical) in terms of DR assessments and planning. Use integrated tool sets: Using fewer tools that manage physical, virtual and cloud environments will help organizations save time, training costs and help them to better automate processes. Simplify data protection processes: Embrace low-impact backup methods and deduplication to ensure that mission-critical data in virtual environments is backed up, efficiently replicated off campus. Plan and automate to minimize downtime: Prioritize planning activities and tools that automate and perform processes which minimize downtime during system upgrades. Identify issues earlier: Implement solutions that detect issues, reduce downtime and recover faster to be more in line with expectations. Don't cut corners: Organizations should implement basic technologies and processes that protect in case of an outage, and not take shortcuts that could have disastrous consequences.
About the study: The 2010 Symantec Disaster Recovery Study is an annual global study commissioned by Symantec to highlight business trends regarding disaster recovery planning and preparedness. Conducted by independent market research firm Applied Research West during October 2010, the study polled more than 1700 IT managers in large organizations across 18 countries in North America, Europe and the Middle East, Asia Pacific and South America to gain insight and understanding into some of the more complicated factors associated with
Contact: http://www.symantec.com
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
B2B Integration And Collaboration For SMEs Are Critical
Seventy-five percent of small to midsized companies say that B2B integration and collaboration are strategic initiatives in their company, a survey has found.
Connectivity between buyers and sellers is similar to social networking solutions. Collaborative networks can be instrumental in launching an average company into best-in-class status, able to compete with even larger businesses. Cloud computing SaaS solutions clearly provide a competitive advantage by reducing customer service demand and managing the complexity of today's business environment.
Comment from Aberdeen's Nari Viswanathan: Thirty-seven percent of SMEs indicate having the ability to collaborate with a network of key customers versus 56 percent of best-in-class companies. Companies should segment their customer base according to revenue and identify the top customers with whom to set up a trading community network. Key process areas should be identified such as order management collaboration, inventory management collaboration, and forecast collaboration. Once identified, these collaborative processes should be implemented.
About the report: Aberdeen benchmarked the involvement of 62 small to mid-size enterprises (SME) regarding B2B integration and collaboration initiatives with a specific emphasis on their trading partner recruitment, enablement, ongoing maintenance, and performance measurement related activities.
Contact: http://www.aberdeen.com
Connectivity between buyers and sellers is similar to social networking solutions. Collaborative networks can be instrumental in launching an average company into best-in-class status, able to compete with even larger businesses. Cloud computing SaaS solutions clearly provide a competitive advantage by reducing customer service demand and managing the complexity of today's business environment.
Comment from Aberdeen's Nari Viswanathan: Thirty-seven percent of SMEs indicate having the ability to collaborate with a network of key customers versus 56 percent of best-in-class companies. Companies should segment their customer base according to revenue and identify the top customers with whom to set up a trading community network. Key process areas should be identified such as order management collaboration, inventory management collaboration, and forecast collaboration. Once identified, these collaborative processes should be implemented.
About the report: Aberdeen benchmarked the involvement of 62 small to mid-size enterprises (SME) regarding B2B integration and collaboration initiatives with a specific emphasis on their trading partner recruitment, enablement, ongoing maintenance, and performance measurement related activities.
Contact: http://www.aberdeen.com
Information Governance Risk Factors In Public And Hybrid Clouds
A new report explores how the use of public and hybrid cloud computing services are transforming information governance risk factors and will increasingly challenge IT creativity in developing new strategies for policy compliance and enforcement.
Enterprises moving to cloud computing are looking to move to the private cloud first. Three quarters of IT organizations are running or plan to deploy applications in a private cloud environment. Private cloud helps deliver lower IT costs, improved quality of service and greater business agility. In addition, private cloud can provide better control and more secure access to corporate information. Information governance policies in place today can be leveraged in private cloud environments, where information and applications are still under direct control of IT.
As organizations move their applications to the public cloud or adopt a hybrid cloud approach in which IT services are delivered through a mix of internal cloud resources and external service providers, CIO concerns around information management and governance rise in importance. Yet, only 34 percent of the organizations have a governance policy for cloud-based information. Nearly a third admit they are not at all confident in their preparedness for managing information in the public cloud and 57 percent believe their organizations need to spend more time defining a proactive information management and governance strategy."
Comment from Mark Lewis, Chief Strategy Officer of EMC's Information Infrastructure Products Business: While the cloud presents tremendous opportunities to improve the efficiency, flexibility and cost of delivering IT services, it also compels us to manage information in new, more creative ways. If IT fails to embrace information governance strategies that span enterprise, private cloud and public cloud infrastructures, their efforts to leverage information for business advantage will never be fully realized.
Global IT leaders have identified four emerging conditions that can complicate the flow and value of information in hybrid and public clouds. These include:
-- Unchecked proliferation of incompatible cloud platforms and services
-- Fragmentation of an enterprise's information architecture through isolated data and content within the clouds
-- Escalating potential for vendor lock-in
-- Complex chains of custody for information management and security
Strategies for adapting corporate information governance policies to the cloud's unique conditions include:
-- Own the information, even if you own nothing else. Assert your organization's right to own the information, even if you don't own the infrastructure, application or service associated with that information.
-- Hope for standards, but prepare to integrate. Lay the strategic groundwork for future data integration activities today.
-- Control cloud platform proliferation. Look for shared requirements in standardized business functions, such as finance, HR and CRM, and consolidate services organization-wide on a limited number of platforms.
-- Make information "cloud ready." Encrypt information and reorganize data sets so they're accessible and usable across multiple platforms.
-- Master solution integration. Shift the IT team's mindset from owning and operating IT systems to becoming master information service integrators.
Comment from Sanjay Mirchandani, EMC's Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer: Cloud computing offers tremendous scale, mobility and agility. However, if information governance and compliance policies do not evolve in the cloud, it can create complexity in your IT environment. IT professionals need to spend time defining these policies so there are rules for capabilities, such as information mobility, to satisfy business demands. This allows you to integrate your IT policy governance and compliance efforts into your organization's broader governance, risk and compliance strategy.
About the report: The report released today is the second in a series that provides lessons learned, proven best practices and expert guidance on how to transform information into business value. EMC expects to publish additional reports from the Leadership Council for Information Advantage in the coming months.
Contact: http://www.EMC.com
Contact: http://www.CouncilForInformationAdvantage.com
Enterprises moving to cloud computing are looking to move to the private cloud first. Three quarters of IT organizations are running or plan to deploy applications in a private cloud environment. Private cloud helps deliver lower IT costs, improved quality of service and greater business agility. In addition, private cloud can provide better control and more secure access to corporate information. Information governance policies in place today can be leveraged in private cloud environments, where information and applications are still under direct control of IT.
As organizations move their applications to the public cloud or adopt a hybrid cloud approach in which IT services are delivered through a mix of internal cloud resources and external service providers, CIO concerns around information management and governance rise in importance. Yet, only 34 percent of the organizations have a governance policy for cloud-based information. Nearly a third admit they are not at all confident in their preparedness for managing information in the public cloud and 57 percent believe their organizations need to spend more time defining a proactive information management and governance strategy."
Comment from Mark Lewis, Chief Strategy Officer of EMC's Information Infrastructure Products Business: While the cloud presents tremendous opportunities to improve the efficiency, flexibility and cost of delivering IT services, it also compels us to manage information in new, more creative ways. If IT fails to embrace information governance strategies that span enterprise, private cloud and public cloud infrastructures, their efforts to leverage information for business advantage will never be fully realized.
Global IT leaders have identified four emerging conditions that can complicate the flow and value of information in hybrid and public clouds. These include:
-- Unchecked proliferation of incompatible cloud platforms and services
-- Fragmentation of an enterprise's information architecture through isolated data and content within the clouds
-- Escalating potential for vendor lock-in
-- Complex chains of custody for information management and security
Strategies for adapting corporate information governance policies to the cloud's unique conditions include:
-- Own the information, even if you own nothing else. Assert your organization's right to own the information, even if you don't own the infrastructure, application or service associated with that information.
-- Hope for standards, but prepare to integrate. Lay the strategic groundwork for future data integration activities today.
-- Control cloud platform proliferation. Look for shared requirements in standardized business functions, such as finance, HR and CRM, and consolidate services organization-wide on a limited number of platforms.
-- Make information "cloud ready." Encrypt information and reorganize data sets so they're accessible and usable across multiple platforms.
-- Master solution integration. Shift the IT team's mindset from owning and operating IT systems to becoming master information service integrators.
Comment from Sanjay Mirchandani, EMC's Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer: Cloud computing offers tremendous scale, mobility and agility. However, if information governance and compliance policies do not evolve in the cloud, it can create complexity in your IT environment. IT professionals need to spend time defining these policies so there are rules for capabilities, such as information mobility, to satisfy business demands. This allows you to integrate your IT policy governance and compliance efforts into your organization's broader governance, risk and compliance strategy.
About the report: The report released today is the second in a series that provides lessons learned, proven best practices and expert guidance on how to transform information into business value. EMC expects to publish additional reports from the Leadership Council for Information Advantage in the coming months.
Contact: http://www.EMC.com
Contact: http://www.CouncilForInformationAdvantage.com
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Most Companies Believe Sensitive Data Can Be Secured in the Cloud
Most companies believe sensitive data can be secured in the cloud, a survey has found.
In addition, nearly half of the respondents also said they believe cloud-based solutions can be as secure as on-premise products, with over 40 percent stating they would consider replacing current solutions with cloud-based ones.
However, respondents did keep their feet on the ground with clear caveats that cloud solutions must include strong data protection, data segregation and the ability to comply with key compliance mandates, such as Sarbanes Oxley, HIPAA and PCI DSS. Compliance was noted as mission critical by nearly 80 percent of those surveyed, and most respondents felt there was some data still too risky to put in the cloud, including intellectual property, financial information and employee records. The survey also showed most companies are willing to forego performance for cloud security, with nearly 80 percent saying they would sacrifice some cloud computing performance in order to ensure that the data was secure.
In the end, it comes down to whether or not a cloud vendor can address the top criteria for cloud security, which are: data protection (85 percent), auditing and tracking (53 percent), access control rules and securing data in motion (both at 36 percent).
For cloud vendors, the survey clearly reveals the most important criteria for companies evaluating a cloud vendor. Respondents placed greatest importance how their data is segregated from other customers (85 percent), whether or not the vendor has a comprehensive and secure disaster recovery plan in place (80 percent), understanding how their company data is secured within the application (79 percent), and understanding the vendor's security breach contingency process (72 percent). Access control rules, strong authentication and best-of-breed network security infrastructure were some of the other criteria near the top of the list when considering cloud providers.
Comment from Margaret Dawson, vice president of marketing and product management at Hubspan: The results of this survey show that while some of the concerns over cloud security may be overblown, vendors must be able to clearly show how they address data segregation, compliance and other areas critical to businesses interested in augmenting on-premise infrastructure with cloud-based solutions. These results mirror what we hear from our own customers, and Hubspan has been ahead of the game in providing best-in-class security and compliance-based B2B integration in the cloud.
About the survey: More than 200 companies completed the cloud survey, ranging in size from under 50 to several thousand employees. Respondents represented a range of industries, with high-tech, manufacturing, wholesale distribution, retail and B2B eCommerce accounting for 50 percent of the polls.
Contact: http://www.hubspan.com
In addition, nearly half of the respondents also said they believe cloud-based solutions can be as secure as on-premise products, with over 40 percent stating they would consider replacing current solutions with cloud-based ones.
However, respondents did keep their feet on the ground with clear caveats that cloud solutions must include strong data protection, data segregation and the ability to comply with key compliance mandates, such as Sarbanes Oxley, HIPAA and PCI DSS. Compliance was noted as mission critical by nearly 80 percent of those surveyed, and most respondents felt there was some data still too risky to put in the cloud, including intellectual property, financial information and employee records. The survey also showed most companies are willing to forego performance for cloud security, with nearly 80 percent saying they would sacrifice some cloud computing performance in order to ensure that the data was secure.
In the end, it comes down to whether or not a cloud vendor can address the top criteria for cloud security, which are: data protection (85 percent), auditing and tracking (53 percent), access control rules and securing data in motion (both at 36 percent).
For cloud vendors, the survey clearly reveals the most important criteria for companies evaluating a cloud vendor. Respondents placed greatest importance how their data is segregated from other customers (85 percent), whether or not the vendor has a comprehensive and secure disaster recovery plan in place (80 percent), understanding how their company data is secured within the application (79 percent), and understanding the vendor's security breach contingency process (72 percent). Access control rules, strong authentication and best-of-breed network security infrastructure were some of the other criteria near the top of the list when considering cloud providers.
Comment from Margaret Dawson, vice president of marketing and product management at Hubspan: The results of this survey show that while some of the concerns over cloud security may be overblown, vendors must be able to clearly show how they address data segregation, compliance and other areas critical to businesses interested in augmenting on-premise infrastructure with cloud-based solutions. These results mirror what we hear from our own customers, and Hubspan has been ahead of the game in providing best-in-class security and compliance-based B2B integration in the cloud.
About the survey: More than 200 companies completed the cloud survey, ranging in size from under 50 to several thousand employees. Respondents represented a range of industries, with high-tech, manufacturing, wholesale distribution, retail and B2B eCommerce accounting for 50 percent of the polls.
Contact: http://www.hubspan.com
Mainframe Plays Critical Role In Cloud-Connected Enterprise
Mainframe computers continue to play a critical role in enterprise computing, have a key role in many companies' cloud-connected enterprise strategies, and the availability and development of critical mainframe skills remains a concern, according to a survey.
A significant majority (80 percent) of respondents named the mainframe as an important part of their current business strategy, and as part of their cloud plans (73 percent), and cited concerns about proficiency levels of recent college graduates as cause for concern when looking at sourcing the next generation of mainframe personnel.
The need for skilled mainframe workers becomes even more critical as companies look to leverage the mainframe as a key component of evolving plans for cloud adoption. More than two-thirds (73 percent) of respondents confirmed that the mainframe is -- or will be -- part of their organization's cloud computing strategy.
Among the survey's other significant findings:
1) Increased Mainframe Investment
-- A majority (80 percent) responded they will be maintaining or increasing spend on mainframe staff in the next 12-18 months.
-- More than three-fourths (76 percent) will maintain or increase their investment in mainframe software during the next 12-18 months.
-- Nearly half of respondents (46 percent) are looking for industry leadership from vendors on the evolving role of the mainframe in the enterprise.
2) Difficulty in Sourcing and Training Mainframe Talent
-- Nearly the same percentage of respondents (61 percent) don't believe the IT industry does enough to promote mainframe career opportunities to recent graduates.
-- 35 percent believe that recent graduates are not as proficient in mainframe technology as their counterparts that entered the workforce 10-years ago.
-- 61 percent said that hiring either took much longer than expected, took long enough to negatively impact their IT operation or are still looking for talent after more than six months.
3) Leveraging Social Media in Hiring
-- As the industry seeks to bolster mainframe education and careers in technology, companies will continue to hire. More than half (52 percent) of those surveyed cited social media networking platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn as the most effective recruiting tools. Fifty six percent indicated that they would like IT vendors to provide insights on the next generation of mainframe personnel, as they too, are feeling the staffing squeeze.
Comment from Dayton Semerjian, general manager, Mainframe, CA Technologies: With the resurgence of the mainframe underway and the recent release of IBM's zEnterprise hardware, it's clear that the mainframe is here to stay and will remain a critical component of enterprise data center as companies develop cloud strategies.
About the survey: The survey "Mainframe as a Mainstay" was conducted by Decipher Research, a marketing research services provider based in the U.S. Decipher surveyed 200 U.S. mainframe executives during September and October 2010.
Contact: http://www.ca.com
A significant majority (80 percent) of respondents named the mainframe as an important part of their current business strategy, and as part of their cloud plans (73 percent), and cited concerns about proficiency levels of recent college graduates as cause for concern when looking at sourcing the next generation of mainframe personnel.
The need for skilled mainframe workers becomes even more critical as companies look to leverage the mainframe as a key component of evolving plans for cloud adoption. More than two-thirds (73 percent) of respondents confirmed that the mainframe is -- or will be -- part of their organization's cloud computing strategy.
Among the survey's other significant findings:
1) Increased Mainframe Investment
-- A majority (80 percent) responded they will be maintaining or increasing spend on mainframe staff in the next 12-18 months.
-- More than three-fourths (76 percent) will maintain or increase their investment in mainframe software during the next 12-18 months.
-- Nearly half of respondents (46 percent) are looking for industry leadership from vendors on the evolving role of the mainframe in the enterprise.
2) Difficulty in Sourcing and Training Mainframe Talent
-- Nearly the same percentage of respondents (61 percent) don't believe the IT industry does enough to promote mainframe career opportunities to recent graduates.
-- 35 percent believe that recent graduates are not as proficient in mainframe technology as their counterparts that entered the workforce 10-years ago.
-- 61 percent said that hiring either took much longer than expected, took long enough to negatively impact their IT operation or are still looking for talent after more than six months.
3) Leveraging Social Media in Hiring
-- As the industry seeks to bolster mainframe education and careers in technology, companies will continue to hire. More than half (52 percent) of those surveyed cited social media networking platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn as the most effective recruiting tools. Fifty six percent indicated that they would like IT vendors to provide insights on the next generation of mainframe personnel, as they too, are feeling the staffing squeeze.
Comment from Dayton Semerjian, general manager, Mainframe, CA Technologies: With the resurgence of the mainframe underway and the recent release of IBM's zEnterprise hardware, it's clear that the mainframe is here to stay and will remain a critical component of enterprise data center as companies develop cloud strategies.
About the survey: The survey "Mainframe as a Mainstay" was conducted by Decipher Research, a marketing research services provider based in the U.S. Decipher surveyed 200 U.S. mainframe executives during September and October 2010.
Contact: http://www.ca.com
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Cloud Deployment Likely To Accelerate This Year
Adoption of cloud computing has lagged behind media buzz, but growth in cloud deployments is likely to accelerate in the coming year, according to a survey.
Other findings:
-- Half won't commit for five years: While genuine interest in the cloud is growing, nearly 40 percent of respondents indicated their organizations had no plans to use cloud services. As a result, the adoption curve for cloud computing will not follow the bell curve typical of most new technologies. After an initial surge of adoption, growth will slow until remaining companies see proof of success from early adopters. Once a critical mass of users establishes success, competitive pressures will force the remaining companies to adopt cloud services.
-- Cloud platform supremacy: the battle intensifies: Only three percent of respondents selected a primary cloud platform, with selections evenly split between Microsoft Azure Services Platform, Google App Engine and Amazon Web Services, indicating the competition for market dominance is still wide open and likely will intensify.
-- New support teams emerge to lasso the cloud: The survey found the first signs of organizational change with the emergence of new administrative teams dedicated to supporting cloud services. Leading-edge companies recognize that provisioning and support of cloud services will be fundamentally different than current application delivery models.
-- IT will adopt e-mail cloud services first: Survey results showed people are most interested in e-mail as a cloud service. Approximately 50 percent of the companies using, currently evaluating, or planning to deploy cloud services have or are considering e-mail. Enterprises are waiting for e-mail offerings to mature, however, with truly widespread adoption still likely years, rather than months, away.
-- "Best-of-breed" trumps standardization as more cloud decisions are made outside IT: The ease of use and scalability of many cloud solutions enables business area managers to choose their own platforms and applications rather than rely on centralized decisions by IT organizations. Survey respondents' relatively low interest in customer relationship management (CRM) is inconsistent with the popularity of Salesforce.com and other cloud-delivered CRM services, indicating that IT organizations are not involved in, and may not even be aware of, all cloud services used within their enterprises.
-- Small cloud service contingency plans spell big trouble: Cost reduction is cited by 34 percent of survey respondents as the primary driver for considering cloud services. Yet, the newness of cloud service delivery models coupled with this strong focus on cost reduction means some IT organizations will underestimate the need for proper contingency planning for service outages.
-- Federation will become IT delivery standard: Use of federation to share identity information across domains and enable business users to access multiple systems and services has grown steadily over the past several years. Twenty-four percent of survey respondents already deploy federation, and another nine percent plan to deploy it within the next 12 months.
-- E-discovery, compliance and security will drive increased Exchange support spending: More than 40 percent of respondents reported their resource requirements for e-discovery support and security increased over the past year, perhaps due to increasing regulatory oversight, litigation levels, or pressure to protect corporate information. Thirty-one percent saw growth in resources needed for compliance reporting and supporting audit requirements, and 70 percent were less than satisfied with their e-mail compliance processes. E-discovery, compliance and security likely will be the primary drivers of increases in Exchange support spending in 2011.
-- Fight will continue on desktop and storage battlegrounds: Ninety-one percent of TEC respondents are already using virtualization in production, and most of the rest are either evaluating or planning to deploy within the next 12 months. Server virtualization is either in use or under evaluation by 94 percent of responding organizations, and the market has reached saturation. Desktop virtualization still has room for growth in adoption, with current use at 46 percent in responding organizations. Storage virtualization currently is used by only 24 percent of responding organizations.
-- Technology investment strategies will forego cost-cutting, embrace opportunity: While many companies and government organizations still tightly control spending, responses on the TEC survey show promising signs of economic improvement. Only nine percent of responding companies are still cutting back, while 54 percent are making at least targeted investments. As the economy continues to improve and companies seek to accelerate revenue growth, there will be an increasing shift from cost-cutting purchases to more opportunity-based technology investments.
Comment from Gil Kirkpatrick, Quest chief architect and conference founder: Taken together, these predictions paint a picture of the key priorities of IT organizations and the technology market dynamics we can expect in 2011. We're excited to share these insights on the complexities of adoption behind the cloud buzz, platform vendor battles and shifting technology investment strategies.
About the survey: Quest Software, Inc.'s technology predictions for 2011are based on results of its annual survey conducted at The Experts Conference (TEC) U.S., hosted earlier this year by Quest. Survey results were analyzed by Quest experts to extract key insights and compelling trends. Results are based on analysis of this year's TEC conference survey responses from in-the-trenches IT practitioners, as well as historical perspective gleaned from conducting annual surveys.
Contact: http://www.theexpertsconference.com/us/2011/general-information/2010-us-survey-results
Contact: http://www.quest.com
Other findings:
-- Half won't commit for five years: While genuine interest in the cloud is growing, nearly 40 percent of respondents indicated their organizations had no plans to use cloud services. As a result, the adoption curve for cloud computing will not follow the bell curve typical of most new technologies. After an initial surge of adoption, growth will slow until remaining companies see proof of success from early adopters. Once a critical mass of users establishes success, competitive pressures will force the remaining companies to adopt cloud services.
-- Cloud platform supremacy: the battle intensifies: Only three percent of respondents selected a primary cloud platform, with selections evenly split between Microsoft Azure Services Platform, Google App Engine and Amazon Web Services, indicating the competition for market dominance is still wide open and likely will intensify.
-- New support teams emerge to lasso the cloud: The survey found the first signs of organizational change with the emergence of new administrative teams dedicated to supporting cloud services. Leading-edge companies recognize that provisioning and support of cloud services will be fundamentally different than current application delivery models.
-- IT will adopt e-mail cloud services first: Survey results showed people are most interested in e-mail as a cloud service. Approximately 50 percent of the companies using, currently evaluating, or planning to deploy cloud services have or are considering e-mail. Enterprises are waiting for e-mail offerings to mature, however, with truly widespread adoption still likely years, rather than months, away.
-- "Best-of-breed" trumps standardization as more cloud decisions are made outside IT: The ease of use and scalability of many cloud solutions enables business area managers to choose their own platforms and applications rather than rely on centralized decisions by IT organizations. Survey respondents' relatively low interest in customer relationship management (CRM) is inconsistent with the popularity of Salesforce.com and other cloud-delivered CRM services, indicating that IT organizations are not involved in, and may not even be aware of, all cloud services used within their enterprises.
-- Small cloud service contingency plans spell big trouble: Cost reduction is cited by 34 percent of survey respondents as the primary driver for considering cloud services. Yet, the newness of cloud service delivery models coupled with this strong focus on cost reduction means some IT organizations will underestimate the need for proper contingency planning for service outages.
-- Federation will become IT delivery standard: Use of federation to share identity information across domains and enable business users to access multiple systems and services has grown steadily over the past several years. Twenty-four percent of survey respondents already deploy federation, and another nine percent plan to deploy it within the next 12 months.
-- E-discovery, compliance and security will drive increased Exchange support spending: More than 40 percent of respondents reported their resource requirements for e-discovery support and security increased over the past year, perhaps due to increasing regulatory oversight, litigation levels, or pressure to protect corporate information. Thirty-one percent saw growth in resources needed for compliance reporting and supporting audit requirements, and 70 percent were less than satisfied with their e-mail compliance processes. E-discovery, compliance and security likely will be the primary drivers of increases in Exchange support spending in 2011.
-- Fight will continue on desktop and storage battlegrounds: Ninety-one percent of TEC respondents are already using virtualization in production, and most of the rest are either evaluating or planning to deploy within the next 12 months. Server virtualization is either in use or under evaluation by 94 percent of responding organizations, and the market has reached saturation. Desktop virtualization still has room for growth in adoption, with current use at 46 percent in responding organizations. Storage virtualization currently is used by only 24 percent of responding organizations.
-- Technology investment strategies will forego cost-cutting, embrace opportunity: While many companies and government organizations still tightly control spending, responses on the TEC survey show promising signs of economic improvement. Only nine percent of responding companies are still cutting back, while 54 percent are making at least targeted investments. As the economy continues to improve and companies seek to accelerate revenue growth, there will be an increasing shift from cost-cutting purchases to more opportunity-based technology investments.
Comment from Gil Kirkpatrick, Quest chief architect and conference founder: Taken together, these predictions paint a picture of the key priorities of IT organizations and the technology market dynamics we can expect in 2011. We're excited to share these insights on the complexities of adoption behind the cloud buzz, platform vendor battles and shifting technology investment strategies.
About the survey: Quest Software, Inc.'s technology predictions for 2011are based on results of its annual survey conducted at The Experts Conference (TEC) U.S., hosted earlier this year by Quest. Survey results were analyzed by Quest experts to extract key insights and compelling trends. Results are based on analysis of this year's TEC conference survey responses from in-the-trenches IT practitioners, as well as historical perspective gleaned from conducting annual surveys.
Contact: http://www.theexpertsconference.com/us/2011/general-information/2010-us-survey-results
Contact: http://www.quest.com
Friday, November 12, 2010
Investment In Cloud Computing Is Rising; Resistance To SaaS ERP Declining
Thirty-nine percent of respondents to a survey are willing to consider Software as a Service (SaaS) as a deployment option for their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations. This is a 61 percent increase in the willingness to consider SaaS from 2009 to 2010. Not only do we see a significant increase in willingness to consider SaaS or on-demand as a deployment method, but also notable is the decreased willingness to consider the traditional licensed on-premise option, which dropped by almost 18 percent.
Seventy-nine percent of survey respondents are considering SaaS because of the lower total cost of ownership. They are also considering it because it reduces the cost of upgrades and because they have limited IT resources and no interest in building IT staff. Because of this, 2010 could very well be the year in which SaaS ERP really gains strength in the marketplace.
Comment from Cindy Jutras, vice president research fellow and group director, Aberdeen: Since 2007 Aberdeen has been keeping watch on deployment models of ERP. In July 2007, we characterized ERP as the Last Bastion of Resistance to Software as a Service (SaaS). In June 2008 we revisited the topic and found SaaS ERP had not kept pace with the hype-cycle of other SaaS enterprise applications. Eighteen months later (at the end of 2009), in spite of the surge in interest in cloud computing and virtualization and the availability of SaaS ERP options from an increasing number of solution providers, SaaS ERP had yet to "take off." Finally in mid-2010 we are seeing an overall 61 percent jump in willingness to consider SaaS ERP. Will 2010 finally be the year when those walls of resistance come tumbling down? Or will they just fade away and leave us at the dawn of 2011 wondering what the fuss was all about?
About the report: SaaS ERP: Trends & Observations 2010 from Aberdeen Group is available at the Web site.
Contact: http://www.aberdeen.com
Seventy-nine percent of survey respondents are considering SaaS because of the lower total cost of ownership. They are also considering it because it reduces the cost of upgrades and because they have limited IT resources and no interest in building IT staff. Because of this, 2010 could very well be the year in which SaaS ERP really gains strength in the marketplace.
Comment from Cindy Jutras, vice president research fellow and group director, Aberdeen: Since 2007 Aberdeen has been keeping watch on deployment models of ERP. In July 2007, we characterized ERP as the Last Bastion of Resistance to Software as a Service (SaaS). In June 2008 we revisited the topic and found SaaS ERP had not kept pace with the hype-cycle of other SaaS enterprise applications. Eighteen months later (at the end of 2009), in spite of the surge in interest in cloud computing and virtualization and the availability of SaaS ERP options from an increasing number of solution providers, SaaS ERP had yet to "take off." Finally in mid-2010 we are seeing an overall 61 percent jump in willingness to consider SaaS ERP. Will 2010 finally be the year when those walls of resistance come tumbling down? Or will they just fade away and leave us at the dawn of 2011 wondering what the fuss was all about?
About the report: SaaS ERP: Trends & Observations 2010 from Aberdeen Group is available at the Web site.
Contact: http://www.aberdeen.com
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