12 May 2011
Quocirca has just completed an in-depth study of the state of large (>$100m revenues) and very large (>$1b revenues) organisations’ datacentres. The research was commissioned by Oracle, which wanted to understand various aspects of the thought processes of IT decision makers and the degree of preparation that organisations have in place for dealing with the future of IT.
Here, it would seem, lies a problem. IT has reached a watershed. Old datacentre facilities are creaking at the joints as they try to deal with increasing equipment densities and energy usage. The IT platform itself is changing as virtualisation makes an impact on how applications are run. Cloud computing is becoming a reality, making a hybrid environment that combines existing datacentre facilities with external ones an issue with which organisations have to come to terms.
News headlines would have us believe that virtualisation is a done deal; that organisations are rapidly embracing cloud computing and that co-location is the obvious option for those who can’t deal with retro-fitting existing datacentres or in building new ones.
But reality bites. The research, which involves 919 senior IT decision makers across nine regions in the Western hemisphere, shows that more than 50 per cent of respondents will need a new datacentre facility within the next 12 months, with 7.5 per cent already at the point where the existing datacentre is not fit for purpose.
When it comes to virtualisation, only 15 per cent have more than 70 per cent of their server estate virtualised – whereas 23 per cent have less than 10 per cent virtualised. The median virtualisation rate seems to be about 30 per cent.
Quocirca is still analysing the figures on embracing cloud computing in depth, but it is apparent that the vendor hype still has some way to go, with 27 per cent saying that they either have little or no understanding of even the basics. However, 39 per cent do profess to having a reasonable or good understanding. 31 per cent don’t know if cloud will ever be used in their organisation, see cloud as a passing fad, or see no room for cloud at all in their organisation.
On the use of external datacentres, 59 per cent professed to using only internal facilities.
All told, not the best way to prepare for a future in which an organisation’s needs in how IT facilitates its processes are likely to change on a regular basis – and IT has to be flexible to do this. Other examples of where IT is failing include:
• More than one in five have little or no formal systems management capability in place, with a further 45 per cent managing on a point O/S or application basis.
• Nearly 22 per cent have done nothing to consolidate the datacentre, and only 11 per cent have conducted a full consolidation programme.
• Only 27 per cent have any real idea of energy usage in the datacentre, with one in three claiming that it is someone else’s responsibility.
• Only 11 per cent feel capable of accurately predicting future workload requirements, with 34 per cent either doing nothing or making wild guesses that they admit are often wrong.
• A staggering 26 per cent use the help desk as the main means of identifying when they have application performance issues, waiting for users to phone up and complain before doing anything. Less than 13 per cent use real-world application performance testing and dynamic resource management in order to ensure that any problems are dealt with before they can affect the business.
This should be a wake-up call for both IT departments and the organisations they serve which depend on the IT platform. The fact that IT has problems is not in itself an issue – technology has always gone through changes, and IT departments have had to deal with how to embrace the new environments.
However, the research shows that many datacentres are badly positioned for the future, which will affect many organisations’ capabilities to carry out their business. It’s no use coming up with the same old same old line that “the business told us that we had to save money”. Running datacentres that are underutilised, badly managed and unfit for purpose amounts to wasting money hand over fist, and it doesn’t need massive expenditure to provide greater savings.
Investments in simple steps in rationalisation, virtualisation and consolidation, combined with a good level of systems management, will have rapid payback, and ongoing savings can be ploughed back into more complex datacentre investments.
Quocirca’s report is available for free download.
Clive Longbottom is service director, business process analysis at Quocirca
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