One fifth of firms to focus on software-defined solutions or converged infrastructure in the next two years
Computing's latest research reveals that software-defined will go from being mentioned in meetings to playing a part in data centre strategies
Although there are only a small number of companies that are currently using new technologies such as software-defined solutions or converged infrastructure, many enterprises are looking to adopt them over the next two years.
According to Computing's latest data centre research, which will be revealed in full at the Data Centre Summit 2015 next week, new technologies such as software-defined storage are at very early stages in terms of testing and deployment but are certainly featuring in data centre strategy meetings.
When asked which best described the respondent's current data centre set-up, and whether this would change over the next two years, only four per cent said they were focused on using "leading-edge" solutions such as software-defined and converged infrastructure.
But nearly a fifth (19 per cent) said that they would be focusing on these solutions in the next two years.
Software-defined solutions were named by 19 per cent as an influential technological trend for them, with 17 per cent naming converged infrastructure as an influential technology trend.
"The principal benefits we would see around software-defined networking would be micro segmentation of the internal network, so a security benefit... ," said one respondent, an independent strategy architect who works in a large retail organisation.
Last year, TUI Travel CIO Mittu Sridhara said that the software-defined data centre (SDDC), the phrase used to refer to a data centre in which all infrastructure is virtualised and delivered as a service, was not just a buzzword, and does serve a purpose.
TUI Travel is one firm that is investing in a SDDC strategy.
"It very much does [have a purpose]; clearly not all of it is ready yet for the volumes and transactions and scale in which we do things, but certain areas and elements are starting to become available," Sridhara explained.