The effectiveness of IT systems was the primary concern. IT optimization and data center performance were considered vital to addressing a range of issues, including big data capacity management, cloud outages, and workplace productivity.
Data centers rely on performance analytics.
95% of IT managers indicated that the success of their data centers was based on adequate performance of IT analytics and optimization, and nearly half indicated that their data center was "heavily" reliant on it. Despite this, fewer than one in four managers (22%) described their IT organization as being able to predict the timing and/or consequences of a foreseeable scenario, as well as being able to identify the action steps to resolve it.
Ninety-three percent of respondents indicated that proper IT optimization and performance analysis would improve IT effectiveness. Seventy-three percent believe their organization's overall IT risk will be reduced with this in place. Nearly three out of four (74%) IT managers who use proper IT optimization and/or performance analysis to improve IT effectiveness have seen benefits for their company. Reduced downtime (62%), improved productivity (61%), and fewer resources spent on unexpected issues (53%) were among the benefits cited.
Key findings:
- On average, IT managers face eight unexpected IT problems per week, each requiring seven staff members for resolution.
- Among the most common IT problems are network slowdowns or outages (42%), poorly performing applications (37%), availability issues (37%), equipment failures (36%), and unforeseen change requests (34%).
- Virtual machine management continues to present challenges:
- 83% of IT managers indicated their organization lacked adequate virtual machine management.
- 74% of IT managers believe IT risk could be reduced with proper virtual management.
- 90% of IT managers believe that without proper planning, virtual machine management presents risks.
- Better planning capabilities could prevent cloud outages:
- 63% of IT managers experienced cloud outages, and 65% of them believe they could be prevented.
- Nearly half (49%) believe inadequate capacity planning was the culprit.
- Proper IT optimization or performance analysis could improve efficiency across the organization:
- 89% of managers indicated it would improve overall business productivity
. 88% said it would improve workplace productivity. "IT professionals worldwide agree that their data centers should be built on IT optimization tools, proper capacity planning, and the ability to use analytics. These not only provide a significant impact across the enterprise, deploying everything from cloud outage prevention to overall business productivity improvement, but they also free up the time IT needs to focus on improvements rather than incidents," explained Per Bauer, director of global services at TeamQuest.
Methodology:
The TeamQuest Global IT Management survey was conducted between October 29, 2014 and November 16, 2014, among 419 IT managers or higher from 10 different countries who worked with companies with more than 1,000 employees.
