Complexity of planning data centre strategy a major concern for 70 per cent of IT managers

Independent research commissioned by Colt Technology Services amongst European IT managers, has revealed widespread concern around the impact of complexity on planning data centre infrastructure strategy. The survey results – published in the Planning Anxiety report – found that 70 per cent of IT managers were concerned about the complexity of planning data centre strategy.

Furthermore, for a large proportion, complexity leads to a degree of planning anxiety, which is causing IT managers to spend a disproportionate amount of time and resource planning data centre strategy. According to the research, 90 per cent of IT managers feel anxious about data centre planning, and this impacts their work. Over half (54 per cent) state they spend more time on data centre strategy planning than they should.

Security was cited as a primary source of complexity and cause for anxiety, with 64 per cent stating that security is the most important area of consideration when planning data centre infrastructure strategy. The threat of a security breach – through virus or network attack - is also the data centre risk which causes greatest concern (36%).

For IT managers seeking to expand their operations abroad, regulation issues – defined as ‘restrictive and unfamiliar legislation’ – was cited as the greatest difficulty for one third (33 per cent). This was followed by 28 per cent who highlighted technical migration as the biggest hurdle.

Detlef Spang, EVP for Data Centre Services at Colt: “The data centre is a fundamental part of any organisations infrastructure, but for IT managers keeping their data centre strategy in line with their evolving business needs is an ongoing battle. IT managers must negotiate a variety of strategic, business-critcal issues. Driving simplicity across IT infrastructure, and in particular the data centre, is therefore key.”

However, a further Colt report reveals the extent of the data centre challenge ahead. 90 per cent of IT decision makers believe that their data centre infrastructure will need to evolve over the next two years to meet future business needs (source: Colt Tech Deficit). IT managers will increasingly align with trusted third parties that enable them to achieve this simplicity goal whilst also increasing flexibility and mitigating risk.

Data centre colocation is an effective solution for IT managers looking to simplify their data centre strategy planning and reduce the anxiety concerns and time constraints that this process brings. 79 per cent of IT managers in the survey who had chosen the colocation route, said they were confident (quite or very) that their colocation strategy will meet their business needs. The Planning Anxiety report refers to this as the ‘confidence paradox’.

However, supplier / customer conflicts could be a potential barrier to greater colocaton adoption. More than two thirds (69 per cent) pinpointed problems with data centre supplier contracts as a major factor.

Spang concludes, “IT managers and data centre managers will increasingly need to find strategic partners. These partnerships can deliver benefits such as reducing the risk of medium to long-term planning based on today’s view, allowing IT managers to adapt solutions quickly and enabling IT departments to leverage specialist industry expertise around areas such as security and resilience. IT decision makers should also consider the additional value-add services that some colocation providers offer. They need a partner that will grow with them both in region and abroad – removing the regulation and uncertainty which exists in new markets. It’s reassuring from the research to see that such a high proportion of respondents who chose colocation as a strategy believe that it will deliver against business goals.”