Data center efficiency is becoming a central pillar of many enterprise IT strategies, and additional attention and investment is being directed toward these crucial resources.
IDG's recently released 2011 Data Center Survey compiled the opinions of more than 1,700 IT decision-makers in order to present a detailed perspective of the challenges that data center managers currently face. The importance of this business segment was underscored by the research, with responding companies allocating an average of 28 percent of overall IT budgets to storage solutions. This level of investment is forecasted to remain steady through the next several years.
"As enterprises continue to struggle with an increasing amount of data, decision-makers are challenged with finding solutions that can deal with scale while also focusing on developing predictive analytics that will capitalize on untapped value," noted report author Bob Melk.
With businesses asking more of their storage solutions, data security is becoming more important than ever. More than 80 percent of respondents indicated that the ability to meet security requirements was the most important factor when evaluating data center technology vendors. And within approximately half of all surveyed companies, targeted data center investments are coming from the IT department as well as specialized security teams.
As a result of increased awareness, opportunities abound for qualified storage solution providers.
"The focus on the data center opens opportunities for vendors to lead the pack by offering solutions that are critical during the vendor evaluation process, including security, support and service," added Melk.
For large firms still questioning the prioritization of secure and efficient data centers, one only needs to review the unfortunate consequences of organizations that have fallen victim to security breaches. Earlier this month, vulnerabilities in the data center of Stanford University Hospital were exposed, compromising approximately 20,000 patient records.
