Forbes-Vertiv data centre survey finds 71% of customers not having all needs met

JUST 29 percent of data centre user decision-makers say their current facilities are meeting their needs, and just 6 percent say their data centres are updated ahead of their needs.

These are among the findings included in a new report from Forbes Insights and Vertiv.

The Modern Data Centre: How IT is Adapting to New Technologies and Hyperconnectivity examines the results of a survey of 150 data centre executives and engineers from various industries around the world. 

The survey results indicate a troubling lack of planning and preparation for today’s evolving data ecosystem. A closer examination of the results reveals a stark contrast between executives and engineers: 11 percent of executives say their data centers are updated ahead of current needs while just 1 percent of engineers say the same.

“As today’s data centre evolves to incorporate enterprise, cloud and edge resources, thorough planning and foresight is needed to meet organisational computing requirements and business objectives,” Vertiv Global Edge Systems vice president, Martin Olsen said.

“It is clear, however, that many organisations are lagging on that front. With that in mind, we anticipate considerable investment and activity among businesses trying to catch up and get ahead of the changes.”

Tony Gaunt, senior director for cloud, hyperscale and colocation at Vertiv in Asia and India said, "In Asia, we are seeing growing interest and attention among organisations in future-proofing their critical infrastructure to adapt to the expanding connectivity and network requirements.

"But there is much work that still needs to be done. There is a need to re-examine existing strategies and continuously improve upon them to achieve business success."

Other notable results from the survey included: 

• 92 percent of CIOs and CTOs say their business will require faster download and response times in the near future.
• 63 percent say they have difficulty meeting bandwidth needs at all times.
• Security (45%) and bandwidth (43%) are the two areas most in need of upgrades.
• Security (43%), backup and emergency preparedness (33%), the ability to implement new technologies (28%) and bandwidth (27%) were the most commonly identified features that will give businesses a competitive advantage.
• Respondents are bullish on self-configuring and self-healing data centers. 24% said more than half of their data centers will be self-configuring by 2025, and 32% said more than half would be self-healing.

www.vertiv.com

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