ITIC Reports & Surveys

IBM, Stratus, HP, Fujitsu Top ITIC/GFI Software Hardware Reliability Survey

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For the third year in a row, IBM AIX Unix operating system (OS) running on the company’s Power System servers scored the highest reliability ratings among 19 different server OS platforms – including other Unix variants, Microsoft’s Windows Server, Linux distributions and Apple’s Mac OS X.

Over three-quarters or 78 percent of survey respondents indicated they experienced less than one of the most common, minor Tier 1 incidents per server, per annum on IBM’s AIX v. 5.3 and AIX v 7.1 distributions
Those are the results of the ITIC 2010-2011 Global Server Hardware and OS Reliability Survey. ITIC partnered with GFI Software (formerly Sunbelt Software) to conduct this independent Web-based survey. It polled C-level executives and IT managers at 468 corporations from 23 countries worldwide from November through January.

The survey data indicated that the reliability and uptime of all the major server OS and server hardware distributions has improved significantly over the past several years. …

IBM, Stratus, HP, Fujitsu Top ITIC/GFI Software Hardware Reliability SurveyRead More »

IBM, Stratus, HP, Fujitsu Top ITIC/GFI Software Hardware Reliability Survey Read More »

ITIC 2010-2011 Infrastructure Trends Survey Shows Sharp Increase in Mobility & Use of Ipads, Smart Phones in the Workplace; Cloud Deployments Slow

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The sharp increase in remote and mobile workers is spurring the fast adoption of iPads in the workplace. At the same time, public cloud computing deployments among mainstream users remain slow and steady. These are some of the other survey highlights of the latest ITIC/Sunbelt Software survey on Desktop and Infrastructure deployment trends.

No Rush to the Cloud — Yet

Users on the Move: Number of Mobile workers increases

The survey results also confirm what has been widely reported: that greater numbers and percentages of users are spending more time telecommuting, traveling and generally working outside the corporate offices.

Over half – 58 percent of businesses say that up to 25 percent of their employees work remotely; another 18 percent of respondents said that between 26 to 50 percent of their workers are remote; 11 percent said that 51 to 75 percent work outside the office and seven percent of respondents said that 76 to 100 percent of their employees work remotely. It is significant that only 7 percent of the over 400 businesses polled say that none of their workers are remote or mobile. …

ITIC 2010-2011 Infrastructure Trends Survey Shows Sharp Increase in Mobility & Use of Ipads, Smart Phones in the Workplace; Cloud Deployments SlowRead More »

ITIC 2010-2011 Infrastructure Trends Survey Shows Sharp Increase in Mobility & Use of Ipads, Smart Phones in the Workplace; Cloud Deployments Slow Read More »

ITIC Windows 7 Survey Results: 75% of Users Give it High Marks for Performance & Reliability!

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Thanks to everyone who responded to the independent, joint ITIC/Sunbelt Software survey on Windows 7, Desktop Infrastructure and Cloud Services deployment trends and issues. Please NOTE: no vendors sponsored this survey or in any way influenced the results.

Over 400 of you from 22 countries took time out of your busy schedules to respond to our poll.

Windows 7 is a winner!

As we noted in our previous blog, Windows 7 officially celebrates its 1st birthday, today — October 22nd. And there are plenty of reasons to celebrate. Yes, Windows 7 has sold over 240 million copies, to date making it the fastest selling OS in Microsoft’s (or any vendor’s) history. And yes, many of those sales can be attributed to pent-up demand because the overwhelming majority of the Windows installed base elected to remain on Windows XP and skip Vista. Admittedly, many organizations would opt to remain on Windows XP indefinitely if Microsoft was not ending support for the nearly 10 year old desktop OS. Those disclaimers aside, Windows 7’s success is no fluke. …

ITIC Windows 7 Survey Results: 75% of Users Give it High Marks for Performance & Reliability!Read More »

ITIC Windows 7 Survey Results: 75% of Users Give it High Marks for Performance & Reliability! Read More »

ITIC/Sunbelt Survey Shows Apple Users Extremely Satisfied with Performance, Reliability and Ease of use

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In a clear indication of Apple’s continuing strength with business customers, a new survey of enterprise technology managers shows accelerating interest in purchasing first-time or additional Mac OS computers and iPhones.
Satisfaction with the performance, reliability and security of Apple devices – particularly Mac hardware, OS X 10.x operating systems and the iPhone 3 and 4 (the antenna problems of the newest iPhone 4 notwithstanding) were very high. On average, approximately two-thirds of the survey participants rated the performance and reliability of Apple devices as “Excellent” or “Very Good.”
In addition, the survey responses validate the record breaking iPad sales statistics. As of June 22, Apple said it had sold over three million iPads in the 80 days since its’ April release. The figure is presumably much higher today. The ITIC/Sunbelt survey also found that the iPad is off to a very strong start, with 23 percent or nearly one in four IT managers stating they’ve already purchased or ordered the new Apple tablet. Another 18 percent said they plan to purchase an iPad within the next nine months, while just over half – 51 percent — said they have no definitive timetable. The remaining 8 percent said they plan to wait until Apple cuts the iPad prices for the first time.
And 86% of the respondents who have already bought an iPad say they are using it for both personal and business functions.
The responses to the question, “How often do you or your business experience technical issues with Apple products/devices?” were very positive and encouraging. Some 12 percent said they never had any problems; 50 percent or half the respondents said they “rarely” experienced problems; 20 percent said they “occasionally” encountered technical issues every few months; 5 percent said “once a month;” 6 percent said “two or three times per month;” 5percent said “regularly or once a week,” while a very small 2 percent minority indicated they/their businesses encountered technical issues on a daily basis.

Among the other survey highlights:
• Nearly two-thirds of respondents — 63 percent — indicated they/their organizations use the various Apple devices for both personal and business functions.
• An overwhelming 82 percent majority of survey participants said they use their iPhones to access corporate Email and data.
• 24 percent, who did not currently own an iPhone, said they “have already decided” or are “very likely to switch” with an additional 35 percent saying “it’s possible we’ll switch when the current contract expires.”
• Eight out of 10 organizations said they are “more likely to allow more users to deploy Macintoshes as their enterprise desktops” in 2010-2011, up from 68 percent in the 2009 survey.
• The number of organizations reporting large complements of Macs and OS X 10.x in their organizations continues to climb. Some 7 percent of respondents said they have more than 250 Macs in their enterprise. In the 2008 survey, only 2 percent had more than 250 Macs.
• The percentage of mobile/remote users using Apple devices is rising quickly & significantly
• The line between Apple consumer and enterprise usage continues to blur : 79 percent of survey respondents said that their firms will increase integration with existing Apple consumer products such as the iPhone to allow users to access corporate e-mail and other applications in the 2010-2011 timeframe. This is an 11 percent increase from the 68 percent of respondents who answered that query in the ITIC/Sunbelt 2009 Apple Enterprise Usage survey.

Analysis
The growing popularity of Apple products in the personal lives of IT managers is having a continued spillover effect in the enterprise. The acceleration of interest compared to our previous surveys tells me this trend will continue unabated during the next 12 to 18 months.

This is the third Apple Consumer and Enterprise Survey conducted by ITIC and Sunbelt since 2008. Each successive survey has shown a steady increase in both the number of Macs and Apple devices being deployed by corporate enterprises. ITIC will release the results of additional survey questions on Apple product satisfaction, reliability, security and ease of adoption/integration in August, 2010.
Particularly noteworthy is the survey participants’ strong interest and enthusiasm for the iPad, a product just a few months old. Plus the already strong iPhone adoption will continue as old wireless contracts expire. One can only project that if iPhone becomes available on Verizon in the U.S., the numbers of additional enterprise-based units could be staggering.
Thus far, consumer and corporate users appear to be nonplussed and largely unaffected by the iPhone 4’s much publicized antenna problems which have led to reports of dropped calls the essay comments and first person customer interviews. First person customers interviews on the topic have elicited little more than a shrug. One user said, “So what? All mobile phones and PDAs drop calls.”
Still, Apple must respond decisively and quickly to address any performance, quality and reliability issues related to any and all of its products. Apple has a press conference scheduled for later today to address the issues.
At present however, these issues do not appear to be having an adverse impact on iPhone 4 sales.
With Apple’s enterprise success though, will come new challenges. IT managers who participated in the ITIC/Sunbelt survey extolled the features and functions of the Apple Macs, OS X 10.x, iPhone and iPad for consumers. However, as more and more Apple devices make their way into the enterprise, the lack of enterprise-class third-party management and performance-enhancement tools and technical support is becoming a significant barrier and impediment to widespread enterprise adoption. It is not as problematic though, for organizations that currently have just a few Macs or isolated pockets of Macs and OS X 10.x in specific departments such as graphics. Still, Apple will have to address these issues if it is to mount a serious challenge to Microsoft’s dominance. So far, the company has been silent about its enterprise strategy.
A new consortium of five third-party vendors calling itself the Enterprise Desktop Alliance (EDA) has taken the lead to promote the management, integration and interoperability capabilities of the Mac in corporate environments. Apple is well advised to forge a closer relationship with the EDA and its member organizations to foster greater third party integration and interoperability between Apple devices and rival platforms.
Part 2 of the Apple survey results as they relate to security issues will appear in a subsequent blog.

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2010 IT & Technology Trends Survey Results

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

The final results from ITIC’s 2010 IT & Technology Trends Survey indicate that businesses of all sizes, across all verticals will maintain IT staffing levels and budgets during 2010 as they continue to implement upgrade and migration projects that began in 2009.
ITIC partnered with Stratus Technologies and Sunbelt Software to conduct the non-vendor specific Web-based survey which polled 650 respondents from 19 countries worldwide on a wide range of key IT business, budget and staffing subjects. The survey focused issues impacting organizations during 2010. They include: IT budgets and staffing; PC and server hardware refresh cycles and user deployment plans around pivotal technologies like virtualization, cloud computing and Green datacenters.
The survey responses indicate that the ongoing economic recession appears to have bottomed out. After two years of slashing costs and cutting staff, organizations are finally beginning to rebound and cautiously spend on necessary IT infrastructure improvements. Happily, only a very small (2%) minority indicated their organizations are planning layoffs in 2010 and only 15% of survey respondents said their IT budgets will decrease this year.
However, pragmatism is still very much the operative byword. Over one-third of organizations – 35% — revealed that their IT budgets will remain the same in 2010, while 26% say their budgets will increase in the New Year. Interestingly, 15% of respondents say their 2010 IT budgets are still not approved as of this writing and 8% remain “Unsure” of their budgets for the next 12 months. And while it’s good news that only 2% of survey respondents are planning layoffs, only 5% of those polled said their organizations planned to add IT staff during 2010.
Survey respondents indicated that their organizations, from the smallest businesses with fewer than 25 workers to large multinational enterprises with over 100,000 employees, will be extremely conservative with respect to their IT budgets, spending only on necessary items.
2010 Top Priorities: Disaster Recovery, Hardware Upgrades & Virtualization
Survey participants specified disaster recovery, upgrading server hardware, deploying new applications in support of the business and server virtualization software as their top IT technology spending priorities for 2010, in that order.
Other network housekeeping chores also ranked high on users’ “to do” lists. Additionally, those polled cited the need to replace older versions of server operating systems; upgrading desktop hardware; upgrading legacy server-based applications; improving revenues and profitability, upgrading desktop operating systems and upgrading storage infrastructures.
The ITIC 2010 IT & Technology Trends Survey was also notable for identifying those issues that are low on organizations’ IT spending priorities. These include: implementing public cloud infrastructures (which was chosen by only 4% of respondents); adding IT staff (5%); building a private cloud (7%) and Green data center initiatives (10%).
Other survey highlights include:

• Smooth running infrastructure is crucial. Nearly eight out of 10 businesses – 79% — say that a smooth running infrastructure in support of non-IT business operations is the most important result of IT investments to senior management. This was followed closely by cost reductions in IT operations (72% of respondents). Avoiding regulatory issues and problems was the third most popular result according to 60% of respondents while driving new business and increased revenues came in as the fourth most popular IT investment result , with 50% of respondents. Another 40% of those polled stated that investing with an eye toward future IT infrastructure needs was crucial to their IT investments. Somewhat surprisingly only 11% of the respondents cited staying ahead of the competition technologically as an important factor to their senior management.
• Modest budget increases and decreases. Among respondents who say their budgets will increase, the largest percentage – 27% — say the increases will be modest in the 4% to 6% range. Only 3% indicated their budgets would rise by 30% or more while 50% are unsure. Similarly, of the 14% minority of respondents who noted that their budgets will decrease, 18% say the declines will also be in the single digits. Only 7% of the respondents indicated their firms will slash 2010 IT budgets by 21% or more.
• IT Hiring: Just under half of those polled – 47% — say their organizations will maintain current IT staffing levels for 2010. In a sign that business is improving, 25% of those polled say their organizations will hire additional IT staff as needed in the coming 12 months. Another 15% of respondents, say their organizations have made no decisions on hiring and are taking a wait and see approach. Tellingly, none of respondents said their organizations will hire “a significant number” of new IT staff in the coming year and none indicated their firms will re-hire workers that were laid off in the prior 12 months.
Analysis: Organizations Will Work Smarter and Harder
Overall, the ITIC 2010 IT & Technology Trends Survey indicates that nearly three years of economic hardships have taught organizations to work harder and smarter. The responses to both the Web-based multiple choice questions, the essay responses and first person customer interviews all paint a compelling picture of organizations that are focusing on the bottom line but are determined to stay current on technology in order to maintain network uptime.
The responses – particularly with respect to server hardware and main line of business server applications – illustrate that organizations from academic and non-profit environments to government agencies and commercial businesses are making budget and deployment decisions that are both tactical and strategic.
Not surprisingly, two out of five respondents — 41% — said the ongoing economic downturn has caused product lifecycles to lengthen. However, nearly that same percent – 40% — say the tight economy has not impacted their product upgrade cycles. However approximately one-quarter of respondents said they retrofit their servers to save money instead of purchasing new equipment, and 18% of respondents say their organizations are adopting a more strategic approach to the tough economic times by purchasing more robust/more expensive servers so they last longer.
Overall, a 61% majority of respondents said their server hardware was three years old or less. Again, these actions clearly underscore how much organizations rely on their server hardware to maintain uptime. Similarly, all of the respondents place a premium on security and disaster recovery equipment and planning. In fact, these two technology segments appear sacrosanct: despite the downturn of the last three years, a miniscule 3% of organizations said they’ve cut security or disaster recovery spending.
This eye on acting in the present with an eye towards the future was also evident in organizations’ approach to their primary concerns/considerations in evaluating products with intent to purchase. The top choice here according to 36% of respondents was choosing a solution that fits long-term IT infrastructure strategies. That was followed by 21% who indicated that choosing the solution that provides the best ROI for the business was a key criteria when evaluating rival vendor product offerings with an intent to purchase.
On the IT/business questions, it is apparent that Senior IT management is firmly in charge and is the most influential group in the organization in terms of setting strategic direction, taking the lead and influencing purchasing decisions by a wide majority.
Government, Non-Profit Agencies Feel the Pain
Survey respondents in the Government, IT/Technology Services Providers and non-profit sectors were among the most vocal in their essay comments and first person interviews. Typically, organizations in these market segments have smaller budgets and fewer resources than their commercial counterparts. It’s therefore not surprising that any budget cuts or staff reductions would hit them harder. The respondents in these sectors were both pragmatic and resigned about how their IT departments were struggling to do more with smaller budgets and fewer resources, and how they do not expect to see a significant economic turnaround in the foreseeable future.

Finally, based on the survey responses, Green data center initiatives will evolve slowly. To date, only one out of five survey respondents — 20% — said their organizations have begun Green data and IT initiatives. An even smaller minority – just 4% said that Green initiatives were a top priority for their organizations in the next 12 months. The largest segment of the respondents 27% said their organization will not implement Green IT and data center initiatives in 2010, while – 25% indicated that are actively studying the issue. During customer interviews, many IT managers and executives said they have yet to do a full TCO or ROI analysis of how Green data center and IT initiatives can help the business. Until that happens, it’s likely they will not make a concerted effort to go green.
In summary, 2010 will be a pivotal year for IT infrastructure upgrades. Organizations will continue to be cautiously optimistic and pragmatic as the economy slowly rebounds.

2010 IT & Technology Trends Survey Results Read More »

IT Departments Pragmatic about 2010 Budgets, Resources

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From Australia to Italy, from Canada to Columbia and from the U.S. to South Africa, pragmatism is the order of the day for IT departments as they struggle to stretch their 2010 budgets and resources to make much needed infrastructure upgrades in the face of a still uncertain and tight economy.
Those are the results of a new 2010 IT & Technology Trends survey which polled over 500 respondents from 18 countries worldwide on IT budget and staffing issues for the year ahead. ITIC partnered with Stratus Technologies and Sunbelt Software to poll C-level executives and IT managers. The results indicate that businesses are in a better place now than they were at the close of 2010. And there’s even a hint of cautious optimism in the air. The survey results indicate that by and large organizations of all sizes and across all verticals will maintain IT staffing levels and budgets during 2010 as they continue to implement upgrade and migration projects that began in 2009.
Nearly one-third of organizations – 31% — revealed that their IT budgets will remain the same in 2010, while 27% say their budgets will increase and an 17% minority said IT budgets will decrease in the New Year. Interestingly, 15% of respondents said their 2010 IT budgets are still not approved and 10% remain unsure of their budgets for the next 12 months.
Among respondents who indicated their budgets will increase, the largest percentage – 27% — say the increases will be modest in the four-to-six percent range. Only 3% indicated their budgets would rise by 30% or more while 50% are unsure.
And among the 17% minority of respondents who say their budgets will decrease, the cuts will be minimal or modest. Some 7% say they will decline by one-to-three percent, while another 11% say they will decline by four-to-six percent. Only 7% of the respondents indicated their firms will slash 2010 IT budgets by 21% or more; 68% said they weren’t sure how big the budget declines would be.
IT Hiring: Modest but Stable
Based on the survey responses it is apparent that IT staffing levels are stable. However, it’s safe to say that very few firms would consider themselves fully staffed or even at pre-December 2007 levels, which was when the U.S. Government officially said the recession began.
And while the economy has not fully recovered, there is a sense from the survey respondents that the worst may be behind them. Over half of those polled – 52% — said their organizations will maintain current IT staffing levels for 2010. In a sign that business is improving, 25% of those polled say their organizations will hire additional IT staff as needed in the coming 12 months. Only a very small 2% minority say their firms are planning layoffs. Another 14% of respondents, say their organizations have made no decisions on hiring and are taking a wait and see approach.
Current IT staffing levels: Surprisingly just over one-quarter — 26% — of survey respondents indicated their IT departments are smaller now than they were in 2008. The biggest percentage – 42% — responded “No” while another 32% say their IT staffing levels are about the same as they were a year ago.
The anecdotal responses from around the globe all shared a common thread: pragmatism and a desire to do what it takes to weather the ongoing economic downturn. The uncertainty of the economy and how to Many respondents voiced concern about staying on top of crucial issues like security, disaster recovery and finding the funds to make the necessary desktop and server hardware, software and application upgrades.
But once again, pragmatism seems to be the byword. Many of the survey respondents simply said they’re picking up the slack and working harder and longer hours. It’s also apparent that some vertical markets have been hit harder by the recession than others. Government agencies, state and local municipalities have suffered. Likewise, the automotive industry and smaller hospitals and consulting firms have also been hit hard over the past 18 months.
An IT manager at a small government agency noted that a large part of their budget comes from state and federal grants. “Those sources are about dry in this economy. We took a 65% cut in state funding this year and pray that we can maintain that low level in next year’s state budget rather than take another cut,” he said.
An IT manager at a mid-sized U.S. consulting firm said his organization is just trying to weather the severe downturn. “Our existing clients have cut back on spending and only do what is absolutely necessary to keep their systems running. New clients are much more difficult to cultivate, so survival over this period is the top priority,” he observed.
“Our main goal is to keep the infrastructure updated, supported and available with less staff,” said an IT manager at a mid-sized healthcare firm with one thousand users.
No one is sure when the economy will rebound to pre-2007 levels. Meanwhile, IT departments are doing the only thing they can do: endure. The silver lining in the cloud is that most organizations have adapted to the belt tightening and working longer hours and have somehow generally managed to keep the corporate data centers up and running. It may not be comfortable or optimal but it’s working.

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ITIC/Sunbelt Software survey: 80% of Users Give Windows 7 High Marks for Compatibility

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A new independent ITIC/Sunbelt Software survey of nearly 1,500 companies worldwide indicates 60% of respondents will deploy Windows 7. Nearly one-third of respondents — 30% — say they will migrate to the new Microsoft desktop operating system within the first six months while another 20% say they will upgrade within the year.

Among the other Survey Highlights:

• An overwhelming 80% majority of the survey respondents rated Windows 7 performance and applications compatibility with legacy applications “Excellent” or “Very Good.” See Exhibit 1.
• Approximately 11% of companies said they plan to wait until the first Service Pack ships before migrating.
• Of the 40% of respondents who had no definitive migration timetable, 25% cited satisfaction with their current Windows XP and Windows Vista desktops.
• Less than 2% of those polled said they were considering switching from Windows to another desktop OS.

The survey findings are a clear indication and validation that Microsoft’s efforts in locking down the Windows 7 code to ensure a high degree of backwards compatibility with existing and legacy hardware, software, applications and drivers, delivering a wide array of deployment tools, has been overwhelmingly successful.

To accomplish this Microsoft adopted a series of internal and external initiatives which are designed to deliver the highest degree of applications compatibility, thus ensuring a more straightforward and simplified migration Windows XP and Vista to Windows 7.

Internally, Microsoft made a concerted effort over the last two years to provide a wide array of online deployment tools and toolkits. Initiatives like the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) are proactive measures that specifically allow corporations and consumers to pre-determine, whether or not their applications and drivers will work with Windows 7. ACT and other tools also enable users to troubleshoot and find solutions for technical problems. The Redmond, Washington software giant is also offering a series of online and optional premium compatibility planning and evaluation services.

To complement the free online tools, Microsoft also initiated a broad and deep “Ecosystems Readiness Approach,” initiative. Microsoft proactively engages its OEM hardware vendors and independent software vendors (ISVs) worldwide by providing them with technical workshops to train them on various aspects of the Windows 7 platform to ensure compatibility. These workshops, which are being given in 40 countries, also offer Microsoft partners a channel with which to provide direct feedback on any compatibility issues that may crop up and serve as a powerful training tool.

These actions are exactly what Microsoft needed to do in order to provide its corporate and consumer customers with a high level of integration and interoperability with their legacy hardware, driver and software applications. The ultimate test will come over the next several months as users widely deploy Windows 7 in production networks. However, Windows 7 must still prove its mettle to the 40% of organizations — commerical and academic — as well as consumers who are still skeptical and leery of potential compatibility problems. Additionally, some cash-constrained organizations, say their firms lack the funds, to migrate to Windows 7. And 26% of the 40% of respondents with no definitive migration plans, indicate they’re content to remain on Windows XP or Windows Vista for the foreseeable future. Wooing this contingent may prove to be Microsoft’s biggest challenge.

The early indications, based on the survey data and first person interviews with beta users and early adopters, is that Microsoft’s full court press to ensure applications compatibility has paid off.

ITIC/Sunbelt Software survey: 80% of Users Give Windows 7 High Marks for Compatibility Read More »

ITIC 2009-2010 Global Virtualization Deployment Trends Survey Results

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Server virtualization demand and deployments are strong and will remain so for the remainder of 2009 and through 2010, despite the ongoing economic downturn.

The results of the new, independent ITIC 2009 Global Server Virtualization Survey, which polled more than 700 corporations worldwide during May/June and August, reveal that server virtualization deployments have remained strong throughout the ongoing 2009 economic downturn. It also shows that the three market leaders Citrix, Microsoft and VMware, are consolidating their positions even as the virtualization arena itself consolidates through mergers, acquisitions and partnerships.

Microsoft in particular has made big year-over-year gains in deployments and market share. Thanks to the summer release of the new Hyper-V 2.0 with live migration capabilities  the Redmond, Washington software firm has substantially closed the feature/performance gap between itself and VMware’s ESX Server.  The technical advances of Hyper-V combined with the excellent conditions of Microsoft’s licensing program, make the company’s virtualization products very competitive and alluring. Three out of five — 59% of the survey respondents — indicated their intent to deploy Hyper-V 2.0 within the next 12 to 18 months.

Survey responses also show a groundswell of support for application and desktop virtualization deployments. These two market segments constitute a much smaller niche of deployments and installations compared to virtualized server environments. The survey results show that application virtualization (where Microsoft is the market leader) and desktop virtualization (in which Citrix is the market leader), are both poised for significant growth in the 2010 timeframe.

Another key survey revelation was that 40% of respondents, especially businesses with 500 or more end users, said they either have or plan to install virtualization products from multiple vendors. This will place more emphasis and importance on integration, interoperability, management and third-party add-on tools to support these more complex, heterogeneous virtualization environments.

Among the other key survey highlights:

  • The “Big Three,” Citrix, Microsoft and VMware, are bolstering their positions with a slew of new offerings and a plethora of partnerships due out in the 2009 summer and fall.
  • Partnerships and Alliances: The alliance between Citrix and Microsoft remains robust as these two firms believe that there’s strength in numbers, as they mount a challenge to server virtualization leader VMware’s continuing dominance.
  • Microsoft Hyper-V Closes the Gap: Microsoft made big year-over-year market share gains from 2008 to 2009. The survey data shows current Hyper-V usage at 32%; but 59% plan to adopt in next 12 to 18 months.
  • VMware remains the market leader in server virtualization with approximately 50% share among enterprise users; Microsoft follows with 26% share.
  • Microsoft is the current market leader in application virtualization with a 15% share; followed by Citrix with 11% and VMware with 7%. However, nearly two-thirds of businesses have not yet deployed application virtualization.
  • Citrix is the market leader in desktop virtualization with a 19% market share followed by Microsoft with 15% and VMware with 8%. But again, over 60% of corporations have not yet begun to virtualize their desktop environments.
  • Mergers and Acquisitions Raise Questions: There is confusion among the legacy Sun and Virtual Iron users as to what will happen to both the product lines and technical support in the wake of both firms’ acquisition by Oracle.
  • Apple Mac is a popular virtualization platform; nearly 30% of respondents said they use Mac hardware in conjunction with Windows operating systems to virtualize their server and desktop environments.
  • Parallels and VMware Fusion are the two leading Mac virtualization vendors with a near 50/50 split market share.
  • Time to Bargain: Despite budget cuts and reduced resources only a very small percentage of companies — 7% — have attempted to renegotiate their virtualization licensing contracts to get lower prices and better deals.
  • Server Virtualization Lowers TCO: Almost 50% of survey respondents reported that server virtualization lets them lower their total cost of ownership (TCO) and achieve faster return on investment (ROI); however, only 25% of businesses could quantify the actual monetary cost savings
  • Users Prefer Terra Firma Virtualization to Cloud: Users are moving slowly with respect to public cloud computing migrations, which are heavily dependent on virtualization technology. To date, only 14% of survey respondents said they will move their data to a virtualized public cloud within the next six-to-12 months.

This survey identifies the trends that propel or impede server, application and desktop virtualization deployments and to elucidate the timeframes in which corporations plan to virtualize their environments. ITIC advises all businesses, irrespective of size or vertical market to conduct due diligence to determine which virtualization solution or combination of products best meets their technical and business needs in advance of any migration. And in light of the ongoing economic downturn, businesses are well advised to negotiate hard with their vendors for the best deals and to ensure that the appropriate IT managers receive the necessary training and certification to ensure a smooth, trouble-free virtualization upgrade. This will enable the business to lower TCO, accelerate ROI and minimize and mitigate risk to an acceptable level.

ITIC 2009-2010 Global Virtualization Deployment Trends Survey Results Read More »

ITIC 2009 Global Server Hardware & Server OS Reliability Survey Results

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For the second year in a row, IBM AIX UNIX running on the Power or “P” series servers, scored the highest reliability ratings among 15 different server operating system platforms – including Linux, Mac OS X, UNIX and Windows.

Those are the results of the ITIC 2009 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability Survey which polled C-level executives and IT managers at 400 corporations from 20 countries worldwide. The results indicate that the IBM AIX operating system whether running on Big Blue’s Power servers (System p5s)  is the clear winner, offering rock solid reliability. The IBM servers running AIX consistently score at least 99.99% or just 15 minutes of unplanned per server, per annum downtime.

Overall, the results showed improvements in reliability, patch management procedures and an across-the-board reduction in per server, per annum Tier 1, Tier 2 and the most severe Tier 3 outages.  Among the other survey highlights:

  • IBM leads all vendors for both server hardware and server OS reliability as well as the fewest number of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 unplanned server outages per year. IBM AIX running on the System p5s had less than one unplanned outage incident per server in a 12 month period. More impressively, the IBM servers experience no Tier 3 outages. Tier 3 outages are the most severe and usually involve more than four hours or a half-day worth of downtime and can also result in lost data.
  • HP UX also performed well though HP servers notch approximately 25 minutes more downtime than IBM servers, depending on model and configuration – or just under 40 minutes per server, per annum downtime.
  • IT managers spend approximately 11minutes to apply patches to IBM servers running the AIX operating system, which is again, the least amount of time spent patching any server or operating system. The open source Ubuntu distribution is a close second with IT managers spending 12 minutes to apply patches, while IT managers in the Apple Mac OS X 10.x. Novell SuSE and customized Linux distribution environments each spend 15 to 19 minutes applying patches.
  • IBM also took top honors in another important category: IBM Power servers and AIX experience the lowest amount of the more severe Tier 2 and Tier 3 outages combined of any server hardware or server operating system. The combined total of Tier 2 and Tier 3 outages accounted for just 19% of all per server, per annum failures.
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 showed the biggest improvements of any of the vendors. The Windows Server 2003 and 2008 operating systems running on Intel-based platforms saw a 35% reduction in the amount of unplanned per server, per annum downtime from 3.77 hours in 2008 to 2.42 hours in 2009. The number of annual Windows Server Tier 3 outages also decreased by 31% year over year and the time spent applying patches similarly decline by 35% from last year to 32 minutes in 2009.
  • This year’s survey for the first time, also incorporated reliability results for the Apple Mac and OS X 10.x OS platform.  The survey respondents indicated that Apple products are extremely competitive in an enterprise setting. IT managers spend approximately 15 minutes per server to apply patches and Apple Macs recorded just under 40 minutes of per server, per annum downtime.

ITIC 2009 Global Server Hardware & Server OS Reliability Survey Results Read More »

ITIC IT Performance Trends Survey Results

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

An overwhelming 85% majority of corporate customers will not implement a private or public cloud computing infrastructure in 2009 because of fears that cloud providers may not be able to adequately secure sensitive corporate data. That is a key result of the latest ITIC survey which polled C-level executives and IT managers at 300 corporations worldwide on IT Performance Trends.

The survey yielded several other surprising results on pivotal issues that can have a direct impact on daily network operations as well as long term strategic goals like lowering total cost of ownership (TCO), managing risk and achieving tangible return on investment (ROI). For example, initial responses and subsequent first person customer interviews indicated that IT managers are finding it difficult and challenging to track basic IT performance metrics. Among the most stunning revelations was that 48% of IT departments – nearly half — do not track security performance metrics. Only 43% of businesses have SLA metrics with clients that are discussed and updated yearly and 51% of organizations are unable to quantify the cost of an hour of unplanned downtime.

ITIC partnered with Stratus Technologies in Maynard, MA, a vendor specializing in high availability and fault tolerant hardware and software solutions, to compose the Web-based survey. ITIC conducted this blind, non-vendor and non-product specific survey which polled businesses on a wide range of IT performance-related trends. Besides cloud computing deployment trends and timetables, the survey also queried users on such topics as IT accountability for network performance metrics; the frequency of moderate and severe network outages; SLA agreements; how IT tracks performance metrics; how well IT and upper management collaborate and whether or not IT departments are able to quantify the hourly cost of downtime.

The Web-based survey consisted of multiple choice and essay questions. ITIC analysts also conducted two dozen first person customer interviews to obtain detailed anecdotal data. Respondents ranged from SMBs with 100 users to very large enterprises with over 100,000 end users. Industries represented: academic, advertising, aerospace, banking, communications, consumer products, defense, energy, finance, government, healthcare, insurance, IT services, legal, manufacturing, media and entertainment, telecommunications, transportation, and utilities. The respondents hailed from 19 countries; 85% were based in North America. None of the survey respondents received any remuneration for their participation.

Survey Highlights

The responses across a wide range of survey topics indicate that IT departments are overwhelming pragmatic; their chief focus is on keeping their networks up and running in the face of budget cuts and diminished staff and resources.

Among the other survey highlights:

  • Over four out of 10 organizations — 44% — indicate that management holds IT responsible for meeting defined performance metrics; 31% say that upper management only holds them accountable or voices displeasure when something goes awry and 19% of respondents say their companies do not have formally defined performance metrics.
  • On the subject of how businesses track performance, 28% of respondents indicated they do so by the amount of planned and unplanned downtime experienced by IT; another 24% measure performance according to a specific subset of IT operations and systems; 11% are reactive and monitor performance by the time it takes to recover following a service outage; an additional 11% are proactive, monitoring performance in a continuous, programmed fashion throughout the enterprise. Most alarming however is that more than a fifth of the firms represented – 21% – revealed that they don’t keep track of performance.
  • In another somewhat surprising disclosure, 46% of survey respondents do not have service level agreements (SLAs) in place compared to 43% who do; 11% of respondents were unsure. However, the ITIC survey responses showed that an overwhelming 84% majority of large enterprises with over 3,000 end users do have SLAs in place. However even in those businesses, collaboration and communication among C-level executives and IT departments is poor. Only 16% of survey respondents noted any regular, proactive communications between IT and upper management.

ITIC IT Performance Trends Survey Results Read More »

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