survey

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

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 »

Happy 1st Birthday Windows 7; Now Can We Please Cancel Microsoft’s MidLife Crisis?

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By Laura DiDio

Windows 7 is now officially a year old. Since it was released October 22, 2009, Microsoft has sold over 240 million copies of the operating system — approximately seven copies per second. That makes it the fastest selling operating system in Microsoft’s history or any vendor’s history. Some industry pundits estimate that Windows 7 sales will top 300 million within the next six-to-eight months.

Microsoft has plenty of other reasons to celebrate Windows 7’s first birthday. Windows 7 has also been one of the most stable, reliable and secure releases in Microsoft’s history.

A three-quarters majority – 73 percent of the 400+ respondents to the latest joint ITIC/Sunbelt Software poll, gave Windows 7 an “excellent,” “very good” or “good” rating. …

Happy 1st Birthday Windows 7; Now Can We Please Cancel Microsoft’s MidLife Crisis?Read More »

Happy 1st Birthday Windows 7; Now Can We Please Cancel Microsoft’s MidLife Crisis? Read More »

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

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By Laura DiDio

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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Microsoft Azure Platform, BPOS Cloud Vision Must Address Licensing

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By Laura DiDio

Microsoft did a very credible job at its TechEd conference in New Orleans last week, laying out the technology roadmap and strategy for a smooth transition from premises-based networks/services to its emerging Azure cloud infrastructure and software + services model.

One of the biggest challenges facing Microsoft and its customers as it stands on the cusp of what Bob Muglia, president of Microsoft’s Server & Tools Business (STB) unit characterized as a “major transformation in the industry called cloud computing,” is how the Redmond, Wash. software giant will license its cloud offerings.

Licensing programs and plans—even those that involve seemingly straightforward and mature software, PC- and server-based product offerings—are challenging and complex in the best of circumstances. This is something Microsoft knows only too well from experience. Constructing an equitable, easy-to-understand licensing model for cloud-based services could prove to be one of the most daunting tasks on Microsoft’s Azure roadmap.

It is imperative that Microsoft proactively address the cloud licensing issues now, and Microsoft executives are well aware of this. During the Q&A portion of one cloud-related TechEd session, Robert Wahbe, corporate vice president, STB Marketing was asked, “What about licensing?” He took a sip from his water bottle and replied, “That’s a big question.”

That is an understatement.

Microsoft has continually grappled with simplifying and refining its licensing strategy since it made a major misstep with Licensing 6.0 in May, 2001, where the initial offering was complex, convoluted and potentially very expensive. It immediately met with a huge vocal outcry and backlash. The company was compelled to postpone the Licensing 6.0 launch while it re-tooled the program to make it more user-friendly from both a technical and cost perspective.

Over the last nine years, Microsoft’s licensing program and strategy has become one of the best in the high-technology industry. It offers simplified terms and conditions (T&Cs); greater discounts for even the smallest micro SMBs and a variety of add-on tools (e.g. licensing compliance and assessment utilities), as well as access to freebies, such as online and onsite technical service and training for customers who purchase the company’s Software Assurance (SA) maintenance and upgrade agreement along with their Volume Licensing deals.

Licensing from Premises to the Cloud
Microsoft’s cloud strategy is a multi-pronged approach that incorporates a wide array of offerings, including Windows Azure, SQL Azure and Microsoft Online Services (MOS). MOS consists of hosted versions of Microsoft’s most popular and widely deployed server applications, such as Exchange Server, PowerPoint and SharePoint. Microsoft’s cloud strategy also encompasses consumer products like Windows Live, Xbox Live and MSN.

Microsoft is also delivering a hybrid cloud infrastructure that will enable organizations to combine premises-based with hosted cloud solutions. This will indisputably provide Microsoft customers with flexibility and choice as they transition from a fixed-premises computing model to a hosted cloud model. In addition, it will allow them to migrate to the cloud at their own pace as their budgets and business needs dictate. However, the very flexibility, breadth and depth of offerings that make Microsoft products so appealing to customers, ironically, are the very issues that increase the complexity and challenges of creating an easily accessible, straightforward licensing model.

Dueling Microsoft Clouds: Azure vs. BPOS
Complicating matters is that Microsoft has dueling cloud offerings; the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) and the Windows Azure Platform. As a result, Microsoft must also develop, delineate and differentiate its strategy, pricing and provisions for Azure and BPOS. It’s unclear (at least to this analyst) as to when and how a customer will choose one or mix and match BPOS and Azure offerings. Both are currently works in progress.

BPOS is a licensing suite and a set of collaborative end-user services that run on Windows Server, Exchange Server, and SQL Server. Microsoft offers the BPOS Standard Suite, which incorporates Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting, and Office Communications (OCS) Online. The availability of the latter two offerings is a key differentiator that distinguishes Microsoft’s BPOS and rival offerings from Google. Microsoft also sells the BPOS Business Productivity Online Deskless Worker Suite. It consists of Exchange Online Deskless Worker, SharePoint Online Deskless Worker and Outlook Web Access Light. This BPOS package is targeted at SMBs, small branch offices or companies that want basic, entry-level messaging and document collaboration functions.

By contrast, Azure is a cloud platform offering that contains all the elements of a traditional application stack from the operating system up to the applications and the development framework. It includes the Windows Azure Platform AppFabric (formerly .NET Services for Azure), as well as the SQL Azure Database service.

While BPOS is aimed squarely at end users and IT managers, Azure targets third-party ISVs and internal corporate developers. Customers that build applications for Azure will host it in the cloud. However, it is not a multi-tenant architecture meant to host your entire infrastructure. With Azure, businesses will rent resources that will reside in Microsoft datacenters. The costs are based on a per-usage model. This gives customers the flexibility to rent fewer or more resources, depending on their business needs.

Cloud Licensing Questions
Any cloud licensing or hybrid cloud licensing program that Microsoft develops must include all of the elements of its current fixed premises and virtualization models. This includes:

1. Volume Licensing: As the technology advances from fixed premises software and hardware offerings to private and public clouds, Microsoft must find ways to translate the elements of its current Open, Select and Enterprise agreements to address the broad spectrum of users from small and midsized (SMBs) companies to the largest enterprises with the associated discounts for volume purchases.
2. Term Length: The majority of volume license agreements are based on a three-year product lifecycle. During the protracted economic downturn, however, many companies could not afford to upgrade. A hosted cloud model, though, will be based on usage and consumption, so the terms should and most likely will vary.
3. Software Assurance: Organizations will still need upgrade and maintenance plans regardless of where their data resides and whether or not they have traditional subscription licensing or the newer consumption/usage model.
4. Service and Support: Provisions for after-market technical services, support and maintenance will be crucial for Microsoft, its users, resellers and OEM channel partners. ITIC survey data indicates that the breadth and depth of after-market technical service and support is among the top four items that make or break a purchasing deal.
5. Defined areas of responsibility and indemnification: This will require careful planning on Microsoft’s part. Existing premises-based licensing models differ according to whether or not the customer purchases their products directly from Microsoft, a reseller or an OEM hardware manufacturer. Organizations that adopt a hybrid premises/cloud offering and those that opt for an entirely hosted cloud offering will be looking more than ever before to Microsoft for guidance. Microsoft must be explicit as to what it will cover and what will be covered by OEM partners and/or host providers.

Complicating the cloud licensing models even further is the nature of the cloud itself. There is no singular cloud model. There may be multiple clouds, and they may be a mixture of public and private clouds that also link to fixed premises and mobile networks.

Among the cloud licensing questions that Microsoft must address and specifically answer in the coming months are:

• What specific pricing models and tiers for SMBs, midsize and enterprises will be based on a hybrid and full cloud infrastructures?
• What specific guarantees if any, will it provide for securing sensitive data?
• What level of guaranteed response time will it provide for service and support?
• What is the minimum acceptable latency/response time for its cloud services?
• Will it provide multiple access points to and from the cloud infrastructure?
• What specific provisions will apply to Service Level Agreements (SLAs)?
• How will financial remuneration for SLA violations be determined?
• What are the capacity ceilings for the service infrastructure?
• What provisions will there be for service failures and disruptions?
• How are upgrade and maintenance provisions defined?

From the keynote speeches and throughout the STB Summit and TechEd conference, Microsoft’s Muglia and Wahbe both emphasized and promoted the idea that there is no singular cloud. Instead, Microsoft’s vision is a world of multiple private, public and hybrid clouds that are built to individual organizations’ specific needs.

That’s all well and good. But in order for this strategy to succeed, Microsoft will have to take the lead on both the technology and the licensing fronts. The BPOS and Azure product managers and marketers should actively engage with the Worldwide Licensing Program (WWLP) managers and construct a simplified, straightforward licensing model. We recognize that this is much easier said than done. But customers need and will demand transparency in licensing pricing, models and T&Cs before committing to the Microsoft cloud.

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IT Departments Pragmatic about 2010 Budgets, Resources

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By Laura DiDio

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 2009-2010 Global Virtualization Deployment Trends Survey Results

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By Laura DiDio

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 »

Corporations Prefer Terra Firma to the Cloud — For Now

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By credenceweb

Concerns about cloud computing security and how fast cloud providers will respond in the event technical troubles should arise is making companies hesitant to embrace cloud computing — at least within the next 12 months. An 85% majority of the IT Performance Trends survey subjects say they will not implement a public or private cloud between June 2009 and June 2010. However, of that 85%, 31% say they are studying the issue but have made no decision yet and another 7% are “Unsure.”

Security topped the list of concerns and guarantees that companies would demand from a cloud services provider, if their firms were to implement a cloud model. An overwhelming 83% of respondents said they would need specific guarantees to safeguard their sensitive mission critical data before committing to a cloud. Additionally, almost three-quarters or 73% of respondents would require guaranteed fast response time for technical service and support. Nearly two thirds (63%) of respondents want minimum acceptable latency/response times and a nearly equal number (62%) say they would need multiple access paths to and from the cloud infrastructure.

It was clear from the customer interviews and essay responses that IT managers, especially those companies with fewer than 1,000 end users, will keep their corporate data and applications firmly planted behind the corporate firewall until they have ironclad assurances regarding the security of their data and their ability to access it.

“The idea that I would trust my email, financial transactions, or other day to day business operations to cloud computing is just asking for trouble,” observed an IT manager at a midsized corporation with 500 employees in the Midwest. “I do not even want to imagine my all my users being dead in the water because my link to the Internet was down,” he adds. Another manager at a retail firm with 250 employees expressed reservations about the ability of a cloud services vendor to deliver top notch service and support should the need arise.

“Downtime is the bane of an IT professional’s life,” says the network administrator at a retail firm with 250 employees. He noted that when an onsite and locally managed system fails, he and his IT team can take immediate action to replace parts, rebuild the operating system, restore data from tape backup or perform any other action required to restore services and applications. “Compare that to a failure in a cloud computing scenario, when all you can do is report the problem and hurry up and wait,” he says. “Most IT people are action oriented and they won’t respond well to being at the mercy of a cloud provider while listening to complaints and queries from users and management of ‘When will the system be back up?’ or ‘When can I get access to my data?'”

The director of IT at another midsized company with 400 users opined that he does not yet have confidence in the still-emerging cloud computing model. “We own our data, not the cloud provider, and we need to know it is movable if we need to leave the provider.”

Finally, the survey respondents indicated during first person customer interviews that they will continue to chart a conservative course that includes a very low tolerance for risk until the economy recovers and their companies can once again bolster IT staffs and provide more resources.

Analysis

Cloud computing is still in its nascent stages. It’s common for the hype among vendors, the press and analyst community to outpace current realities in IT, especially in the small and midsized businesses who have smaller budgets and are generally more conservative and risk averse than their enterprise counterparts.

The survey results also showed that there was much more of willingness on the part of larger enterprises to explore, test and deploy a cloud infrastructure. Among corporations with over 3,000 end users, a more convincing 57% percentage said they will either deploy or are considering a public or private cloud implementation over the next 12 to 18 months. Even this group though, is rightfully concerned about the uncertainties of trusting their sensitive data to a public cloud whose provider may be located in a foreign country.

Therefore, it is imperative that cloud computing vendors provide customers and prospective customers with transparency and full accountability with respect to crucial issues like: security, technical service and support, equipment and capacity of their data centers; an overview of the technology used (e.g. specific server equipment, virtualization, management, etc.). The vendors should also provide specific SLA levels and guarantees in the event those levels are not met.

Corporations should also perform due diligence. Get informed. Thoroughly investigate and compare the services and options of the various cloud providers. Know where and how your data will be stored, secured and managed. Ask for customer references. Consult with your in-house attorneys or obtain outside counsel to review proposed contracts. Don’t be afraid to insert out clauses and penalties in the event your cloud provider fails to meet SLAs. Also, at this early stage of development, don’t be afraid to ask for discounts and caps on prices hikes for the duration of your contract.

Corporations Prefer Terra Firma to the Cloud — For Now Read More »

ITIC IT Performance Trends Survey Results

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By credenceweb

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 »

Windows 7 is a make or break release for Microsoft

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By Laura DiDio

The long awaited successor to Windows XP and Windows Vista, will ship several months earlier than planned. Expectations are high industry-wide.

Windows 7 is crucial to Microsoft’s over-arching software business and technology strategy for the next two years. Although it is an incremental upgrade and not a major overhaul of the underlying Vista kernel, Windows 7 represents a crucial upgrade for both consumer and corporate customers.

Practically speaking, Windows 7 must do what Vista didn’t: deliver near seamless, plug and play integration and interoperability with the overwhelming majority of Microsoft and third party applications, device drivers, utilities and hardware peripherals. As a standalone operating system (OS) Vista was fine. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a standalone OS. The lack of backwards compatibility between Vista and third party software and even incompatibilities in the file formats between Vista and Office 2007 and other Microsoft products was a nightmare for corporations and consumers alike.

As a result, there is no margin for error. Windows 7 must fulfill users’ expectations, business and technology needs from the first day it ships. Microsoft will not get a second chance to make a good first impression. Failure to do so could send customers running to rival desktop platforms like Apple’s Mac OS X 10.x and Linux distributions, or even online options such as those being pitched by Google. . And if Windows 7 does not deliver the features, integration, interoperability and reliability Microsoft is promising, it may well create a domino effect that adversely impacts the upcoming releases of related solutions like Exchange Server and the Office platform.

Integration and interoperability are the most important criteria, besting even cost, when it comes to choosing a new technology. The results of ITIC’s May 2009 Application Availability survey of 300 businesses worldwide found that 60% of business said integration and interoperability with existing and legacy applications tops the list of “must have” items in new software application and operating system purchases. Cost came in a close second with 56% of the respondents followed by ease of use and installation (55%).

The stakes for Windows 7 are also high because of intensified competition. Rumors abound that Microsoft pushed up the release date by at least three months so that Windows 7 hits the streets in advance of the low cost netbook version of Google’s Android. Microsoft also faces increased competition in its decades-old rival Apple. During the past two years Apple’s Mac OS X 10.x running on Apple’s Intel-based proprietary hardware has been making a comeback in corporate enterprises. Apple products do not represent a significant threat to Microsoft’s corporate desktop dominance, but they can nibble at the fringes, potentially dilute momentum [for Windows 7] and take some market share. In this ongoing global economic downturn, no vendor wants to concede any revenue or even a percentage point of market share.

Microsoft of course is acutely aware of these issues. In recent months, company CEO Steve Ballmer and Senior Vice President Bill Veghte have publicly stated that users were stymied by the incompatibility issues they encountered with Vista. They intend to avoid those problems with Windows 7.

Fortuitously, for Microsoft, there are many factors in Windows 7’s favor. They include:

Pent-up Demand. To date, only 10% of the 700 survey respondents in ITIC’s 2009 Global IT and Technology Trends Global Deployment Survey have deployed Vista as their company’s primary desktop operating system. The results indicated that Windows XP remains the primary desktop OS for 89% of the respondents. Nearly half—45%—of the survey respondents indicated they would skip Vista and migrate from XP to Windows 7. The main reasons for this were cost constraints associated with the bearish economy, and reluctance to undertake a complex OS upgrade with manpower constraints.The prevailing sentiment among businesses is that they can afford to wait because Windows XP adequate met their business and technology needs over the last two years. ITIC believes this bodes well for Windows 7 deployments in the short and intermediate term. If 20% of the installed base of legacy Windows XP users migrate or indicate their intention to upgrade to Windows 7 within the first three or four months of shipment, Microsoft will be well-positioned. There is a reasonable likelihood of this, providing Windows 7 delivers the goods. And the advance word from customers interviewed by ITIC is generally positive.
New feature set. Windows 7 will have six different versions, but to minimize the confusion that accompanied the Vista launch, only the Home Premium and Professional editions will be widely sold in retail outlets. Specific versions that are designed for enterprise use or developing nations will be aggressively marketed to those specific accounts and geographic regions, thus taking the guesswork out of purchasing. Most importantly: Microsoft says that every one of the versions will include all of the capabilities and features of the edition below it which will help to minimize upgrade woes. Corporations and consumers that want to move to a more feature rich version of Windows 7 can use Windows Anytime Upgrade to purchase the upgrade online and unlock the features of those editions from their desktops.ITIC interviewed several dozen Windows 7 beta users over the last several months and an overwhelming 9 out of 10 respondents expressed their satisfaction with improvements in many Windows 7’s core capabilities when compared to both Windows XP and Vista. This includes faster boot sequence, better reliability, improved security, a much faster and more comprehensive search engine, and more flexible configuration options. Additionally, Microsoft bolstered the inherent security of Windows 7 with DirectAccess and BitLocker To Go features. The DirectAccess capability is designed to provide remote, traveling and telecommuting workers with the same secure connectivity as though they were local by establishing a VPN “tunnel” to their corporate networks. BitLocker To Go extends the data encryption features introduced in Vista to include removable storage devices such as USB thumb drives support in Windows 7. Users can employ a password or a smart card with a digital certificate to unlock and access their data. And the devices can be used on any other Windows 7-based machine with the correct password. Users can also read, but not modify data on older Windows XP and Vista systems.
Economical and feature rich Licensing contracts. Finally, the terms and conditions of Windows 7 licensing contracts promise to make upgrades easier on corporate IT budgets. In February, Microsoft said it would provide a license that will allow customers to directly upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. There is a caveat, though: users will have to wipe their hard drives and perform a clean install – so technically, it’s not an upgrade. Microsoft has not yet released pricing details for Windows 7 but ITIC believes the upgrade license will most likely cost 20% to 40% less than a new license.Additionally, corporations that purchased Microsoft’s Software Assurance Maintenance and upgrade plan as a standalone product or received it as part of their Enterprise Agreement (EA) licenses, are entitled to free upgrades to Windows 7 since it is an incremental release. Additionally, in order to make life easier for users (and to engender goodwill) Microsoft is letting the Release Candidate (RC) free trial license for Windows 7 last a full year until June 2010! And users looking for a discounted version of Windows 7 to run on low cost, minis or netbooks take note: Microsoft and Intel have agreed that in order for a device to be considered a netbook, the screen must not exceed 10.2” Prior to this, Microsoft allowed customers to get the Windows XP or Vista discount for or devices as large as a 12.1” screen.

In summary, all indications are that Microsoft has learned from its Vista mistakes. As a result, businesses and consumers stand ready to reap significant benefits in compatibility, features, pricing and licensing with Windows 7.

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Application Availability, Reliability and Downtime: Ignorance is NOT Bliss

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By Laura DiDio

Two out of five businesses – 40% – report that their major business applications require higher availability rates than they did two or three years ago. However an overwhelming 81% are unable to quantify the cost of downtime and only a small 5% minority of businesses are willing to spend whatever it takes to guarantee the highest levels of application availability 99.99% and above. Those are the results of the latest ITIC survey which polled C-level executives and IT managers at 300 corporations worldwide.

ITIC partnered with Stratus Technologies in Maynard, Ma. a vendor that specializes 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 their application availability requirements, virtualization and the compliance rate of their service level agreements (SLAs). None of the respondents received any remuneration. 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. None of the survey respondents received any remuneration for their participation. The respondents hailed from 15 countries; 85% were based in North America.

Survey Highlights

The survey results uncovered many “disconnects” between the levels of application reliability that corporate enterprises profess to need and the availability rates their systems and applications actually deliver. Additionally, a significant portion of the survey respondents had difficulty defining what constitutes high application availability; do not specifically track downtime and could not quantify or qualify the cost of downtime and its impact on their network operations and business.

Among the other survey highlights:

A 54% majority of IT managers and executives surveyed said more than two-thirds of their companies’ applications require the highest level of availability – 99.99% — or four nines of uptime.
Over half – 52% of survey respondents said that virtualization technology increases application uptime and availability; only 4% said availability decreased as a result of virtualization deployments.
In response to the question, “which aspect of application availability is most important” to the business, 59% of those polled cited the prevention of unplanned downtime as being most crucial; 40% said disaster recovery and business continuity were most important; 38% said that minimizing planned downtime to apply patches and upgrades was their top priority; 16% said the ability to meet SLAs was most important and 40% of the survey respondents said all of the choices were equally crucial to their business needs.
Some 41% said they would be satisfied with conventional 99% to 99.9% (the equivalent of two or three nines) availability for their most critical applications. Ninety-nine percent or 99.9% does not qualify as a high-availability or continuous-availability solution.
An overwhelming 81% of survey respondents said the number of applications that demand high availability has increased in the past two-to-three years.
Of those who said they have been unable to meet service level agreements (SLAs), 72% can’t or don’t keep track of the cost and productivity losses created by downtime.
Budgetary constraints are a gating factor prohibiting many organizations from installing software solutions that would improve application availability. Overall, 70% of the survey respondents said they lacked the funds to purchase value-added availability solutions (40%); or were unsure how much or if their companies would spend to guarantee application availability (30%).
Of the 30% of businesses that quantified how much their firms would spend on availability solutions, 3% indicated they would spend $2,000 to $4,000; 8% said $4,000 to $5,000; another 3% said $5,000 to $10,000; 11% — mainly large enterprises indicated they were willing to allocate $10,000 to $15,000 to ensure application availability and 5% said they would spend “whatever it takes.”

According to the survey findings, just under half of all businesses – 49% – lack the budget for high availability technology and 40% of the respondents reported they don’t understand what qualifies as high availability. An overwhelming eight out of 10 IT managers – 80% — are unable to quantify the cost of downtime to their C-level executives.

To reiterate, the ITIC survey polled users on the various aspects and impact of application availability and downtime but it did not specify any products or vendors.

The survey results supplemented by ITIC first person interviews with IT managers and C-level executives clearly shows that on a visceral level, businesses are very aware of the need for increased application availability has grown. This is particularly true in light of the emergence of new technologies like application and desktop virtualization, cloud computing, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The fast growing remote, mobile and telecommuting end user population utilizes unified communications and collaboration applications and utilities is also spurring the need for greater application availability and reliability.

High Application Availability Not a Reality for 80% of Businesses

The survey results clearly show that network uptime isn’t keeping pace with the need for application availability. At the same time, IT managers and C-level executives interviewed by ITIC did comprehend the business risks associated with downtime, even though most are unable to quantify the cost of downtime or qualify the impact to the corporation, its customers, suppliers and business partners when unplanned application and network outages occur.

“We are continually being asked to do more with less,” said an IT manager at a large enterprise in the Northeast. “We are now at a point, where the number of complex systems requiring expert knowledge has exceeded the headcount needed to maintain them … I am dreading vacation season,” he added.

Another executive at an Application Service provider acknowledged that even though his firm’s SLA guarantees to customers are a modest 98%, it has on occasion, been unable to meet those goals. The executive said his firm compensated one of its clients for a significant outage incident. “We had a half day outage a couple of years ago which cost us in excess of $40,000 in goodwill payouts to a handful of our clients, despite the fact that it was the first outage in five years,” he said.

Another user said a lack of funds prevented his firm from allocating capital expenditure monies to purchase solutions that would guarantee 99.99% application availability. “Our biggest concern is keeping what we have running and available. Change usually costs money, and at the moment our budgets are simply in survival mode,” he said.

Another VP of IT at a New Jersey-based business said that ignorance is not bliss. “If people knew the actual dollar value their applications and customers represent, they’d already have the necessary software availability solutions in place to safeguard applications,” he said. “Yes, it does cost money to purchase application availability solutions, but we’d rather pay now, then wait for something to fail and pay more later,” the VP of IT said.

Overall, the survey results show that the inability of users to put valid metrics and cost formulas in place to track and quantify what uptime means to their organization is woefully inadequate and many corporations are courting disaster.

ITIC advises businesses to track downtime, the actual cost of downtime to the organization and to take the necessary steps to qualify the impact of downtime including lost data, potential liability risks e.g. lost business, lost customers, potential lawsuits and damage to the company’s reputation. Once a company can quantify the amount of downtime associated with its main line of business applications, the impact of downtime and the risk to the business, it can then make an accurate assessment of whether or not its current IT infrastructure adequately supports the degree of application availability the corporation needs to maintain its SLAs.

Application Availability, Reliability and Downtime: Ignorance is NOT Bliss Read More »