Approaches to Data Center Transformation...Future-ready, standards-based data center solutions from Dell EMC leverage your current technology while seamlessly incorporating innovations

Summary Results | July 2018

Approaches to

Data Center Transformation


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Survey Summary

▶Between May and July 2018, Gatepoint Research invited selected IT

executives to participate in a survey themed Approaches to Data Center

Transformation.

▶Candidates were invited via email and 118 executives have participated to

date.

▶Management levels represented are predominantly senior decision makers:

19% hold the title CxO, 16% are VPs, and 65% are Directors.

▶100% of responders participated voluntarily; none were engaged using

telemarketing.



Executive Overview

Right now, many data center operations find themselves straddling traditional and modern

workloads. At the same time, the business model for IT is evolving toward IT-as-a-service,

which poses its own set of challenges. All this requires upgrades to data storage and

handling capacities, and modernized infrastructure. How are organizations navigating this

IT sea change?

This survey asks respondents to report:

▶ What is their current data center like?

▶ Which vendors’ products do they use now in their data centers?

▶ What is their upgrade strategy?

▶ What are their data center initiatives, and what are the motivating forces behind those initiatives?



What is your data center like?

44% of surveyed organizations have data centers that combine both traditional and modern workloads. 31% are focused specifically on traditional enterprise applications. A very few have a small, remote data center with edge locations.

Includes both traditional

and modern workloads,

including some cloud-

native apps

44%Specifically focused on

traditional enterprise

applications

31%

A mishmash of a lot of

different things

19%

Remote, small with

edge locations

6%



Which of these vendors' products are you now using or

considering using in your data center?

Cisco dominates networking with 55% of survey respondents using their products. Dell EMC has the strongest position in combined server/storage. None of the six vendors have penetrated the hyper converged systems area; fewer than 4% of respondents say they are using or considering a specific vendor.

Networking Servers Storage(Hyper)converge

d systemN/A

Cisco 55% 2% 1% 3% 14%

Dell EMC 1% 15% 14% 1% 19%

HPE 6% 19% 3% 3% 32%

Lenovo 1% 6% 2% 0% 56%

Oracle 8% 5% 0% 2% 53%

SuperMicro

3% 3% 0% 3% 57%



Which of the following technology problems are you facing?

Many respondents admit they have neither mastered IT-as-a-service (37%), nor are what they would consider proactive (25%). A relatively few (14%) say they are unresponsive and are constantly combating shadow IT.

37%

25%

20%

19%

14%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

IT-as-a-service? We're just not there

We're not able to be proactive

Our organization is siloed

We can't demonstrate the value of IT

We're unresponsive and

constantly combating shadow IT



How would you describe your data center modernization strategy?

39% responders admit their modernization strategy is to just update whatever they can “as we go along.” A fourth are actively comparing data center modernization solutions.

39%

25%

13%

10%

17%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

We're just updating

what we can as we go along

We're actively comparing

solutions now

We don't have any specific plans, but

would be open to hearing about options

We know we need to make changes, but

haven't investigated too thoroughly

Other



What are some of your data center initiatives in the coming

year?

Respondents’ top three data center initiatives in the coming year? Business continuity or data protection projects (51%), move to the cloud (44%), and technology refresh (41%).

51%

44%

41%

28%

25%

25%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Business continuity/data protection project

Moving to private or hybrid cloud

Technology refresh

Remote/branch office infrastructure update

Data center modernization/consolidation

Virtualization



What is the motivation behind your data center initiatives?

More than half of respondents are eager to optimize resources (59%). Reducing complexity and cost of old technology (47%) is the second most cited motivation. Increasing agility and improving manageability by eliminating disparate system are motivation for 39%.

59%

47%

39% 39%

30%

24%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Optimize resources Reduce complexityof inefficient, costlylegacy technology

Increase agility Increasemanageability;

eliminate disparatesystems

Mitigate risk ofsystem software

upgrades

Get a handle on data/ storage growth



How soon will you begin making changes related to

transforming your data center?

62% of those surveyed intend to begin transforming their data center within the coming year..

23%

11%

28%

17%

21%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Immediately 1 to 6 months 7 to 12 months 13 to 24+ months Undecided



Profile of Responders:

Job Level

All of those surveyed hold director or executive level positions in their organizations.

CxO

19%

VP

16%

Director

65%



Future-ready, standards-based data center solutions from Dell EMC leverage your current

technology while seamlessly incorporating innovations tailored to your needs.

Learn more about Dell EMC's data center solutions and services

http://www.dellemc.com

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Approaches to Data Center Transformation...Future-ready, standards-based data center solutions from Dell EMC leverage your current technology while seamlessly incorporating innovations