| Survey looks at challenges facing US data centers
The survey was conducted in spring 2008 by Actionable Research, Inc. for Avocent and polled 299 executives and IT managers in the US in manufacturing, high technology, retail, banking, healthcare, education and government, asking them what they found to be the top challenges in aligning IT with business objectives. "Our survey confirms that businesses are indeed challenged most by the need to effectively manage the increased complexity in today's data centers, while at the same time keeping networks running smoothly, and power consumption costs down," said Ben Grimes, Avocent CTO and vice president of corporate strategy. "The findings further tell us that many administrators lack the tools they need to properly manage power usage in data centers - only 55 percent say they can monitor power usage today, and even then it's mostly at the UPS level. These statistics show there's a huge opportunity to improve overall data center management and a strong desire to implement 'Green IT' solutions." Monitoring and managing power usage is a leading concern Survey respondents said that energy conservation was the most difficult issue to resolve with their current tools. Respondents felt that managing the total cost of power was the second most difficult task, and many of the respondents noted that their interest and work with virtualization technology were influenced by the hope of ultimate energy savings. Some of the survey results regarding energy usage: Virtualization: Lost or failed virtual servers are an issue While respondents said they had begun to move toward server virtualization, mainly for its cost reductions and energy savings promised, they also revealed that the technology offered unique challenges. A majority of respondents have rolled out some level of server virtualization, but, of those respondents, 24 percent have experienced a disappearance of a virtual server from their system. Furthermore, 18 percent have permanently lost a virtual server. The top reason for deploying virtual servers was for cost savings. In particular, of those polled, 32 percent stated they initially looked to virtualization as a means of decreasing hardware costs. Their responses, however, showed two key concerns related to managing server virtualization: 100 percent network uptime: still not there Business continuity, especially in the form of network uptime, is a constant challenge for those polled. There are potentially significant costs tied to downtime, including disgruntled or lost customers, reduced worker productivity, and reduced revenues tied to network failure. Survey responses related to downtime include:
•Date: 18th Sept 2008• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: IT continuity
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