SANpulse Survey Reveals IT Spending Priorities for 2011
Not too long ago IBM released a survey showing that many SMBs are planning on spending and expanding their cloud infrastructure, which meant that VARs have the potential to cash in on the trend. Now, SANpulse Technologies, which focuses on SAN optimization, has released the results of its own survey showing the majority of large enterprises are looking to refresh their technology lineup, and fast.
The Decmeber 2010 survey, which was answered by more than 100 larger enterprises, was conducted by SANpulse with result analysis done by StorageIO (and can be download here.) Responses came from data center managers and key decision-makers who were asked about their priorities and difficulties for 2011.
The survey results show:
- 51 percent of respondents indicated technology refreshes are the top priority for 2011, with rapid adoption being key.
- 41.5 percent said data center consolidation is a top concern
- 34.5 percent of respondents are looking to migrate to a public or private cloud
- 21 percent would focus on diversification of storage hardware
- 79 percent of respondents believe less than 60 percent of their migrations meet their budgetary and time requirements.
These responses came from a “range of industries,” which means all VARs could apply these results to their business practices.
So what are the key takeaways? VARs can compete in 2011 with competitive sales prices, a focus on data and a priority on speed. It seems as though there’s no shortage of enterprises that are looking to enhance their infrastructure, but it only a small amount plan to go vendor-agnostic (based on the small 21 percent that said they want to diversify their storage hardware.) That could be good news for VARs aligned with specific manufacturers, or general good news for VARs who want to approach existing customers with storage value-adds. Meanwhile, that 34.5 percent looking for cloud services is a real silver lining for resellers — with cloud services come the need for data VARs, and data is a technology that is always going to be around.
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