Contact Information: Contacts: Ed Marshall Beaupre & Co. Public Relations 603-559-5816 www.beaupre.com Ken Donoghue Stratus Technologies 978-461-7269 www.stratus.com
Stratus Technologies Survey Indicates That 2010 Will See Fewer IT Cuts, More Focus on Service Level Agreements
IT Faces Moves Toward Virtualization, Cloud Computing and Accompanying Need for Greater System Availability
| Source: Stratus Technologies
MAYNARD, MA--(Marketwire - December 17, 2009) - IT organizations are bracing to meet higher
service level expectations brought on by virtualization and cloud computing
initiatives in 2010 without the looming threat of budget and staffing cuts
that marked 2009, according to a Stratus Technologies/ITIC survey.
The survey of 250 IT professionals in 14 countries confirmed that more IT
organizations are over-extended, with smaller staffs working longer hours
to compensate for fewer workers and ever-expanding responsibilities. The
results show that 57 percent of IT professionals know that virtualization
and cloud computing increase their system availability requirements and
service level agreement SLA obligations, and that IT has at least a broad
grasp of the differences between the most often-mentioned technologies for
supporting those requirements -- high availability clusters, high
availability software, and fault-tolerant servers.
Confidence that they can meet those demands in 2010 is firming. Among the
companies surveyed, 31percent expect their IT budgets to increase next
year, 39 percent expect it to remain the same, and only 17 percent expect
further cuts. The remainder of respondents said their 2010 budgets had not
yet been finalized. That slowdown in resource depletion they endured
through 2009 will help IT absorb an expected surge in virtualization
projects and growing interest in cloud computing. Sixty-seven percent of
companies surveyed are considering virtualization projects in 2010, 53
percent are exploring cloud computing and 19 percent are strongly
considering it.
"For the first time in a while it looks like IT staffs will have reasons to
be cautiously optimistic about what's coming their way -- or at least not
to live in constant dread, which is a big improvement all by itself," said
Laura DiDio, principal at ITIC. "IT departments are maintaining an air of
pragmatism as they brace for a slew of new demands that will drive greater
system availability requirements, but at least most of them won't face the
onslaught empty handed."
The recession took a toll on IT staffs and budgets in 2009. More than 75
percent of IT organizations endured some combination of budget cuts,
layoffs, hiring freezes, salary cuts or freezes, as well as delays in new
equipment purchases, and application and operating system upgrades. Among
the most often cited problems were budget cuts (49 percent), hiring freezes
(42 percent) and layoffs (30 percent). Forty seven percent of IT staff is
picking up the slack by working longer hours, and that problem is even more
acute at companies of 500 or more employees where 84 percent of IT staff
works longer hours. Even as those losses occurred, though, IT groups were
keeping an eye on what was heading their way, and what part availability
would play.
"The spotlight has turned to private and enterprise cloud computing and,
with it, expectations for no-compromise services delivery have
intensified," said Roy Sanford, Stratus chief marketing officer. "IT
departments increasingly recognize that availability planning is critical
to virtualization strategies today, and follow-on cloud implementations
tomorrow. The problem they have is sorting through the market noise to
arrive at the best availability solution for their needs."
Recent industry research conducted by TheInfoPro
and by ITIC/Stratus Technologies indicates widespread misuse of terms
such as high availability, continuous availability and fault tolerance,
making informed availability technology choices difficult. High
availability solutions clearly have a role in virtualized and cloud
computing environments. For critical applications that can't tolerate any
unscheduled downtime, fault tolerant systems that provide continuous
availability are still the best choice. This may include virtualization
instances where the risk of impacting many applications in the event of a
server failure increases dramatically. "Informed choices are what it's all
about, which is why Stratus offers solutions that cover the high end of the
availability spectrum," said Sanford.
About Stratus Technologies
Stratus Technologies focuses exclusively on helping its customers keep
critical business operations online without interruption. Business
continuity requires resiliency and superior availability throughout the IT
infrastructure, including virtual environments. Stratus delivers a range of
solutions that includes software-based high
availability, fault-tolerant
servers, availability consulting and assessment, and remote systems
management services. Based on its 29 years of expertise in product and
services technology for total availability, Stratus is a trusted solutions
provider to customers in manufacturing, health care, financial services,
public safety, transportation & logistics, and other industries. For more
information, visit www.stratus.com.
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