Hyperconverged Infrastructure Adoption Driven by IT Simplification and Reduced Spending

ActualTech Media LLC, creators of enterprise IT content and the force behind hyperconverged.org, announced findings from its recent report, 2015 State of Hyperconverged Infrastructure Market.

It surveyed more than 500 technology professionals to determine the top priorities of IT professionals, as well as gauge the overall understanding and adoption of hyperconverged infrastructure. The survey results represent small (100-500 employees), medium (500-5000 employees) and large (5,000 employees or more) enterprises primarily in North America and Europe.

Based on the data collected, ActualTech Media concludes that while the hyperconverged market is still nascent, it’s growing in popularity due to companies of all sizes seeking ways to simplify IT and reduce costs.

Key findings include:

• Hyperconverged infrastructure is still in its infancy with only one-quarter (24%) of survey respondents reporting a hyperconverged infrastructure in place. That said: more than half (54%) of those who have not already adopted, report plans to deploy hyperconverged infrastructure in the next 24 to 36 months.
• Improved backup, DR and BC are top IT priorities for nearly half (45%) of all survey respondents, likely due to the apparent difficulties maintaining on- and off-premises data in today’s dynamic, diverse and always-on data center.
• Improving operational efficiency is also a key IT initiative for more than 43% of all respondents. Among respondents that have already adopted hyperconverged solutions, more than one-third (37%) identify improved operatios as a top benefit. Of those considering adoption, one in five indicate operational efficiency as their primary driver for consideration.
• Data center consolidation is a significant priority for large enterprises with one quarter (25%) of respondents indicating it as a critical IT consideration.

“Our main goal has always been to help IT professionals determine the solutions that are going to most benefit the data centers within their organizations,” said Scott Lowe, co-founder, ActualTech Media. “This research indicates that IT pros are beginning to see that a number of IT pain points can be reduced or solved though implementing a hyperconverged infrastructure, but that vendors in this space still have work to do when it comes to articulating and developing some of these benefits.”

“ActualTech Media’s survey results identify the same trends that we’ve been hearing from IT leaders across the globe,” said Marianne Budnik, CMO, SimpliVity Corp., in hyperconvergence. “These pain points inspired SimpliVity to architect our hyperconverged infrastructure to not only simplify IT with low-cost cloud economics, but also provide enterprise-grade performance, protection, efficiency and management. We also see the growing demand for a true hyperconverged solution that combines more than simple storage and compute; a solution that truly converges the functionality of the entire data center stack and scales to meet the needs of both large and midsized organizations – that’s SimpliVity.”

The report advises IT professionals to:

• Continually weigh the potential benefits of hyperconverged infrastructure, especially as part of their data center upgrade cycles.
• Instead of reviewing data center services and resources individually, consider IT needs holistically, especially since hyperconverged infrastructure has the potential to address a number of identified IT priorities.
• Take a TCO (approach to reviewing hyperconverged infrastructure solutions, since hyperconverged infrastructure may be more cost effective when productivity savings and operational improvements are factored in.
• While some organizations may adopt a rip-and-replace-approach to data center modernization, find a focused entry point or use case for hyperconverged infrastructure to initiate adoption.

The report was published in partnership with SimpliVity.

Full report (registration needed)