IT Decision Makers Aligned on Key IT Trends

Pete Goldin
APMdigest
Learn more about Dell EMC

Business decision makers’ (BDMs) and IT decision makers’ (ITDMs) understanding of current IT trends are much closer than they are generally perceived to be, according to the new Dell State of IT Trends 2016 global study.

In the past, business and IT leaders had different levels of understanding of IT trends and technologies. However the study shows that over time, business and IT leaders’ perceptions of technology have evolved and more closely aligned as new technologies have entered the market and become increasingly critical drivers of an organization’s success.

The Dell State of IT Trends 2016 global study reveals a greater sophistication and alignment in understanding of IT trends between the two groups. The results indicate that IT and business leadership are better collaborating and having in-depth conversations about not only how technology works but how it can propel the business forward.

“There is a lingering misperception that business leaders are disconnected during strategic IT discussions, but times have changed,” said Matt Baker, Executive Director, Enterprise Strategy, Dell. ”This study reveals that there is an increasingly common understanding between business and IT decision makers on the key IT trends and the growth opportunities that IT can deliver.”

In today’s data-driven economy, companies need IT that is agile, efficient, scalable and capable of responding to business applications in real time. According to the Dell survey, increasing business productivity is the main IT consideration for both ITDMs (81 percent) and BDMs (77 percent), followed by growing the business (71 percent and 69 percent, respectively).

Global decision makers, in companies of all sizes and in both developed and developing markets, are most closely aligned on the following IT trends:

■ ITDMs (62 percent) and BDMs (51 percent) agree that cloud computing is the most important technology trend for their companies.

■ The ability to burst to public cloud as needed is important to both ITDMs (83 percent) and BDMs (74 percent)

■ 88 percent of ITDMs and 80 percent of BDMs say their organization is considering adopting a software-defined data center (SDDC), is in the process of transitioning, or has already completed the transition to one.

■ Global BDMs are more likely to say they are considering adopting SDDC, while global ITDMs are more likely to say they have already started the transition.

■ Both groups agree the benefits of SDDC are flexibility, simplicity, efficiency and cost-savings, although ITDMs also place a greater value on increased scalability (57 percent) than BDMs (40 percent).

■ By 2:1 margins, both ITDMs and BDMs say they will use more open data center technologies in the future.

■ 86 percent of ITDMs and 85 percent of BDMs agree that compute-centric is the best approach to gain a flexible, scalable and open data center.

In terms of technology spending for 2016, cloud is the main priority among both ITDMs (67 percent) and BDMs (59 percent). This is followed closely by data storage upgrades or purchase (54 percent and 48 percent, respectively).

Pete Goldin is Editor and Publisher of APMdigest

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IT Decision Makers Aligned on Key IT Trends

Pete Goldin
APMdigest
Learn more about Dell EMC

Business decision makers’ (BDMs) and IT decision makers’ (ITDMs) understanding of current IT trends are much closer than they are generally perceived to be, according to the new Dell State of IT Trends 2016 global study.

In the past, business and IT leaders had different levels of understanding of IT trends and technologies. However the study shows that over time, business and IT leaders’ perceptions of technology have evolved and more closely aligned as new technologies have entered the market and become increasingly critical drivers of an organization’s success.

The Dell State of IT Trends 2016 global study reveals a greater sophistication and alignment in understanding of IT trends between the two groups. The results indicate that IT and business leadership are better collaborating and having in-depth conversations about not only how technology works but how it can propel the business forward.

“There is a lingering misperception that business leaders are disconnected during strategic IT discussions, but times have changed,” said Matt Baker, Executive Director, Enterprise Strategy, Dell. ”This study reveals that there is an increasingly common understanding between business and IT decision makers on the key IT trends and the growth opportunities that IT can deliver.”

In today’s data-driven economy, companies need IT that is agile, efficient, scalable and capable of responding to business applications in real time. According to the Dell survey, increasing business productivity is the main IT consideration for both ITDMs (81 percent) and BDMs (77 percent), followed by growing the business (71 percent and 69 percent, respectively).

Global decision makers, in companies of all sizes and in both developed and developing markets, are most closely aligned on the following IT trends:

■ ITDMs (62 percent) and BDMs (51 percent) agree that cloud computing is the most important technology trend for their companies.

■ The ability to burst to public cloud as needed is important to both ITDMs (83 percent) and BDMs (74 percent)

■ 88 percent of ITDMs and 80 percent of BDMs say their organization is considering adopting a software-defined data center (SDDC), is in the process of transitioning, or has already completed the transition to one.

■ Global BDMs are more likely to say they are considering adopting SDDC, while global ITDMs are more likely to say they have already started the transition.

■ Both groups agree the benefits of SDDC are flexibility, simplicity, efficiency and cost-savings, although ITDMs also place a greater value on increased scalability (57 percent) than BDMs (40 percent).

■ By 2:1 margins, both ITDMs and BDMs say they will use more open data center technologies in the future.

■ 86 percent of ITDMs and 85 percent of BDMs agree that compute-centric is the best approach to gain a flexible, scalable and open data center.

In terms of technology spending for 2016, cloud is the main priority among both ITDMs (67 percent) and BDMs (59 percent). This is followed closely by data storage upgrades or purchase (54 percent and 48 percent, respectively).

Pete Goldin is Editor and Publisher of APMdigest

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I've spent a lot of time in the channel, and one thing I keep coming back to is this: a partner program is only as good as what it looks like in the field. Many programs look great on paper, but when a partner is in front of a customer navigating a complex hybrid environment or trying to make the case for AI-powered observability, the gap between what a vendor promises and what it actually delivers becomes very clear, very fast ...

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Enterprises today operate in a real-time environment where uninterrupted access to trusted data has become a baseline expectation for users, applications and automated systems. Traditional DataOps models, built on manual effort and human triage, cannot keep pace with this always active demand. AI agents are emerging as the operational backbone, ensuring consistent data availability, reinforcing trustworthiness and enabling a level of scale that manual processes cannot achieve ...

AI Deepfakes: Rethinking Trust in the Workplace

For decades, trust in the digital workplace rested on familiar signals. We trusted faces on video calls, voices on the phone, and emails that appeared to come from people we knew. These cues felt human and intuitive. They anchored how decisions were made, approvals were granted, and access was authorized. AI-powered deepfakes have quietly broken that model ...

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