Data centres must do more with less

By Staff Writer for Symantec

Johannesburg, 19 Jan 2009

Data centre managers are expected to more with less this year. This comes from Symantec's State of the Data Centre Report for 2008, which reveals an inequality between demanding user expectations and high levels of performance on one hand, and reducing costs on the other.

“IT managers and executives are in a tough spot,” says Symantec storage specialist Sheldon Hand. “Cost reduction is a non-negotiable objective this year, while user expectations remain high and demand continues to rise.”

These strategies translate into interest in solutions that provide customers with confidence and deliver immediate benefits in reducing server and storage spend without disrupting today's environment, says Hand.

The report highlighted a number of issues, including understaffing at data centres, the under-utilisation of servers and storage, and incompetent disaster recovery plans.

The issues at hand

Forty-two percent of the respondents automate routine tasks in order to “do more with less”, while 40% cross-train their staff and 35% reduce data centre complexity, according to the Symantec report. Reducing costs was the most frequently mentioned goal for data centres, ahead of improving service levels and improving responsiveness.

Despite the need to reduce costs, more than 75% of the interviewed data centre representatives reported an increase in user expectations. Sixty percent say meeting the service levels demanded by the organisation is more difficult to achieve.

Staffing issues were also dominant in the report, with 36% of the respondents saying they were understaffed, and 4% were overstaffed. A further 43% have problems finding qualified applicants.

In response to staffing issues, Symantec has noted that around 45% of the respondents have resorted to outsourcing functions such as business continuity and storage management.

Hand says this year's study shows the continuing importance for companies to control data centre complexity and costs. Companies now are scrambling to find solutions that have an immediate effect on cost and efficiency, he concludes.