Aperture Research Institute Releases Report on Data Centers

By DE Editors

As data center costs continue to rise and capacity needs continue to increase, companies are turning toward new computing models, such as virtualization, cloud computing, and software as a service (SaaS), for adding computing capabilities, according to a report from The Aperture Research Institute (ARI).

For its latest report, “Companies looking to new models for deploying and acquiring external computing capabilities,” the ARI surveyed more than 100 data center professionals across a range of sectors including the healthcare, banking and insurance, retail, telecommunications, government, and pharmaceutical industries. According to the report, while three alternative computing models—virtualization, SaaS, and cloud computing—are currently receiving a lot of attention in the industry, there still appears to be room for growth in their use.

The report shows that virtualization is the most mature of the three models, with nearly all respondents having adopted the technology. Only 6 percent of the business leaders surveyed said they have no virtualization in their data center. Forty-nine percent responded that up to 15 percent of their data center was virtualized, while 31 percent said that up to 30 percent was virtualized.

“With the economy in a recession, many organizations are looking to meet new business demands by leveraging underutilized resources and incrementally adding computing capacity without investing in large capital outlays. This is driving them to turn toward these new computing models that will allow them to cut costs and improve performance while reacting faster to requests for additional computing,” said Steve Yellen, principal of the Aperture Research Institute. “It appears that much of this adoption is directly related to how much understanding there is of the measurable benefits provided by the technologies.”

For example, the 94 percent who said they are utilizing virtualization reported that it has impacted their ability to manage their data center infrastructure. Sixty-seven percent reported that virtualization has enhanced data center space utilization; 47 percent said that it reduced demand for power; 40 percent said that it reduced demand for cooling; and 39 percent reported that it has increased infrastructure performance.

Other survey results show that a smaller amount of data centers are currently utilizing SaaS. Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed stated that up to 15 percent of their software is currently deployed as SaaS; 10 percent stated they have up to 30 percent deployed as SaaS; and 28 percent reported that they currently do not have any software deployed as SaaS.

The report does point to an expected increase in the use of SaaS. Of those surveyed, 42 percent of respondents expect to see an increase in their use of SaaS during the next two years. Five percent even anticipate their usage to significantly increase during that time period.

Finally, the report shows that the one model receiving the most attention, cloud computing, is also the least adopted of the three, with 73 percent of respondents saying they do not currently house any applications in the cloud. The survey results do show modest growth potential for the technology, with 45 percent of respondents expecting to increase their use of the technology during the next two years.

A possible cause of the industry’s hesitation to adopt cloud architectures could be the inability to evaluate the different options for acquiring additional compute capacity and identifying the specific benefits and costs of each model, the research note states.

For more information, visit ARI.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.