Data center costs and other (lost) details

Of course, you’d think the organizations would make it a priority to know cost details. After all, 53 percent said they believe a data center strategy impacts their business. I would think anything that impacts business would be important enough to analyze and understand, particularly regarding costs, particularly in this day and age. Interestingly, 16 percent said such a strategy had no impact on their organization. Now, 16 percent may be small, but still! Also interestingly, respondents from the manufacturing industry did not feel that a data center strategy had the potential to impact their business, while representatives from other verticals either believed that such a strategy either clearly impacted their business – or possibly had an impact.

The survey also found that a lack of measurable return-on-investment (ROI) is holding organizations back from moving to alternate data center management models. A majority cited lack of measurable ROI as a challenge they face in moving to alternative data management models. Of course, the report points out, since most don’t know cost details, it can be tricky to determine whether or not alternative models are benefitting them in terms of cost. Another challenge in moving to alternate data center management models include resistance to cultural change within the organization and a lack of employees with necessary skillsets. Security and privacy also played a part, with 29% identifying data security as an issue, and 2t percent citing privacy concerns.

By the way, of the survey participants, most from multiple data centers but owned fewer than half of their data centers. According to survey, a majority of organizations currently operate from more than just one or two data centers: 42 percent said they operate from three, four or five data centers, while 13 percent said they operate from more than 20 data centers. More than half of survey participants (56 percent) said that they owned fewer than half of their data centers.

I’d love to hear how you all stack up compared to these survey participants. How many data centers do you operate from? Do you own them? Are you well aware of the details of your data center costs? Are you looking at new data center models? If no, why not? What’s holding you back?