Keysource launches data centre 'state of the industry' report

In addition to the impact of this ongoing demand, the IT decision makers surveyed stated that they are continuing to shoulder a range of competing challenges and, as a result, over 99% believe it will be a difficult year. Over half of the respondents see security as the biggest challenge – up slightly from previous years - with sustainability a close second at 40%. However, the survey highlights multiple concerns with more than a third also citing pressure to adopt new technology and services, budget, access to skills and speed of change as major challenges.

In addition, 78% of respondents believe that their existing investments are preventing IT transformation – a figure similar to last year showing little or no progress in this area. This suggests that organisations are failing to understand the money savings change could bring, as they are focused on the investment and/or don’t want to admit they may have got it wrong.

This year’s focus on sustainability delivered some interesting insights. Clearly the topic and its importance is well understood but there are challenges about how this is being translated into action both for the services being consumed and/or delivered. For example, over half of the respondents admitted to not having a sustainability strategy at all, with 92% experiencing problems that are slowing or stopping their sustainability progress.

In response to the question: Where, if anywhere, do you think you can make the biggest carbon savings? – the overwhelming response was a move to using sustainable suppliers rather than looking to their own operations, usage and capacity. This opens up possible allegations of green washing and paints a picture of an industry that is full of good intentions but lacks the tools and expertise to deliver them. This mindset was clear once again for questions around the rising costs of power with 92% stating they were concerned. For about half of respondents the answer is a move towards renewables and an increase in budget - less than 50% are looking at reviewing capacity requirements showing that there is a lack of focus on consumption.

Jon Healy, Operations Director at Keysource, said: “We are operating in a world with a rapidly expanding social and economic consumption which relies on processing, data and transfer to be both secure and sustainable, alongside a skills shortage and severe supply chain issues. Our respondents need broader shoulders than ever to be able to carry all this responsibility. As an industry we are used to change and challenges but these might be our greatest ones yet.”