Forbes Insights and Vertiv examines the results of a survey of 150 data centre executives and engineers from various industries around the world.

Just 29 per cent of data centre decision-makers say their current facilities are meeting their needs, and just 6 per cent say their data centres are updated ahead of their needs. These are among the findings included in a new report from Forbes Insights and Vertiv. “The Modern Data Centre: How IT is Adapting to New Technologies and Hyper-connectivity,” examines the results of a survey of 150 data centre executives and engineers from various industries around the world.  

The survey results indicate a troubling lack of planning and preparation for today’s evolving data ecosystem. A closer examination of the results reveals a stark contrast between executives and engineers. 11 per cent of executives say their data centers are updated ahead of current needs while just 1 per cent of engineers say the same.  

“As today’s data centre evolves to incorporate enterprise, cloud and edge resources, thorough planning and foresight is needed to meet organisational computing requirements and business objectives,” said Martin Olsen, Vice President of Global Edge Systems for Vertiv. “It is clear, however, that many organizations are lagging on that front. With that in mind, we anticipate considerable investment and activity among businesses trying to catch up and get ahead of the changes.” 

Other notable results from the survey: 

92 per cent of CIOs and CTOs say their business will require faster download and response times in the near future; 

63 per cent say they have difficulty meeting bandwidth needs at all times;

Security (45 per cent) and bandwidth (43 per cent) are the two areas most in need of upgrades;

Security (43 per cent), backup and emergency preparedness (33 per cent), the ability to implement new technologies (28 per cent) and bandwidth (27 per cent) were the most commonly identified features that will give businesses a competitive advantage;

Respondents are bullish on self-configuring and self-healing data centers. 24 per cent said more than half of their data centers will be self-configuring by 2025, and 32 per cent said more than half would be self-healing. 

Sunil Khanna, Managing Director, Vertiv India, said, “The accelerated pace of digital transformation leaves most IT organizations unequipped to handle complexities. Businesses now expect data centers to keep pace with technology innovations by enabling agility and scale, to support their growing IT workloads. In India and across the globe, data center providers will need to evolve from centralized and locally operated models, to cloud enabled and edge equipped.”