Venyu Blog

ESG Consulting, an award-winning analyst and national provider of diversified information technology and engineering consulting services to Fortune 1000 firms nationwide, recently released the results of a survey entitled 2010 IT Spending Intentions Survey.

ESG surveyed 515 North American and Western European senior IT professionals representing midmarket (100 to 999 employees) and enterprise-class (1,000 employees or more) organizations. All respondents were personally responsible for or familiar with their organization’s 2009 IT spending as well as their 2010 IT budget and spending plans at either an entire organization level or at a business unit/division/branch level. The results of the ESG report are eye-opening with heady implications for the future of companies configuring IT to better align with the requirements of their individual business models: three of the top four IT priorities named are squarely targeted at increased use (and presumably investment) in server virtualization, improved data backup and recovery and, not surprisingly, protecting data.  The survey’s executive summary can be found here:

Paralleling the release of this survey is a recent column (and slideshow) in eWeek entitled “Data Storage, Data Backup and Storage Virtualization: 10 Compelling Reasons for Outsourcing Disaster Recovery” produced by Chris Preimesberger. As Chris clearly states, “most enterprises have difficulty setting aside time and staff for training, installation of the hardware/software and testing of a DR system – that takes valuable time away from daily production schedules that can never be made up.”  That, and the benefit of working with a service provider whose only commitment to their business clients is to ensure the safe recovery of their data in hours, rather than days.

Preimsberger’s Top 10 reasons present a compelling picture of the influences that are helping to shift data center recovery services from physical to virtual environments. Specifically:

1)     Data Center Diversity. DR service providers are skilled in working in complex IT environments and leveraging a shared pool of current and legacy equipment

2)     Recovery Systems Readiness.  A single DR service provider has hundreds of servers available at a single site for disaster recovery, shrinking recovery times at a fraction of the cost of equipment maintained internally

3)     Ability to work with experienced recovery solutions professionals. A service provider strengthens IT resources with people skilled in recovery best practices

4)     Benefits to be reaped through experience.  A dedicated DR service provider leverages knowledge acquired from thousands of recovery tests and events

5)     Rehearsed data recovery experience. Managing recovery testing through a service provider allows organizations to know recovery plans will work before disaster strikes

6)     Human capital. A dedicated support staff understands their role in your recovery.

7)     A singular focus. Service providers are focused solely on disaster recovery services.

8)     Wider Scope of Service.  A thorough knowledge of disparate operating platforms, communication services and integrated applications and how they affect recovery services

9)     Understanding of Standards and Regulations. Expertise with accreditations, levels of privacy and government mandates (e.g. compliance enforcement)

10)  A robust infrastructure. Complies with PCI DSS and SAS-70 Type II standards

Although the roads supporting these two independent pieces of research appear to diverge in different directions, they actually arrive at the very same intersection. In our next installment we’ll take a closer look at the types of capabilities your service provider should offer in helping your company to achieve reliable and responsible server virtualization.