Data is increasingly being brought back in-house following a brief foray to third-party providers.
This is one of the findings of Oracle’s Next Generation Data Centre Index, which indicates that businesses are bringing their data back in-house following a year in which they rushed to use third party providers for short term support
Cycle II of the research, released in January 2012, showed a marked move to the use of external data centre support, attributed to businesses being taken by surprise by a big data explosion.
Cycle III reveals that organisations are now reversing that trend and bringing their data back into in-house data centres, according to the research conducted by analyst house Quocirca.
This “big data bounce” is not only testimony to the increased value of data and the greater focus of business upon it, but also highlights the importance for businesses of being able to move data between public and private cloud as easily as possible.
On the face of it, overall progress seems slight, but deeper analysis of the research data reveals that there is considerable variation across the region, with Eurozone countries faring less well than those outside the single currency.
Sustainability still leads among the issues shaping data centre strategies, while the sorter-term imperatives of flexibility of deployment tend to outweigh the longer-term needs of business support in shaping data centre strategies.
Meanwhile, some organisations are missing out by not increasing the alignment of IT with the business.
In terms of the “big data bounce”, the proportion of respondents using only in-house data facilities has risen from 45% to 66% between Cycle II and Cycle III.
The research shows that organisations with a single in-house data centre have gone up from 26% to 41% between Cycle II and Cycle III of the research. Similarly, the proportion of respondents saying they use multiple in-house data centres only has gone up from 19% to 25%.
Conversely, the proportion with a mix of in-house and external facilities has dropped from 56% to 34%. Respondents with a mix of one in-house data centre plus external support has gone down from 26% to 18%. Organisations with multiple in-house data centres plus external facilities have gone down from 30% to 16%.
The percentage of organisations saying they will need a new data centre in the next 12 months has also risen from 22% to 26% suggesting businesses do not foresee an end to the current data boom.
There has also been a decrease in the number of organisations saying they do not see a need for a new data centre in the foreseeable future. This figure has fallen over the course of the three cycles from 17% (Cycle I) to 8% (Cycle II) and now 7% for Cycle III.
“Businesses are increasingly working online and with digital products, content, communications and transactions,” says Luigi Freguia, senior VP of Oracle Systems EMEA.
“The avalanche of data which forced many to look outside their four walls for support last year is only going to continue. As such it makes sense that many organisations have used the intervening year to get their houses in order and bring their data closer to the organisation.
“It is also encouraging to see that organisations have future proofed their data centre facilities, with improvements in server utilisation levels and greater use of virtualisation.
“However, by using software and hardware engineered to work together, such as Oracle’s SPARC SuperCluster T4-4, and a focus on standards, organisations can build enough flexibility into their IT to enable future moves into private or public cloud if the need arises,” he concludes.
This is one of the findings of Oracle’s Next Generation Data Centre Index, which indicates that businesses are bringing their data back in-house following a year in which they rushed to use third party providers for short term support
Cycle II of the research, released in January 2012, showed a marked move to the use of external data centre support, attributed to businesses being taken by surprise by a big data explosion.
Cycle III reveals that organisations are now reversing that trend and bringing their data back into in-house data centres, according to the research conducted by analyst house Quocirca.
This “big data bounce” is not only testimony to the increased value of data and the greater focus of business upon it, but also highlights the importance for businesses of being able to move data between public and private cloud as easily as possible.
On the face of it, overall progress seems slight, but deeper analysis of the research data reveals that there is considerable variation across the region, with Eurozone countries faring less well than those outside the single currency.
Sustainability still leads among the issues shaping data centre strategies, while the sorter-term imperatives of flexibility of deployment tend to outweigh the longer-term needs of business support in shaping data centre strategies.
Meanwhile, some organisations are missing out by not increasing the alignment of IT with the business.
In terms of the “big data bounce”, the proportion of respondents using only in-house data facilities has risen from 45% to 66% between Cycle II and Cycle III.
The research shows that organisations with a single in-house data centre have gone up from 26% to 41% between Cycle II and Cycle III of the research. Similarly, the proportion of respondents saying they use multiple in-house data centres only has gone up from 19% to 25%.
Conversely, the proportion with a mix of in-house and external facilities has dropped from 56% to 34%. Respondents with a mix of one in-house data centre plus external support has gone down from 26% to 18%. Organisations with multiple in-house data centres plus external facilities have gone down from 30% to 16%.
The percentage of organisations saying they will need a new data centre in the next 12 months has also risen from 22% to 26% suggesting businesses do not foresee an end to the current data boom.
There has also been a decrease in the number of organisations saying they do not see a need for a new data centre in the foreseeable future. This figure has fallen over the course of the three cycles from 17% (Cycle I) to 8% (Cycle II) and now 7% for Cycle III.
“Businesses are increasingly working online and with digital products, content, communications and transactions,” says Luigi Freguia, senior VP of Oracle Systems EMEA.
“The avalanche of data which forced many to look outside their four walls for support last year is only going to continue. As such it makes sense that many organisations have used the intervening year to get their houses in order and bring their data closer to the organisation.
“It is also encouraging to see that organisations have future proofed their data centre facilities, with improvements in server utilisation levels and greater use of virtualisation.
“However, by using software and hardware engineered to work together, such as Oracle’s SPARC SuperCluster T4-4, and a focus on standards, organisations can build enough flexibility into their IT to enable future moves into private or public cloud if the need arises,” he concludes.