Organizations Struggling With Skills Shortages, Turnover, Errors From Manual Intervention - Survey

摘要

The biggest single cost factor in enterprise data centers is staffing expenses, as companies experience skills shortages, difficulties attracting and retaining staff, high error rates from manual intervention and language issues when outsourcing offshore, according to a new survey of IT staffers. More than 35 percent of respondents believe that this is the largest single cost in operating and managing their data center: more than hardware (26 percent), more than software (22 percent), and five times as much as a current "hot" issue, energy costs (7 percent). The survey revealed insights from 169 IT professionals from organizations with more than $100 million in annual revenues. Other findings include: 1. Low skills, poor processes and lack of documentation account for a significant volume of all errors. Over 90 percent of enterprises believe that their IT administrators need more skills today than both 5 and 10 years ago, highlighting the challenge in keeping up with the rapid pace of technology change. But, almost two-thirds (60 percent) of these enterprises are better able to document, establish, follow, and/or enforce best practices, when using automation tools. 2. The vast majority of enterprises (77 percent) report that data center operations staff spend most of their time on routine operations, maintenance, and common break-fix tasks. Only 23 percent of enterprises have their operations staff working on delivering new IT strategies and systems to add business value. 3. 75 percent of enterprises believe that outsourcing data center operations to non-English-speaking countries increases the rate of human or manual error.