Health warning:
Do not read on if you are of a delicate disposition
Sungard Availability Services’ new Jekyll & Hyde research-led campaign lifts the lid on a disturbing new phenomenon rapidly taking over IT departments of businesses around the country. We are talking about the strange state of affairs known as ‘Hybrid IT’.
Sparked by research revealing this approach was a deliberate strategy for 75% of organisations, the campaign highlights the numerous problems a mix of often-conflicting IT platforms can cause. A cunning combination of private or public cloud, on-premise servers and data centre services – deemed necessary to remain competitive – has increased the complexity of IT estates and the resultant muddled mess is making it difficult for IT decision-makers to innovate.
But as we all know, there are two sides to every story and over half (53%) claimed to have seen an increase in business agility. Improved customer service and the speed of product developments were also cited as benefits by 39% and 37% respectively. However, perhaps unsurprisingly, this tortuously tangled IT infrastructure has increased the running costs of IT with nearly a third of organisations (31%) claiming it adds an average of £251,868 every year!
Worryingly, half say they do not have the skill sets needed to manage their hybrid IT estates. Over a third (38%) lack the necessary skills to deal with security issues while integration and interoperability are also crucial concerns. More than a quarter (27%) are struggling to integrate private cloud environments into their IT estate and 22% admit to difficulties managing different IT systems across separate business departments.
The campaign explains that a professionally prepared elixir with the right combination of ingredients can transform the Hyde in your IT environment into a much more agreeable Jekyll and tame the beast that is Hybrid IT.
Our retail customers may be interested to know that a press release uncovering the ghastly goings-on in their sector will be released in the week of 23 November while financial services customers should fortify themselves with a stiff tonic in preparation for more sector-specific revelations in the week of 7 December.
If you are among the many organisations bedevilled by a shortage of IT professionals with specialist skills, gird yourself for the release of a white paper on this very topic in the New Year.
Now if you are fortunate to be blessed with a robust constitution you are welcome to digest more scary survey snippets by downloading the white paper here but, be warned, you read at your peril!