EFFICIENCY ISN T ENOUGH: DATA CENTERS LEAD THE DRIVE TO INNOVATION

Transcription

1 EFFICIENCY ISN T ENOUGH: DATA CENTERS LEAD THE DRIVE TO INNOVATION 2014 IOUG IT RESOURCE STRATEGIES SURVEY By Joseph McKendrick, Research Analyst Produced by Unisphere Research, a Division of Information Today, Inc. February 2014 Sponsored by

2 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary 3 Follow the Money 4 Time Spent 7 Strategies for Success 12 Demographics 20

3 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In 2014 the spotlight is on data management departments as they lead the effort to deliver competitive advantage from Big Data analytics. Decision makers seek information from a growing range of data sources and sophisticated toolsets. Managing the integration of myriad networks, data systems, and applications to deliver reliable information is a greater challenge than ever before. The capacity to expand into new ventures requires a data management function that is capable of supporting new challenges and even taking a leadership role. While enterprises rely more than ever on IT and data managers to deliver this competitive edge, these managers report that their departments and resources still tend to be mired in low-level database administration tasks, such as performing upgrades, fixes and patches, maintaining uptime and availability, and creating and maintaining copies of database information. Data management departments need to increase their output and productivity. But mere efficiency is not enough IT and data managers need to make innovation a larger part of their jobs. The challenges of freeing up database budgets for more transformative IT initiatives are explored in a new global survey of 285 data managers and professionals who are members of the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) and their global partner organizations. The survey was underwritten by EMC Corporation and conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc. Survey respondents hold a variety of job roles and represent a wide range of organization types and sizes and industry verticals. In terms of technology solutions, 92% run Oracle Databases mainly Oracle 11g and 10g along with Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL. (See Figures for more demographic details.) Key highlights and findings from the survey, which explore IT and database resource issues, include the following: n IT budgets keep gaining strength, with about half of IT and data managers anticipating growth in the next 12 months. However, significant portions of budgets are going to database maintenance, versus supporting new technology initiatives. n Along with budget shares, IT and data managers report that significant amounts of their time are also being devoted to routine maintenance activities. Close to half report that this has been on the increase. n Activities taking up the most IT budget resources include performing upgrades, fixes and patches, maintaining uptime and availability, and creating and maintaining copies of database information. Activities eating away the most staff time include performance tuning and diagnosis, maintaining uptime and availability, and applying upgrades, fixes and patches. n Enterprises are turning to standardized technologies, automation, and virtualization in efforts to tighten up their budgets and make more room for innovation. Two-thirds agree that decreasing the maintenance portion of IT and data budgets will help fund new value-added activities. n Only one out of six enterprises have been able to reduce the portion of their IT budgets spent on routine database management tasks to less than 10%. These leaders report greater levels of automation, but are more inclined to be seeking additional funding for new projects On the following pages are the results of the latest examination of today s pressing data availability concerns and how IT departments and their business counterparts are addressing these issues.

4 4 FOLLOW THE MONEY IT budgets keep gaining strength, with about half of IT and data managers anticipating growth in the next 12 months. However, significant portions of budgets are going to database maintenance, versus supporting new technology initiatives. In a sign of robustness and evidence of the impact of technology on organizational growth, IT department budgets keep rising. Organizations overall IT budgets have been tacking toward increased budgets, and will keep increasing, IT and data managers predict. Close to half of respondents, 48%, expect an increase in their budgets, up from 40% who experienced increases the previous year. About 19% of respondents saw declines in their budgets last year, only 13% expect any retrenchment in their budgets in the immediate future. (See Figure 1.) While the majority of small-to-medium-size organizations anticipate increases in their IT spending over the coming year, IT and data managers in the largest organizations in the survey (those with more than 10,000 employees) are less inclined to be seeing boosts in spending. This signals continued caution among organizations with large, complex IT budgets, and may reflect the impact of underlying efficiency measures, such as data center consolidations and greater cloud adoption. (See Figure 2.) There are a range of database management activities taking up most of respondents IT budgets. Close to half report their time is taken up applying upgrades, fixes,and patches, as well as maintaining uptime and availability. (See Figure 3.) IT and data managers provided information on how much of their IT budgets are spent on ongoing database management activities (maintaining uptime and availability, applying upgrades, fixes and patches, ensuring security) versus new project development or new initiatives (Oracle 12c, new applications, virtualization, cloud). Seventeen percent of respondents have reached a laudable level of stability and efficiency, in that they are spending less than 10% of their IT budgets on maintenance activities, enabling them to commit more to new initiatives. At the other end of the spectrum, 23% report spending the majority of their IT budgets on maintenance, suggesting there is a great deal of legacy technology and outmoded processes that hinder innovation. The remainder, a total of 42%, are in the middle ground, spending significant portions of their budgets on maintenance. (See Figure 4.) Studying the practices of the top 17% may prove useful to those spending a larger percentage on maintenance. Data managers are more likely to report they are committing increased amounts of money into routine database maintenance activities than see any relief. A total of 39% report that the share of IT budget for ongoing database management activities increased over the past three years, while 16% report this portion has been on the decline. (See Figure 5.) Figure 1: Changes in IT Budgets This Year from Last Next Year Increase >20% 7% 6% Increase 11% to 20% 6% 8% Increase 6% to 10% 14% 14% Increase up to 5% 13% 20% INCREASE 40% 48% No change 25% 22% Decrease up to 5% 8% 6% Decrease >5% 11% 7% Don t know/unsure 16% 16%

5 5 Figure 2: Increased IT Budgets in the Year Ahead By Organizational Size 1 to 100 employees 51% 101 to 1,000 employee 53% 1,001 to 10,000 employees 54% 10,000+ employees 38% Figure 3: Money Pits: Database Management Activities Taking Up Most IT Budgets Applying upgrades, fixes and patches 49% Maintaining uptime and availability 48% Creating and maintaining copies 41% of database information Security 40% Performance tuning and diagnosis 37% Testing and quality assurance 23% Don t know/unsure 12% Other 4% (Multiple responses permitted.)

6 6 Figure 4: Amount of IT Budget Spent on Ongoing Database Management Activities (Versus New Projects or Innovation) <10% 17% 10% to 25% 23% 26% to 50% 19% 51% to 75% 13% 23% 76% to 100% 10% Don t know/unsure 18% Figure 5: How Share of IT Budget for Ongoing Database Management Activities Changed Over Past Three Years Increased significantly 6% 39% Increased moderately 33% Has not changed 34% Decreased moderately 10% Decreased significantly 6% Don t know/unsure 11%

7 7 TIME SPENT Along with budget shares, IT and data managers report that significant amounts of their time are also being devoted to routine maintenance activities. Close to half report that this has been on the increase. Money isn t the only thing being consumed by routine database management activities, the survey finds. About a third of IT and data managers, 32%, indicate they spend a majority of their time each week engaged in routine database maintenance. Only 13% say they are able to devote more than 90% of their time to new initiatives. (See Figure 6.) The survey looked at the tendencies of leaders (those reporting that less than 10% of their budgets are spent on database maintenance activities, per Figure 5) versus laggards (those spending in excess of 50%). In terms of time spent, a significant share of leaders, 38%, report they also spend a relatively small share of time per week on maintenance, versus a meager 2% of the laggards. (See Figure 7.) For some enterprises, the opposite effect may be true. Our problem may be reversed from most, notes one respondent. We are not given even the minimum amount of time needed for database and systems management, because we keep having new projects thrown at us and management does not understand the need to maintain the systems that they have us put in until they crash. (Data on how many of the leaders in low-cost maintenance believe this has created a risky situation is not available from this study, beyond this anecdotal statement.) What types of database management activities are taking up most of respondents time each week? The activities on which data managers spend the most time are performance tuning and diagnosis, following by maintaining uptime and availability. Two out of five data managers also spend time applying upgrades, fixes, and patches. (See Figure 8.) For some respondents, the increasing complexity of IT systems and networks is contributing to the amount of maintenance time occupying their workweeks. We try to fix problems instead of find more ways to monitor for them, says one respondent. All the monitoring just creates a false sense of control. Management likes monitoring so they can look like they know what is going on. However, the more monitors and agents you install the more complex systems become. How has the amount of time spent on ongoing database management activities changed over the past three years? Close to half of data managers, 48%, say the amount of time they re spending on routine maintenance activities has increased. Only 15% have seen any positive change in this area. (See Figure 9.) Many respondents believe the amount of time, money, and resources they spend on ongoing database management activities versus new project development or new initiatives is affecting the competitiveness of their organizations. A majority of respondents, 52%, agree that to some degree, the amount of resources they devote to database maintenance is inhibiting or even severely limiting their organization s competitiveness. (See Figure 10.) The laggards in the survey are more inclined to recognize how their over-commitment of time and money to maintenance is holding back their organization s progress. (See Figure 11.) When it comes to maintenance activities inhibiting innovation at the departmental level, even more data managers indicate this is a problem. About two-thirds, 63%, say there has been an adverse effect. (See Figure 12.) Just as laggards recognize how devoting too many resources to low-level activities holds back organizational innovation, they also are more cognizant of the impacts on their department s productivity as well. (See Figure 13.)

8 8 Figure 6: Amount of IT Staff Time Spent on Ongoing Database Management Activities (Versus New Projects or Innovation) <10% 13% 10% to 25% 26% 26% to 50% 21% 51% to 75% 19% 32% 76% to 99% 12% 100% 1% Don t know/unsure 8% Figure 7: How Much Time Spent Leaders Versus Laggards nnnnnnnnn Leaders nnnnnnnnn Laggards <10% 38% 2% >50% 12% 74%

9 9 Figure 8: Database Management Activities Taking Up Most Time Each Week Performance tuning and diagnosis 48% Maintaining uptime and availability 44% Applying upgrades, fixes and patches 40% Creating and maintaining copies of 37% database information Ensuring security 34% Testing and quality assurance 25% Don t know/unsure 10% Other 3% Figure 9: How Share of IT Staff Time for Ongoing Database Management Activities Changed Over Past Three Years Increased significantly 10% 48% Increased moderately 38% Has not changed 29% Decreased moderately 11% Decreased significantly 4% Don t know/unsure 8%

10 10 Figure 10: Amount of Resources Spent on Ongoing Database Management Activities Affecting Competitiveness of Organizations? Yes, the amount of resources spent on 14% ongoing database management activities is severely limiting our competitiveness Somewhat, the amount of resources 38% spent on ongoing management activities is inhibiting our competitiveness No, the amount of resources spent on 37% ongoing database management activities is not an issue in our competitiveness Don t know/unsure 10% Figure 11: Resources Spent on Maintenance Affecting Organizational Competitiveness Leaders Versus nnnnnnnnn Leaders nnnnnnnnn Laggards Yes 17% 23% Somewhat 37% 46%

11 11 Figure 12: Amount of Resources Spent on Ongoing Database Management Activities Affecting Productivity and Innovation of Departments? Yes, the amount of resources spent on 20% ongoing database management activities is severely limiting our productivity Somewhat, the amount of resources 43% spent on ongoing management activities is inhibiting our productivity No, the amount of resources spent on 27% ongoing database management activities is not an issue in our productivity Don t know/unsure 10% Figure 13: Resources Spent on Maintenance Affecting Organizational Productivity Leaders Versus Laggards nnnnnnnnn Leaders nnnnnnnnn Laggards Yes 22% 27% Somewhat 41% 54%

12 12 STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS Enterprises are turning to standardized technologies, automation, and virtualization in efforts to tighten up their budgets and make more room for innovation. Two-thirds agree that decreasing the maintenance portion of IT and data budgets will help fund new value-added activities. IT and data managers are employing a range of strategies to reduce time and money spent on ongoing database management activities. A majority are undertaking standardization of their IT infrastructure as a way of reducing the amount of resources being poured into database maintenance activities. Close to half, 46%, intend to increase the level of automation within their data centers. (See Figure 14.) The survey explored areas in which data managers would like to see their organizations spend more money or devote more resources. Two-fifths says they would like to migrate or update their databases, and the same number would pursue database consolidation strategies. (See Figure 15.) Now the $6-million question: If respondents could reduce time and cost spent on ongoing database management activities, would this help fund these new value-adding activities? A majority, 66%, agree that the resources freed up would make room for more innovative activities, either through cost savings alone or in combination with budget increases. A total of 48% say more money is needed for new types of growth activities, though only 27% feel this is in combination with savings efforts. (See Figure 16.) Interestingly, the leaders in the survey those spending a minimal amount of time in maintenance activities are more prone to see the need for fresh infusions of cash to boost innovation in their departments. It may be that any efficiency has already been wrung out of their operations. (See Figure 17.) Respondents also provided the preferred activities they would like to pursue, should their time be freed up with greater efficiency. Technology professionals being who they are, most invest the spare time in advancing their knowledge of new and existing technologies. More than seven out of 10 data managers say they would invest in researching new technologies, and a majority would spend more time learning new IT skills. (See Figure 18.) There are a range of areas in which respondents see automation freeing up time to spend on more value-adding initiatives for themselves or their organizations. Areas ripe for automation include database performance monitoring and diagnosis, backup and recovery management, and database cloning and refresh management. (See Figure 19.) Respondents provided a number of ways they would like to see automation applied. We seek to automate SLA management, patch management and provisioning to standardize infrastructure, one respondent recommends. We may continue to look at other IT automation after production deployment. Another respondent says his organization is exploring automated auditing of tables and users. We are also looking to fine-tune our automated tracking and reporting queries. In addition, we are centralizing offline syncing of data with external websites, and automating the removal of log files. Database automation is already a big part of the picture, the survey shows. Two-thirds of respondents say they have put at least some automation in place. However, only 6% indicate they have achieved high levels of automation. (See Figure 20.) Already, 13% of leaders indicate they are already highly automated, which is helping to contribute to their ability to minimize resources spent on maintenance tasks. (See Figure 21.) Have these processes become more or less automated over the past three years as respondents environments have grown? A combined total of 86% of data managers say automation has been on the increase. However, in most cases, the growth has only been slightly more automated, indicating there is still a lot of work to be done in this area. (See Figure 22.) The leaders in the survey are taking more initiative in automation efforts, with 21% reporting their data enterprises are much more automated than three years ago compared to 13% of laggards. (See Figure 23.) Respondents wholeheartedly agree that it is important to improve DBA-to-storage administrator communication and productivity in their organizations. This is something that 80% of data managers agree needs to be improved within their organizations. More than two-fifths feel very strongly about this, indicating that such communication is very important. (See Figure 24.) Do they collaborate well today? Most respondents, 81%, say there is at least some level of communication between the two groups. More than two-fifths feel that their communications are highly effective. (See Figure 25.)

13 13 Figure 14: Strategies Employed to Reduce Time and Money Spent on Ongoing Database Management Activities Standardizing of IT infrastructure 52% Increase database/data center automation 46% More virtualization or cloud solutions 44% Database or data center consolidation 42% Don t know/unsure 11% Other 2% (Multiple responses permitted.) Figure 15: Preferred Areas of Investment Migrating or updating our databases 39% Database consolidation 39% Researching and installing new 36% Oracle features Upgrading or modernizing hardware 34% and processors Virtualization and cloud 32% IT as a service 24% Flash technology 19% Don t know/unsure 8% Other 5% (Multiple responses permitted.)

14 14 Figure 16: Would Reducing Database Maintenance Expenditures Help Fund New Value-Adding Activities? Yes, time and budget 39% savings can help cost-justify new initiatives Needs to be funded 27% by both new budget/savings from existing budget Don t know/unsure 13% No, new initiatives require 21% net new budget Figure 17: Innovation Require More Savings or More Budget? Leaders Versus Laggards nnnnnnnnn Leaders nnnnnnnnn Laggards More savings 35% 41% More Budget 35% 21% Combination of savings and more budget 17% 29%

15 15 Figure 18: Preferred Areas in Which IT and Data Managers Would Prefer to Spend More Time Researching new technologies 72% Training and broadening my IT skill sets 55% Enterprise and data architecture/planning 48% Working with end-users 27% Consulting with corporate management 18% Establishing IT chargeback and 12% self-service models Don t know/unsure 5% (Multiple responses permitted.)

16 16 Figure 19: Areas in Which Automation Could Free Up Time for More Value-Adding Initiatives Database performance monitoring 62% and diagnosis Backup and recovery management 46% Database cloning and refresh management 44% Data protection and recovery 30% New database instance provisioning 30% Hardware provisioning for database 20% systems Don t know/unsure 11% Other 2% (Multiple responses permitted.) Figure 20: Level of Automation Achieved Highly automated 6% Don t know/unsure 7% Somewhat automated 61% Entirely manual 3% Mostly manual 24% (Total does not equal 100% due to rounding.)

17 17 Figure 21: Degree of Automation Leaders Versus Laggards nnnnnnnnn Leaders nnnnnnnnn Laggards Highly automated 13% 0% Somewhat automated 53% 60% Manual 33% 39% Figure 22: Automation Growth Over Past Three Years Much more automated 17% Slightly more automated 69% Don t know/unsure 7% Entirely manual 2% Less automated 5%

18 18 Figure 23: Growth of Automation Leaders Versus Laggards nnnnnnnnn Leaders nnnnnnnnn Laggards Much more automated 21% 13% Slightly more automated 67% 84% Less automated/manual 11% 4% Figure 24: Importance of DBA-to-Storage Administrator Communication and Collaboration Somewhat important 39% Very important 41% Not very important 11% Don t know/unsure 9%

19 19 Figure 25: Depth of DBAs and Storage Administrators Communication and Collaboration Communicate 39% sometimes Communicate 42% very well Don t communicate 9% well today Don t know/unsure 10%

20 20 DEMOGRAPHICS Figure 26: Respondents Database Systems or Platforms Oracle Database (any version) 92% Microsoft SQL Server 75% MySQL 47% Microsoft Access 31% IBM DB2 23% Apache Hadoop 12% PostgreSQL 12% SAP Sybase ASE 9% Teradata 7% MongoDB 5% SAP HANA 5% Cassandra 3% SQLite 3% Amazon SimpleDB 1% CouchDB 1% Other 4% (Multiple responses permitted.)

21 21 Figure 27: Oracle Database Versions Oracle Database 11g 82% Oracle Database 10g 63% Oracle Database 12c 19% Other 12% Figure 28: Size of Respondents Organizations 1 to 100 employees 20% 101 to 500 employees 14% 501 to 1,000 employees 9% 1,001 to 5,000 employees 17% 5,001 to 10,000 employees 5% >10,000 24% NA 2%

22 22 Figure 29: Respondents Primary Job Titles Database administrator (DBA) 48% Director/manager of IS/IT or 10% computer-related function IT consultant 9% Analyst/systems analyst 7% Architect/engineer (security, systems, 6% data, etc.) IT operations manager 3% Systems administrator 3% Programmer/developer 3% Project manager 3% Chief/VP (CIO, CSO, CTO, IT, IS, etc.) 3% Executive/manager of a business unit 2% Other 2%

23 23 Figure 30: Respondents Primary Industries IT services/consulting/system integration 20% Education (all levels) 14% Government (all levels) 12% Financial services 8% Manufacturing 7% Utility/telecommunications/transportation 7% Retail/distribution 6% Software/application development 6% Healthcare/medical/life sciences 4% Business/consumer services 3% Energy (oil, gas, etc.) 3% High-tech manufacturing 3% Insurance 3% Nonprofit 3% Other 3%