Research Report Abstract: Trends for Protecting Highly Virtualized and Private Cloud Environments By Jason Buffington, Senior Analyst and Bill Lundell, Senior Research Analyst June 2013
Introduction Research Objectives Research Report: Trends for Protecting Highly Virtualized and Private Cloud Environments In order to accurately assess organizational status and plans regarding a myriad of virtualization and data assurance topics, ESG recently surveyed 325 IT professionals representing midmarket (100 to 999 employees) and enterpriseclass (1,000 employees or more) organizations in North America and Western Europe. All respondents were personally familiar with their organizations server virtualization implementation, and were responsible for their organizations day-to-day data protection processes and forward-looking strategies. For the purposes of this report, data protection products are categorized as: Separate a data protection product that is designed to strictly protect virtual servers (and not physical servers). Sample products include Veeam or PHD Virtual, Dell vranger, Quantum vmpro; and hypervisor-specific offerings such as VMware vsphere Data Protector (VDP). Unified a data protection product that is able to protect physical and virtual servers, without regard to other optimizations (e.g., databases) or capabilities (e.g., archiving). Software examples include Symantec Backup Exec/NetBackup, EMC Networker, CommVault, Dell AppAssure, Unitrends, etc. The survey was designed to answer the following questions: How expansive is the use of virtualization technology in terms of the percentage of physical x86 servers that have been virtualized? How prevalent are virtual machine deployments across a multitude of application areas? What is the appetite for a single hypervisor provider vs. having multiple hypervisors deployed? What are the reasons behind using multiple hypervisors and how committed are organizations to these strategies? How far along are organizations in transitioning to private cloud computing? Which private cloud management capabilities are most important to organizations? What challenges are organizations facing with regards to protecting their virtual environments? What drivers are most important to organizations when evaluating both physical and virtual backup solutions? Looking ahead, are organizations planning to deploy unified or segregated backup solutions for physical and virtual servers? What is the current market maturity of business continuity and disaster recovery plans? How has server virtualization impacted disaster recovery planning and processes? Which considerations are most important with respect to future data protection purchases? What are the use cases for data protection management software utilization for backup operations? Are organizations current data protection staff and skill sets well-aligned to virtualization goals? Survey participants represented a wide range of industries including financial services, manufacturing, business services, communications and media, and government. For more details, please see the Research Methodology and Respondent Demographics sections of this report.
Research Methodology To gather data for this report, ESG conducted a comprehensive online survey of IT professionals from private- and public-sector organizations in North America (United States and Canada) and Western Europe (United Kingdom, France, and Germany) between February 11, 2013 and February 22, 2013. To qualify for this survey, respondents were required to be IT professionals with a good level of knowledge/familiarity of their organizations virtualization and data protection environments and strategies. All respondents were provided an incentive to complete the survey in the form of cash awards and/or cash equivalents. After filtering out unqualified respondents, removing duplicate responses, and screening the remaining completed responses (on a number of criteria) for data integrity, we were left with a final total sample of 325 IT professionals. Please see the Respondent Demographics section of this report for more information on these respondents. Note: Totals in figures and tables throughout this report may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
Research Report: Trends for Protecting Highly Virtualized and Private Cloud Environments Respondent Demographics The data presented in this report is based on a survey of 325 qualified respondents. The figures below detail the demographics of the respondent base, including individual respondents region and current level of responsibility, as well as respondent organizations industry, total number of employees, number of servers, and the operating system profile of those servers. Respondents by Region Figure 1 shows the regional breakdown of the respondent base. Figure 1. Survey Respondents, by Region Respondents by region. (Percent of respondents, N=325) Western Europe, 34% North America, 66% Respondents by Job Responsibility Respondents current job responsibility is shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. Survey Respondents, by Job Responsibility Which of the following best describes your current responsibility within your organization? (Percent of respondents, N=325) IT staff, 9% IT management, 45% Senior IT management (e.g., CIO, VP of IT, Director of IT, etc.), 45%
Respondents by Industry Research Report: Trends for Protecting Highly Virtualized and Private Cloud Environments Respondents were asked to identify their organizations primary industry. In total, ESG received completed, qualified respondents from individuals in 19 distinct vertical industries, plus an Other category. Respondents were then grouped into the broader categories shown in Figure 3. Figure 3. Survey Respondents, by Industry What is your organization s primary industry? (Percent of respondents, N=325) Other, 19% Financial (banking, securities, insurance), 17% Retail/Wholesale, 6% Manufacturing, 17% Health Care, 8% Government, 9% Communications & Media, 10% Business services (accounting, consulting, legal, etc.), 14% Respondents by Number of Employees The number of employees in respondents organizations is shown in Figure 4. Figure 4. Survey Respondents, by Number of Employees How many total employees does your organization have worldwide? (Percent of respondents, N=325) 20,000 or more, 18% 100 to 499, 21% 10,000 to 19,999, 6% 5,000 to 9,999, 11% 500 to 999, 21% 2,500 to 4,999, 11% 1,000 to 2,499, 12%
Research Report: Trends for Protecting Highly Virtualized and Private Cloud Environments Respondents by Number of Servers The number of production servers operated worldwide by respondents IT organizations is shown in Figure 5. Figure 5. Survey Respondents, by Number of Servers Approximately how many total physical servers (whether production or test/development) are supported by your IT organization? (Percent of respondents, N=323) 18% 16% 14% 14% 15% 15% 16% 13% 12% 10% 8% 10% 7% 8% 6% 4% 3% 2% 0% Less than 25 25 to 49 50 to 100 101 to 250 251 to 500 501 to 1,000 1,001 to 2,500 2,501 to 5,000 More than 5,000 Respondents by Operating System Usage The percentage of respondents organizations servers running various operating systems is shown in Figure 6. Figure 6. Survey Respondents, by Percent of Servers Running Various Operating Systems Approximately what percentage of your organization s total servers (both physical and virtual) runs the following operating systems? (Mean, N=296) 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% Other, 1% UNIX, 10% Other Linux, 7% Red Hat Linux, 10% Microsoft Windows 2003 or earlier, 15% 50% 40% 30% Microsoft Windows 2008 or 2008 R2, 47% 20% 10% 0% Microsoft Windows 2012, 10%
Research Report: Trends for Protecting Highly Virtualized and Private Cloud Environments Contents List of Figures... 3 List of Tables... 3 Executive Summary... 4 Report Conclusions... 4 Introduction... 5 Research Objectives... 5 Research Findings... 6 Transitioning from Just Virtualized to Private Cloud Environments... 6 Backing Up Highly Virtualized Environments... 14 The Effect of Virtualization on Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery... 21 Conclusion... 24 Research Implications for Data Protection Vendors... 24 Research Implications for IT Professionals... 24 Research Methodology... 26 Respondent Demographics... 27 Respondents by Region... 27 Respondents by Job Responsibility... 27 Respondents by Industry... 28 Respondents by Number of Employees... 28 Respondents by Number of Servers... 29 Respondents by Operating System Usage... 29
Research Report: Trends for Protecting Highly Virtualized and Private Cloud Environments List of Figures Figure 1. Percentage of x86 Servers That Have Been Virtualized... 6 Figure 2. Total Number of Production Virtual Machines Deployed... 7 Figure 3. Applications and/or IT Services and Production Virtual Machine Deployment Status... 8 Figure 4. Number of Hypervisors Currently Deployed... 9 Figure 5. Reasons for Using More than One Server Virtualization Solution/Hypervisor... 10 Figure 6. Forward-Looking Hypervisor Strategy... 11 Figure 7. Organizations Transition to Private Cloud Computing... 12 Figure 8. Organizations Transition to Private Cloud Computing, by Percent of x86 Servers Virtualized... 12 Figure 9. Important Management Capabilities for Private Cloud Environments... 13 Figure 10. Data Protection Mechanisms Used on VMware Virtual Machines and/or Hyper-V Virtual Machines... 14 Figure 11. Top Reasons for Selecting VMware-specific Backup Solution... 15 Figure 12. Top Reasons for Selecting Hyper V-specific Backup Solution... 15 Figure 13. Challenges Protecting Organization s Virtual Server Environment... 16 Figure 14. Reasons for Using Data Protection Management Software... 17 Figure 15. Alignment Between Data Backup Skill Sets and Virtualization Goals... 18 Figure 16. Forward-looking Strategy for Backing Up Virtual and Physical Servers... 19 Figure 17. Forward-looking Strategy for Backing Up Virtual and Physical Servers, by Number of Hypervisors... 19 Figure 18. Considerations That Will Influence Organization s Data Protection Strategy and Purchases... 20 Figure 19. Do Organizations Have a Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery Plan?... 21 Figure 20. Impact of Server Virtualization on Disaster Recovery Planning and Processes... 22 Figure 21. Alignment Between BC/DR Skill Sets and Virtualization Goals... 23 Figure 22. Survey Respondents, by Region... 27 Figure 23. Survey Respondents, by Job Responsibility... 27 Figure 24. Survey Respondents, by Industry... 28 Figure 25. Survey Respondents, by Number of Employees... 28 Figure 26. Survey Respondents, by Number of Servers... 29 Figure 27. Survey Respondents, by Percent of Servers Running Various Operating Systems... 29 List of Tables Table 1. Percentage of x86 Servers That Have Been Virtualized, by Company Size... 6 Table 2. Total Number of Production Virtual Machines Deployed, by Company Size... 7 Table 3. Number of Hypervisors Currently Deployed, by Company Size and Total Virtual Machines... 9 Table 4. Alignment Between BC/DR Skill Sets and Virtualization Goals, by Company Size... 23 All trademark names are property of their respective companies. Information contained in this publication has been obtained by sources The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) considers to be reliable but is not warranted by ESG. This publication may contain opinions of ESG, which are subject to change from time to time. This publication is copyrighted by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. Any reproduction or redistribution of this publication, in whole or in part, whether in hard-copy format, electronically, or otherwise to persons not authorized to receive it, without the express consent of the Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc., is in violation of U.S. Copyright law and will be subject to an action for civil damages and, if applicable, criminal prosecution. Should you have any questions, please contact ESG Client Relations at 508.482.0188.
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