Survey: $4B Spent Each Year on Unmanaged IT Services
Higher education IT leaders appear to be stymied by institutions using yesterday's solutions to fix today's problems.
If history has taught us anything, it’s that the pace of data growth isn't slowing down. Though small businesses and schools today may not need the high-end virtual management power of a giant like Facebook, in a few years, the average server loads will have reached a level that requires a bigger strategy.
MeriTalk recent cloud computing report “Cloud Campus: The Software-Defined College,” sponsored by VMware and Carahsoft, revealed that few colleges are taking full advantage of the benefits of cloud management. The study surveyed 152 IT professionals at public and private colleges to gauge their readiness for the next generation of network challenges.
A lack of investment in forward-looking technology has cost some institutions billions of dollars, according to the survey. An estimated $4 billion is spent on unmanaged IT resources, including redundant systems and investments outside of centralized IT services.
MeriTalk’s survey showed that 82 percent of IT leaders believe their network is more complex today than it was two years ago, but only 39 percent have seen a budget increase to accommodate that growth.
One solution for managing increased network complexity is to employ virtualization to centralize IT services, creating a software-defined campus. But many institutions don’t consider centralized services a priority. As a result, only one in five IT leaders surveyed by MeriTalk have deployed software-defined technology, despite twice that number seeing it as an effective solution.
The value of centralized IT isn’t an industry secret. When Ce Cole Dillon, CIO of Chicago State University, offered five tips in an EdTech article to increase an institution’s return on IT investment, virtualization and centralized IT topped his list.
Looking for more information on the benefits of switching to a software-defined solution? CDW tech insights guides, such as this guide on cloud computing, explain how centralizing IT services can lead to better efficiency, security and cost savings.
