Clouds, Networks Are Keys to IT’s Future, Pluribus Survey Finds

A Pluribus survey on emerging technologies found that the cloud will have the most impact on IT pros and their companies in the future. eWEEK takes a look at some of the highlights from Pluribus’ survey.

When asked about the technologies that will most impact their companies over the next three years, IT professionals picked public and private clouds (software-as-a-service infrastructure), with both getting 43 percent. Those were followed by virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) at 41 percent and converged infrastructure at 30 percent.

Survey respondents were given a list of nine new technologies in the IT space—server virtualization, cloud services, containers, SDN, mobile/tablet computing, converged infrastructure, VDI, and big data and Hadoop.

In every one of the categories, more than half of the IT professionals said they are either deploying the new technology or actively researching it, meaning that most organizations are considering, piloting or rolling out a broad range of the newest technologies.

Even though most of the IT pros said their companies are at least researching new technologies, only 14 percent of survey respondents “strongly agreed” that their departments are currently set up to meet the needs of the business. That’s an indication that there is uncertainty around what technologies will impact the future of IT, Pluribus officials said.

Eighty-two percent of respondents said the network is an essential part of the job, while 88 percent said the network is an important consideration in delivering compute and storage in a digital-centric world.

Three times as many respondents believe the network is more of a long-term strategic investment rather than an immediate tactical need.

Forty-two percent of respondents said they are adopting SDN to meet the challenges their organizations face with modern applications. Thirty-eight percent said they are embracing converged infrastructure, 32 percent said big data and 30 percent said containers.

What’s the most important attribute in SDN? According to 49 percent of IT professionals surveyed, it is both visibility and monitoring. Next on the list are automation (at 45 percent) and simplified management (37 percent).

More than 93 percent of survey respondents said that the ongoing digitization of businesses will lead to more staffing needs.

According to the survey, more than 77 percent of IT workers have 10 or more years of experience.