Data centre managers plan to increase technology spend, says survey

Australian data centre managers will continue their investment in data centre infrastructure in the year ahead, according to a survey conducted by Stulz Australia at the Data Centre Strategics and Green Technology conference staged in Sydney in August 2010.

The survey found that 60% of data centre managers plan to increase their investment in IT infrastructure over the next 12 months and more than a quarter (27%) of respondents will channel these funds towards projects which drive down the cost of running their data centre operations.

However, driving down operating costs is not the only reason for data centre investment in Australia. According to the Stulz survey, just under a quarter of respondents need to replace ageing technology and 20% of data centre managers are investing in power and cooling management in order to meet their company’s sustainability objectives. Indeed, 32% of respondents plan to invest in precision air conditioning and high-density cooling solutions.

10% of respondents are also fitting out new data centre buildings with the latest IT infrastructure.

When selecting a vendor solution, 28% of respondents believe that sales and technical support are the most important quality in their data centre technology infrastructure provider.

Barriers to new investment were also highlighted in the conference survey, with 37% of respondents feeling that their data centre procurement teams are presented with solutions from vendors which lack integration or compatibility with their existing infrastructure.

At the same time, a third of respondents lack sufficient budget for all that their objectives aim to achieve, while 17% of respondents feel that vendors don’t specify a clear return on investment when they recommend their plans or respond to requests for proposals.

However, the survey did shed positive light on data centre manager and vendor relationships. Just under half of all respondents feel that they have a good working relationship with their vendors and work in a ‘knife and fork’ team approach to create better results.

The Managing Director of Stulz Australia, John Jakovcevic, said: “The survey confirms that we are finally seeing encouraging signs that companies are preparing to invest in IT infrastructure following the economic downturn with decisions focused on deploying greener solutions.”