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  • The CDW IT Holiday Wish List, Budget Forecasts

    December 3, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    IT products distributor CDW hosted its Partner Summit in Las Vegas in early November, and at the summit the company did a straw poll of the IT executives in attendance to get a sense of what kinds of products or services they had on their wish lists for 2008; it also did an online straw poll among CDW customers, and in both cases also asked IT personnel about their budgetary expectations for the coming year. Last week, CDW released a report on the findings of the two straw polls.

    First and foremost, let’s talk about budgets. In the poll at the partner summit, 43 percent of the 266 IT executives who responded to the questions said they expected IT budgets in 2008 would be higher than spending levels in 2007, and an additional 9 percent said they would be “much higher.” IT executives seem to be getting the idea that excelling at IT is not the point when justifying it to management–even if it is crucial–with only 13 percent saying “technology leadership” was important, compared to 38 percent who cited increasing operational efficiency, 16 percent for competitive advantage, and 9 percent for expanding revenues.

    In the online customer poll performed by CDW, 626 IT personnel participated and 59 percent of respondents indicated that their company was somewhat likely or extremely likely to increase their IT spending in 2008. Some 52 percent of those polled said that they expected their company was somewhat or extremely likely to increase investments in virtualization technologies–the most popular category–followed by 40 percent who cited expected investments in knowledge management products. And because companies are always looking to save a buck and employees are trying to balance complicated work and home lives, 28 percent of those IT executives polled by CDW said that they expected their companies would be somewhat or extremely likely to allow them to telecommute (sometimes called telework) in the coming year.

    Now, here’s the wish list. About 27 percent of the executives polled said that if their senior management wanted to make their lives easier in 2008, they could hire more IT staff, and another 16 percent said they could use a larger IT budget (presumably meaning for hardware, software, and services). Interestingly, small companies cited budget issues more (21 percent said they wanted more dough compared to 15 percent asking for more staff) while larger companies wanted more people (31 percent asked for more IT staff compared to only 14 percent who asked for more budget). Poll takers also cited they wanted to be able to work from home or other locations, wanted more technology upgrades, more time to complete projects, more training, and yes, you guessed it, more time off.

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    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 16, Number 47 -- December 3, 2007

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    Do the Math When Looking at IBM i Hosting for Cost Savings

    COVID-19 has accelerated certain business trends that were already gaining strength prior to the start of the pandemic. E-commerce, telehealth, and video conferencing are some of the most obvious examples. One example that may not be as obvious to the general public but has a profound impact on business is the shift in strategy of IBM i infrastructure from traditional, on-premises environments to some form of remote configuration. These remote configurations and all of their variations are broadly referred to in the community as IBM i hosting.

    “Hosting” in this context can mean different things to different people, and in general, hosting refers to one of two scenarios. In the first scenario, hosting can refer to a client owned machine that is housed in a co-location facility (commonly called a co-lo for short) where the data center provides traditional system administrator services, relieving the client of administrative and operational responsibilities. In the second scenario, hosting can refer to an MSP owned machine in which partition resources are provided to the client in an on-demand capacity. This scenario allows the client to completely outsource all aspects of Power Systems hardware and the IBM i operating system and database.

    The scenario that is best for each business depends on a number of factors and is largely up for debate. In most cases, pursuing hosting purely as a cost saving strategy is a dead end. Furthermore, when you consider all of the costs associated with maintaining and IBM i environment, it is typically not a cost-effective option for the small to midsize market. The most cost-effective approach for these organizations is often a combination of a client owned and maintained system (either on-prem or in a co-lo) with cloud backup and disaster-recovery-as-a-service. Only in some cases of larger enterprise companies can a hosting strategy start to become a potentially cost-effective option.

    However, cost savings is just one part of the story. As IBM i expertise becomes scarce and IT resources run tight, the only option for some firms may be to pursue hosting in some capacity. Whatever the driving force for pursing hosting may be, the key point is that it is not just simply an option for running your workload in a different location. There are many details to consider and it is to the best interest of the client to work with an experienced MSP in weighing the benefits and drawbacks of each option. As COVID-19 rolls on, time will tell if IBM i hosting strategies will follow the other strong business trends of the pandemic.

    When we say do the math in the title above, it literally means that you need to do the math for your particular scenario. It is not about us doing the math for you, making a case for either staying on premises or for moving to the cloud. There is not one answer, but just different levels of cost to be reckoned which yield different answers. Most IBM i shops have fairly static workloads, at least measured against the larger mix of stuff on the public clouds of the world. How do you measure the value of controlling your own IT fate? That will only be fully recognized at the moment when it is sorely missed the most.

    CONTINUE READING ARTICLE

    Please visit ucgtechnologies.com/IBM-POWER9-systems for more information.

    800.211.8798 | info@ucgtechnologies.com

    Article featured in IT Jungle on April 5, 2021

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TFH Volume: 16 Issue: 47

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • Computer Economics Study Predicts ‘Anemic Growth’ for IT in 2008
    • The CDW IT Holiday Wish List, Budget Forecasts
    • State of the System i: How 2007 Went for Tool Vendors, and How 2008 Is Looking
    • IBM Virtualizes I/O in BladeCenter Servers
    • Emerging Markets and Virtualization Drive Q3 Server Sales
    • Former Microsoft COO Joins the Vision Solutions Board
    • IBM Readies Power Management for Power Servers
    • Climate Savers Launches ‘Green’ Computer Catalog
    • Bleak Outlook for Information Security, According to Researchers
    • Lawson Partners for Expansion in the Hot Brazilian Market

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