U.S. Enterprises Plan to Invest in 32/64-bit Hybrid Servers
According to new survey results, 81% of U.S. enterprises intend to invest in servers based on the 32/64-bit hybrid processors for industry standard computing such as the AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon EM64T processors.
Corporations also said that network security and business growth will be key priorities in 2005, with 82 percent citing security and 79 percent citing business growth as top drivers of their technology spending.
Focusing primarily on data center systems, the new research revealed several other notable trends in IT priorities and budget plans for the year ahead. Commissioned by Sun Microsystems, Inc. and conducted by an independent research firm, Momentum Research Group, the study surveyed 301 IT decision-makers at large U.S. corporations across a range of different industries. The survey results suggest that Sun is well positioned with its investments in AMD Opteron processor-based servers and the Solaris Operating System to benefit from the identified IT spending trends.
"We made a significant investment this past year in Sun's new industry standard 32/64-bit servers, specifically in the Sun Fire servers built on AMD Opteron processors. Given the performance and flexibility benefits these servers provide, Sun's systems made perfect sense for us and surely would support other organizations with similar requirements," said Eric Greenwade, chief IT architect for the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL).
In addition to the large percentage of enterprises planning to purchase 32/64-bit hybrid processor-based servers, the survey indicated that corporations intend to spend an average of 26 percent of their server budgets on these machines, and 10 percent of companies intend to spend half or more of their budget on these servers. Planned expenditures on 32/64-bit servers was essentially equal to planned spending on 64-bit RISC servers, which will average 26 percent according to the survey. 32/64-bit server spending appears only to trail traditional x86 servers by a few percentage points, which will account for 33 percent of hardware budgets based on the study's findings.
"The growth of 32/64 hybrid servers from effectively zero two years ago to over 25 percent of planned expenditures for 2005 is strong and expected," said Jerald Murphy, senior vice president at META Group. "This rapid adoption is indicative of the appeal of increased performance and flexibility of the 64-bit address space, with the lower migration costs of 32-bit instruction sets. This combination allows companies to continue to be cost-conscious, while at the same time investing in high-performance machines that can demonstrate clear business ROI, even as the ISV ecosystem for these processors is emerging."
The survey also shed light on the drivers behind the growing demand for 32/64-bit servers. As compared to traditional x86 servers:
-- 72 percent of respondents cited improved "performance" as a reason they would choose 32/64-bit (e.g. Opteron) servers
-- 49 percent cited "ease of migration from 32-bit to 64-bit applications"
-- 47 percent cited "data center/workload flexibility"
-- 43 percent cited "backward compatibility for hardware and software"
-- 32 percent called it a "safer investment"
"For Sun, it's fantastic to see such strong and growing demand for 32/64-bit processor-based servers. Our strategic alliance with AMD and joint development efforts on AMD Opteron processor-based servers -- combined with Sun's highly secure 64-bit OS, Solaris 10 -- puts us in a great position to capture a significant portion of this expected spending, and in turn, market share," said John Fowler, executive vice president, Network Systems Group at Sun.
Additional 2005 Spending Drivers, Priorities and Cost Cutting Measures
As noted above, the survey indicated that IT decision-makers are placing an emphasis on network security in the 2005. Areas that respondents rated as top-three spending priorities:
-- 82 percent ranked "increase overall level of network security" as a top priority
-- 79 percent indicated "support business growth objectives"
-- 54 percent indicated "deliver planned services to customers"
-- 51 percent indicated "deliver planned internal services to employees, partners, etc."
-- 29 percent indicated "meet compliance for Sarbanes-Oxley"
Other data collected reveals how IT decision-makers are allocating hardware budgets for next year:
-- 29 percent was the average (statistical mean) portion of 2005 budget expected to be spent to "expand" data center hardware
-- 28 percent was the average to be spent to "upgrade existing" hardware
-- 23 percent was the average to be spent on hardware service and support
The survey also probed tactics that IT decision-makers have employed in the recent past to reduce data center costs and complexity:
-- 77 percent said they have chosen to "consolidate platforms"
-- 60 percent indicated "invest in resource optimization (virtualization and clustering)" technologies
-- 42 percent indicated "switch open-source operating systems"
-- 39 percent indicated "shift to commodity hardware"
-- 37 percent indicated "outsourcing of infrastructure and/or support staff" Survey Details
Momentum Research conducted the survey of 301 IT decision-makers during the period of November 15-19, 2004. Respondents represented a range of senior levels within their companies, including 11% C-level executives, 11% President or Vice President level, 13% Director level, 43% Manager or Supervisor level, and 22% other positions. All were involved in IT purchasing decisions, with 41% "giving final authorization or approval of purchase." Companies represented ranged in size from 10,000+ people, which accounted for 38% of respondents, to a minimum of at least 500-999 people (12%). Industries represented included Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (21%), Professional Services (17%), Manufacturing (12%), Government (12%), Education (11%), and Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals (10%).
Source: press release
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