UK data centres failing to meet C-suite requirements research reveals
Thu 25 Oct 2018
According to research released by Volta Data Centres, data loss and downtime are putting hybrid and edge computing strategies at risk.
The research reveals that 56% of IT decision makers have experienced downtime over the past six months and 46% have experienced data loss in the last 12 months.
The average downtime was 3h 45minutes and 4% have experienced data loss more than five times. This is despite organisations citing security and uptime as their top priorities.
According to the report, edge is already well established in the UK market with larger companies leading the line as expected, contributing to the evolution of hybrid strategies. Almost half of all firms surveyed said that they are already using edge data centres.
However, the edge deployment gap is widening between small and large companies. While 60% of companies with more than 100 employees are already using edge computing, over a third of IT decision makers in companies sized 1-19 people have never heard of the term.
Volta says the polarisation in sophistication between small and large companies calls for improved IT training and education about emerging infrastructure options.
The top reason organisations cite for adopting edge is security. Given the fact that 46% of firms have experienced data loss in the last 12 months, this shows that UK data centres are struggling to meet organisational requirements.
Volta says organisations need to take a more thorough approach to data centre management.
“Clearly both outages and data loss will be due to a variety of factors, from network glitches to human error, failed UPSs to inadequate maintenance. But whatever the reason, organisations need to be taking a far more robust approach to data centre due diligence,” reads the report.
Volta says the ability to adapt and scale across the hybrid environment is becoming ‘critically important’.
“As hybrid becomes the dominant IT infrastructure model, flexibility is going to become ever more important.”
“Flexibility should never mean compromise.”
For more on edge computing, read A*STAR Head of Data Centre Joshua Au’s recent article for The Stack, where he investigates the role of the edge in a hyperscale world.
