A new report from CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) reveals that hybrid IT is the architecture of choice for Australian organisations. The Australian Hybrid IT Adoption Index found that 66 per cent of respondents are already using managed services, while more than one-fifth of those remaining plan to used managed services in the next 12 months.
A hybrid IT blend of in-house and third-party IT services – such as colocation, managed hosting, managed services, network solutions and/or cloud – can provide powerful and highly responsive infrastructure capabilities, according to Stuart Mills, CenturyLink’s regional director for Australia and New Zealand.
“Successful hybrid IT planning needs to begin with a clear understanding of the organisation’s existing IT capabilities, business objectives and workloads,” Mills said. “The key is to identify which areas are not performing optimally and decide whether the organisation needs to supplement those in-house capabilities with external expertise.”
According to the CenturyLink report, the most popular types of applications being run on outsourced infrastructure are online applications such as websites and e-commerce (48 per cent), applications used for back-office services such as finance and enterprise resource planning (43 per cent) and disaster recovery/business continuity planning solutions (31 per cent).
Security is the main concern for 78 per cent of organisations when looking for data centre colocation and outsourcing due to the increasing number, variety and sophistication of cyber-attacks. A perceived lack of security is also cited as the main barrier to moving infrastructure into a hybrid IT model for 29 per cent of companies.
Survey respondents who are considering a hybrid IT approach are looking for providers that can deliver a full spectrum of security products and services that fit their business and technology needs perfectly. This includes outsourced experts that can act as an internal security team, and the ability to deliver comprehensive protection inside the company’s offices, the data centre (on-premise, outsourced, or third-party) or in the cloud.
The Australian report underscores findings in a recent IDG Research study in the United States, which found that companies across the globe have plans to engage outside technology and planning expertise within the next few years. Additionally, the IDG Managed IT Services report, sponsored by CenturyLink, found that IT decision makers are increasingly exploring hybrid IT solutions and evaluating service providers that offer a breadth of services.
The Australian report also supports the hybrid IT balance enabled by CenturyLink’s portfolio of IT services, consulting, network services and data centres, which organisations can optimise to meet their current and evolving needs.
The Australian Hybrid IT Adoption Index surveyed 150 decision-makers in a variety of industries during August and September 2015. The full report can be downloaded from http://www.centurylink.com.au/assets/australian-hybrid-it-adoption-index-2015.html.
