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Reassessing Storage Area Network Economics
Storage area networks are demonstrating strong financial returns as the technology continues its move into mainstream computing. This report examines the benefits of storage area network (SAN) technology and looks at adoption rates for small, medium, and large organizations. We also compare adoption rates with the return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) experiences of various-sized organizations. We conclude with recommendations for achieving maximum benefits while improving the TCO of this technology. (4 pp., 4 figs.)
November, 2007
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The ABCs of Storage Area Networks
Making the decision to invest in storage area networks (SANs) requires an understanding of the differences between various approaches to managing storage. Unfortunately, the differences are not always clearly understood outside the realm of the enterprise data center. SANs, network-attached storage (NAS), and direct-attached storage (DAS) are sometimes positioned as competing technologies, but in actuality all three are found in today's enterprise IT environments and have distinct applications. This Research Byte provides a primer on these three types of storage management systems and their application.
November, 2007
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Application Developers Getting Largest Pay Hikes
IT salaries will increase by over 5% in 2008, with applications developers leading the list of jobs with the greatest percentage gain. This Research Byte analyzes the factors driving these salary increases in light of current trends in application development staffing and outsourcing levels.
October, 2007
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Regulations: Mixed Blessing for the Security Program
What is the proper relationship between the security program and regulatory compliance? How can an organization be compliant with all of the applicable regulations and at the same time be truly secure? To answer these questions, Computer Economics conducted a survey in the first half of 2007 to gather information from security, IT, and regulatory professionals on these questions.
October, 2007
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Moving Security Beyond Regulatory Compliance
Organizations today must comply with a greater number of regulations than ever before, many of which deal with information and system security. While the intent of these regulations is good, their proliferation is burdensome. Even more troubling, it is possible to be compliant but not secure. Based on our survey of 100 security, IT, and compliance professionals, this article proposes four principles for establishing a security program that goes beyond regulatory compliance. (5 pp., 6 figs.) [Executive Summary]
October, 2007
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The Shifting Mix of Data Center Costs
Understanding trends in data center costs is key to managing data center spending. For example, IT executives know that hardware costs are declining. But by how much? And what about other costs, such as software, personnel, and facilities? Is the long-term trend up or down? This article examines the major categories of data center cost for Unix and Windows servers on a per-unit basis for the years 2002 through 2006. It also analyzes how these costs have been changing and makes recommendations based on these trends. (3 pp., 4 figs.) [Executive Summary]
October, 2007
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Application Development Staffing Ratios: Executive Summary
Application development personnel play a key role within IT organizations. Application software sits between the users of IT and the IT infrastructure, providing functionality to support business processes and serve customers. But how can these staff members be best utilized? This Research Byte is a brief summary of our full report on current staffing ratios for application development.
October, 2007
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Optimizing Application Development Staffing Ratios
Application development is often the largest single job category in the IT organization. But what is the ideal staffing level for these systems analysts and programmer staff? This article provides benchmarks for applications development staffing based on the number of users, organization size, and industry sector. We also analyze application software development headcount as a percentage of the total IT staff headcount and investigate the impact of outsourcing on applications staffing levels. (5 pp., 9 figs.)[Executive Summary]
October, 2007
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Data Center Costs Are Changing
Over the past five years, Unix and Windows data center costs per processor have been steadily declining. But because the cost reduction is largely due to the falling cost of hardware, other costs are becoming more important in terms of data center financial management. This Research Byte is a brief summary of our full report on the shifting mix of data center costs, which analyzes the implication of these trends.
October, 2007
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Network Staffing and Spending Ratios: Executive Summary
Building an in-house staff to support voice and data networks is a challenging responsibility. How large a staff is required to efficiently provide reliable network operations? How large a budget is required? Knowing the norms for these benchmarks in other organizations with IT systems of equivalent complexity can help to determine the appropriate number of network support staff and reasonable budgets for network spending. This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report, which provides network spending and staffing benchmarks based on the number of desktops, network sites, and network devices, and by size of organization.
September, 2007
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Network Staffing and Spending Ratios
Voice and data networks are an essential component of the IT infrastructure for nearly every company today. However, to ensure that networks function at an optimal level, every organization must budget an adequate amount for network support and must recruit and retain a sufficient number of skilled network personnel to do the job. This article provides an in-depth analysis of network support staffing and cost ratios. Network staffing benchmarks are shown as the number of desktops, network sites, and network devices per network support technician. Network spending benchmarks are shown as the ratio of total network spending (for voice and data) per desktop, network site, and network device. All benchmarks are broken down by size of organization and are shown at the median, 25th, and 75th percentile. (6 pp., 6 figs.) [Executive Summary]
September, 2007
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Data Center Consolidation Reduces Costs and Improves Performance
This article investigates the benefits of data center consolidation and provides recommendations based on our findings. Based on our survey of over 200 IT organizations, we find that organizations with single data centers generally spend less per user than organizations with multiple data centers. We report adoption rates for data center consolidation by size of organization. We also provide a summary of the return on investment (ROI) experienced by organizations undergoing data center consolidation as well as their experiences with actual consolidation costs versus budgets. Our analysis concludes with guidelines for best practices that mitigate risk in the consolidation effort. (5 pp., 4 figs.)[Executive Summary]
September, 2007
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Weighing the Pros and Cons of Handheld Email Devices
Handheld email devices, such as the Blackberry from Research in Motion (RIM) and Palm's Treo, have become must-have devices for many business professionals. Once limited to top executives and select sales personnel, these products are now in high demand by users at all levels of the organization. How deeply have these devices penetrated the enterprise? How fast is usage growing? Do the benefits of these products outweigh the costs? This Research Byte is an executive summary of our full report, which answers these questions.
September, 2007
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Handheld Email Devices: Adoption Rates, ROI, and TCO
How deeply have handheld email devices, such as the Blackberry and Treo, penetrated the enterprise? How fast is usage growing? Do the benefits of these products outweigh the costs? To find out, Computer Economics conducted a survey of over 200 IT organizations in which we asked specific questions about adoption levels, user counts, and the economic characteristics of these devices. Our analysis shows that these devices are widely deployed and are continuing to grow in popularity among business users. Furthermore, while the ROI for these devices appears positive overall, our total cost of ownership statistics may indicate that some organizations are not adequately budgeting for the support of these devices. (5 pp., 7 figs.)[Executive Summary]
September, 2007
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Windows and Linux Data Centers Lag Behind Unix in Realizing Economies of Scale
In this article, we examine total data center spending per server OS instance across data centers of varying sizes. We break down these metrics for Windows, Linux, and Unix systems. Interestingly, Unix data centers experience significantly better economies of scale than Windows or Linux shops. We report the metrics and examine the reasons for the greater efficiencies in large Unix shops compared to other operating systems. (3 pp., 1 fig.)[Executive Summary]
September, 2007
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