The 2017 IT Trends Report: Portrait of a Hybrid IT Organization

SolarWinds recently released the 2017 IT Trends Report: Portrait of a Hybrid IT Organization, which highlights the current trends in IT from the perspective of IT professionals. The full details of the report, as well as recommendations for hybrid IT success, can be found at it-trends.solarwinds.com.

The findings are based on a survey fielded in December 2016. It yielded responses from 205 IT practitioners, managers, and directors in the U.S. and Canada from public and private-sector small, mid-size, and enterprise companies that leverage cloud-based services for at least some of their IT infrastructure. The results of the survey illustrate what a modern hybrid IT organization looks like, and shows cost benefits of the cloud, as well as the struggle to balance shifting job and skill dynamics. 

The following are some key takeaways from the 2017 IT Trends Report:

  1. Moving more applications, storage, and databases into the cloud.
  2. Experiencing the cost efficiencies of the cloud.
  3. Building and expanding cloud roles and skill sets for IT professionals.
  4. Increasing complexity and lacking visibility across the entire hybrid IT infrastructure.

Cloud and hybrid IT are a reality for many organizations today. They have created a new era of work that is more global, interconnected, and flexible than ever. At the same time, the benefits of hybrid IT introduce greater complexity and technology abstraction. IT professionals are tasked with devising new and creative methods to monitor and manage these services, as well as prepare their organizations and themselves for continued technology advancements.

Are these consistent with your organizational directives and environment? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

  • sometimes part of the cost is not apparent until you get into the new environment....  At which point you realize the cast savings is not what you thought or were led to believe.

  • I always want to caution people about #2 as cost savings (or efficiencies) are not immediately recognized or obvious.  To really take advantage of cost efficiencies in the cloud you really need to re-platform your applications to leverage the capabilities of the cloud.  Unfortunately most attempts at cloud migrations don't go through this re-platforming process and just end up moving bulky VM's into the cloud and that generally ends up costing you more in the end.  If you are looking to moving to the cloud and aren't sure I would strongly encourage you to seek out other professionals that have experience with it and can help you make the most of it.

  • design and build a private one for them!

  • My company is still dipping their toes into Cloud. The water isn't quite right for us yet. Leadership is still intimidated by the ambiguity and lack of control that hosting on a public CLoud brings.

      We are still building and perfecting our hybrid Cloud. We first want to be able to provide services to the business from anywhere within our company before making the leap. When we decide to do so we will start with our non-PRD first and then work up our IT Tiers for availability & criticality.

Thwack - Symbolize TM, R, and C