IBM study: Enterprise unprepared for cloud, analytics, mobile

Most businesses are not prepared for the proliferation of cloud, analytics, mobile devices and social media, according to a study from IBM.
IBM released preliminary findings from the study, which looked at 750 global organizations, at its IBM Edge2014 conference last week. The study, based on responses from 750 CTOs, CIOs and other technology executives in 18 countries, found that fewer than 10% of the organizations were “fully prepared” for the ongoing proliferation of analytics, cloud computing, mobile devices and social media.
IBM sees big data as the major driver for changing computing infrastructure, and the study also found that 70% of the participants acknowledged that IT infrastructure has a significant role in establishing competitive advantage or generating revenue.
“Big data is the transformative force driving every element of our clients’ computing infrastructure – starting with environments of traditional applications blended with the new requirements of social, mobile and analytic workloads that demand faster access at massive scale,” said Tom Rosamilia, who is SVP of IBM Systems & Technology Group and IBM Integrated Supply Chain.
IBM is among the vendors actively trying to address the confluence of mobile, cloud, and analytics. Last week, Microsoft and SAP announced that they were extending their longstanding partnership to include deeper integration among their products related to those three areas in order to offer more comprehensive solutions to the enterprise. Meanwhile, IBM has been expanding its storage portfolio and setting a new record in data storage, along with the launch of Software Defined Storage earlier this month, which allows organizations to access data from any device, anywhere in the world, according to the company.
The study, conducted by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, found that 62% of respondents planned to bump up their IT infrastructure spending in the next 12-18 months. However, only 22% described having a well-defined, strategic roadmap for IT infrastructure.
“In our discussions with technical leaders, we are seeing that the historic shifts transforming business and technology are creating a greater need and urgency to deploy a computing infrastructure that can support their business results,” said Rosamilia. “Today’s innovative companies are recognizing that the right infrastructure can deliver real competitive advantage and fuel top-line growth.”
Some of the major problems that technology executives described included challenges with the ability to efficiently and securely move large amounts of data between geographies; maintaining a secure environment; and the ability to cut costs and improve efficiency in global storage environments.
The complete study will be available next month. Read the preliminary information here.