Consolidation, BC, Virtualization Top the CIO List

A survey commissioned by HP said that majority of technology decision makers are currently implementing or planning to implement in 2009 consolidation (95 percent), business continuity (93 percent) and virtualization (91 percent) projects.

Today s CIOs are challenged to control costs and achieve returns on technology investments. According to the study, respondents named reducing operational costs (31 percent) as their top driver for 2009 DCT spending. Enhancing security (29 percent) followed as a close second.

However, in both cases decision makers said that technology needs, more than business needs, are prompting the investments. This may limit their ability to achieve both short-term and long-term business benefits such as reduced costs, mitigated risks and accelerated growth.

CIOs who approach DCT initiatives with a focus on business needs can significantly reduce time to value for today s technology investments while laying the foundation for future growth, said John Bennett, worldwide director, Data Center Transformation Solutions, HP.

Most organizations are transforming their data centers through independent projects instead of taking a broad, integrated approach. The new research indicates that 20 percent of technology decision makers are initiating a complete transformation, while the remaining 80 percent are implementing individual transformation projects without an overall DCT strategy.

When asked to indicate what projects they would implement independently to achieve specific technology goals, respondents named the following:

# Automation 64 percent
# Green IT 60 percent
# Operations management 59 percent
# Virtualization 59 percent
# Business continuity 58 percent


All of these projects have the potential to also achieve business goals. By taking a comprehensive approach and aligning these autonomous projects to an overall DCT strategy, an opportunity exists for CIOs to maximize the value of their transformation initiatives, the survey said.