VMware have published key findings from a cloud study conducted by Vanson Bourne on IT management.
The study dove deeper into the topic explored by the recent VMware-sponsored survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit and found that 69 percent of respondents to the Vanson Bourne survey agree that the management of IT has become increasingly decentralised in the past three years.
Findings also revealed that IT isn’t ready for this transition and it may be causing more harm to businesses than good, specifically around security, with 57 percent of respondents agreeing that decentralisation has resulted in the purchasing of non-secure solutions.
Business models are being disrupted and digital transformation is critical in enabling organisations to remain innovative, competitive and agile. Cloud computing has been key to this transformation, but IT is struggling to keep up and so responsibility has shifted away from IT. Lines of business are now purchasing IT ‘as a service’ to drive innovation within their domains. With this decentralisation comes both opportunities and challenges. While it could empower all business units to drive innovation and ease pressure on IT, it also creates numerous management, security and compliance issues.
“These survey results reflect that cloud computing is continuing to move technology beyond IT, giving lines of business easy-to-use, flexible IT services to drive innovation within their domains,” said Raghu Raghuram, chief operating officer, Cloud Services and Products, VMware. “VMware Cross-Cloud Architecture enables IT to help manage and control multiple clouds across an enterprise, thereby giving lines of businesses the flexibility to innovate in any environment.”
Key findings
Decentralisation is occurring
- 69 percent agree that the management of IT has continued to decentralise in the past three years
- 65 percent of IT respondents want IT to be more centralised
- 74 percent believe that the IT department should be responsible for enabling other lines of business to drive innovation
Security is an issue with decentralisation
- 57 percent agree decentralisation has resulted in the purchasing of non-secure solutions
- 60 percent agree decentralisation results in applications being developed outside of corporate or government regulations
- 56 percent agree decentralisation results in lack of regulatory compliance of data protection
Other issues as a result of decentralisation
- From an IT perspective, 58 percent agree decentralisation has created a lack of clear ownership and responsibility for IT
- From a financial perspective: Businesses are seeing an average increase of 5.7 percent on spending on tech / IT as a result of decentralisation
- 61 percent believe decentralisation creates a duplication of IT spending across the organisation
- 57 percent believe decentralisation creates a lack of awareness of overall IT spending across the business
Read more about the cloud research and how IT decentralisation is disrupting business
