A survey by F5 Networks found that at least 67 percent of
enterprises have implemented or are in the process of implementing
infrastructure as a service and platform as a service, and that 15
percent of enterprises have implemented or are in the process of
implementing chargeback capabilities, setting the stage for full-scale
ITaaS across enterprises. In addition, nearly 75 percent of respondents
believe that the shift to IT as a service (ITaaS) will take place in
the next three to five years.
The survey, which included 538 responses from enterprise IT
professionals, summarizes enterprises’ attitudes about and progress
toward implementing ITaaS—a business model in which stakeholders select
and self-provision IT services on demand. Survey results indicated that
with the static data center model of the past lacking sufficient
agility to support today’s myriad user types, complex applications and
increasing demands on IT, enterprises are showing support for the idea
of ITaaS as they move toward a dynamic data center model.
“ITaaS is a promising option for many enterprises, given the range
of demands placed on data centers, which traditionally aren’t flexible
enough to adapt to the requirements of today’s applications,” said Karl
Triebes, CTO and senior vice president of product development at F5
Networks. “Users are increasingly demanding support for a variety of
applications with multidimensional needs. This requires additional
functionality and automation capabilities that are typically inherent
in dynamic data centers and associated with ITaaS.”
The survey found three out of four IT managers (75 percent) say
their organization’s philosophy and needs align with an ITaaS
framework. Eighty-five percent of IT organizations surveyed have
virtualized or are in the process of virtualizing their servers.
Thirteen percent are close to being able to perform long distance live
migrations of their environment, and 19 percent are close to a full
self-service provisioning model, while 80 percent of IT managers
believe that ITaaS will become mainstream.
“Traditionally, the data center is a siloed environment, but IT must
now reinvent the way data center elements are assembled to deliver
applications,” said Schalk Theron, chief information officer at cloud
content management specialist SpringCM. “Users now typically want to
obtain a service without having to call and ask someone for it. ITaaS
is doing just that—providing a catalogue of services to users and
allowing them to self-provision applications. The time has come for IT
to think in business terms and move at the speed of business. This is
done by automating and aligning technology to match business demand.”