Enterprises Change Their Data Center Strategy
A key trend to watch this year is how much enterprise IT spending moves away from traditional data center infrastructure. For the first time ever, enterprises are spending more money annually on cloud infrastructure services than on data center hardware and software, according to recent data from Synergy Research Group. Enterprise spending on data center hardware and software has been stagnant for a large part of the last 10 years, while spending on cloud infrastructure services – such as Platform-as-a-Service and hosted private cloud – has skyrocketed. From 2009 to 2019, annual spending on cloud infrastructure services has gone from virtually zero to almost $100 billion, growing 56 percent annually, according to Synergy. During the same 10-year time period, annual spending on data center hardware and software grew only 4 percent on average. “Enterprises are speaking loudly via their wallets and channel [partners] cannot rely just on relationships with traditional hardware and software vendors,” said John Dinsdale, chief analyst at Synergy Research Group. “Clearly, channel partners need to have a strong set of cloud service solutions in their portfolio and deep cloud service skills, if they want to remain relevant and successful.”
