According to the SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2016, 58 percent of Australian IT professionals report security remains the greatest Hybrid IT challenge and two-thirds indicate resources and new skills are still needed

SYDNEY, Australia - April 5, 2016 -SolarWinds, a leading provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, today released the findings of its IT Trends Report 2016: The Hybrid IT Evolution. The study reveals that the vast majority of Australian businesses have shifted away from on-premises-only infrastructure to hybrid IT environments, creating new management concerns, dominated by security, and more pressure on IT professionals related to skills and resources.

'The findings of this year's study paint a clear picture: cloud adoption is nearly ubiquitous, but it's not now and will not in the foreseeable future be suitable for all workloads, and even if it were, very few if any businesses would convert all of their existing applications to run in the cloud,' said Joel Dolisy, CIO, SolarWinds. 'The resulting dynamic-one set of critical on-premises services connected with another set of services in the cloud-is hybrid IT. And at the center of this evolution is the IT professional who needs to ensure always-on performance of applications, devices, networks and systems-regardless of location. They need to be empowered with the support to gain the skills and tools required to properly manage and monitor hybrid IT environments, which in turn will allow businesses to truly unlock the potential of the cloud.'

Key Findings

IT infrastructures have evolved from traditional on-premises-only to a hybrid strategy that links internal and external IT services driven by the existence of the cloud.

  • Nearly all (95 percent) of the IT professionals surveyed say adopting cloud technologies is important to their organisations' long-term business success; 38 percent saying it is extremely important.
  • Only 53 percent estimate that half or more of their organisations' total IT infrastructure will be in the cloud within the next 3-5 years.
  • 61 percent say it is unlikely that all of their organisations' infrastructure will ever be migrated to the cloud.
  • Overall, only 5 percent say their organisations have not migrated any infrastructure to the cloud, compared to 11 percent in 2015.

IT professionals are faced with a dual mandate: increase efficiency through cloud services while also ensuring critical systems, databases and applications are secure.

  • The top three hybrid IT benefits by weighted rank are increased infrastructure flexibility/agility, infrastructure cost-reduction and eliminating responsibility for maintenance of underlying infrastructure, respectively.
  • 58 percent say that security is the biggest challenge associated with managing current hybrid IT environments.
  • The top three barriers to greater cloud adoption by weighted rank are security/compliance concerns, the need to support legacy systems and the work required to move existing infrastructure, respectively.
  • 71 percent say they have already migrated applications to the cloud, the top answer, followed by storage (40 percent) and databases (31 percent).
  • The top three areas of infrastructure with the highest priority for continued or future migration by weighted rank are applications, storage and databases, respectively.

IT professionals require new skills, tools and resources to successfully drive the hybrid IT migration forward and enable their organisations to better meet business objectives.

  • Only 32 percent are certain their IT organisations currently have adequate resources to manage a hybrid IT environment.
  • The top five skills needed to better manage hybrid IT environments are hybrid IT monitoring/management tools and metrics (53 percent), automation (47 percent), application migration (40 percent), distributed architectures (37 percent) and vendor management (35 percent).
  • 56 percent indicated they have the level of support needed from leadership and the organisation as a whole to develop/improve the skills they feel they need in order to better manage hybrid IT environments.

'Bring-your-own-device and now the Internet of Things have added and continue to add hundreds of thousands of new devices to corporate systems, and as illustrated in this year's report, IT is also evolving from traditional on-premises-only infrastructure to the hybrid strategy driven by the existence of the cloud,' Dolisy added. 'In short, IT is everywhere. Effectively managing and monitoring the new environment-from on-premises to the cloud with multiplying endpoints-to be able to act when needed is more critical now than ever.'

The annual SolarWinds IT Trends Report explores significant trends, developments and movements related to and directly affecting IT and IT professionals. The findings of this year's report are based on a survey fielded in December 2015, which yielded responses from 163 Australian IT practitioners, managers and directors from public and private sector small, mid-size and enterprise companies.

The findings of this year's report are featured on the new SolarWinds IT Trends Index, an interactive Web experience that presents the study's findings region by region, including charts, graphs and additional insights into the data.

Resources

SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2016: The Hybrid IT Evolution (PDF)

SolarWinds IT Trends Index

SolarWinds Hybrid IT Management

Past SolarWinds IT Trends Reports

SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2015: Business at the Speed of IT

SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2014: The New IT

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About_SolarWinds

SolarWinds provides powerful and affordable IT management software to customers worldwide from Fortune 500® enterprises to small businesses, government agencies and educational institutions. We are committed to focusing exclusively on IT Pros, and strive to eliminate the complexity that they have been forced to accept from traditional enterprise software vendors. Regardless of where the IT asset or user sits, SolarWinds delivers products that are easy to find, buy, use, maintain, and scale while providing the power to address all key areas of the infrastructure from on premises to the Cloud. Our solutions are rooted in our deep connection to our user base, which interacts in our thwack online community to solve problems, share technology and best practices, and directly participate in our product development process. Learn more today at www.solarwinds.com.

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© 2016 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

SolarWinds Inc. issued this content on 04 April 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 05 April 2016 04:52:16 UTC

Original Document: http://www.solarwinds.com/company/newsroom/press_releases/security_concerns_plus_it_resources_and_skills_shortages_hindering_the_full_potential_of_hybrid_it_management_in_australia_solarwinds_study_finds.aspx