Cost management and virtualization top the list of enterprise IT concerns, according to the results of a SHARE survey that will be released at the SHARE event at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, August 1-5. SHARE conducted the survey of more than 160 of IBM's top customers to review the current state of enterprise IT in terms of where companies are putting the most resources and focus. The study was conducted in June and July to help SHARE better shape its programs and events to address members' needs. According to the group, the survey results reinforce the importance of a key theme for SHARE in Boston - "How to Empower Your Bottom Line."
Respondents were asked to rank their top five concerns. Cost management, especially when it comes to cost reduction and avoidance, emerged as the greatest concern. Virtualization ranked as the second biggest issue, with server virtualization the primary focus, followed by storage virtualization and then network virtualization. Following cost management and virtualization, the third top concern according to the survey was improving IT's value and deriving competitive advantage from IT. This was followed by enterprise security; and in fifth place, the aging and demographics of current IT staffs. Additional concerns cited by respondents included business continuity planning; cloud computing; regulatory compliance; reinvigorating/repurposing the mainframe; and data center energy management.
The need to contain IT costs and demonstrate the value of IT is an important theme at the upcoming conference, Al Williams, SHARE president, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "We will be pushing that hard because it is vital to the relevance of our shops and perhaps even to the career futures of for the people who want to survive in IT and be productive." A second key theme for the conference is virtualization and cloud computing. "They go hand in hand, but in our survey, cloud computing made the top 10, but it is so confusing I can see why it wasn't in the top five," he observes.
More than 600 technical sessions at SHARE in Boston are focused on the 2010 conference themes - "Enterprise Virtualization & Cloud Computing," and "How to Empower Your Bottom Line." Industry leader keynotes will cover these topics as well as System z, which will also be covered in conference sessions. "As you might guess, that is a hot topic this week and will be for the next couple of months with the introduction of zEnterprise," notes Williams.
Related to the key conference themes of IT & the Bottom Line, and Virtualization & Cloud Computing, there is also a strong focus on applications architectures with new Architecture Summit sessions running from Monday morning through Thursday. "Delivering value very often comes down to what systems do for the parent company," Williams says. "That is often application-driven, so we have been working hard to reach into that field."
And, for those unable to attend the conference in person, SHARE is expanding the range of sessions available virtually this year. While the SHARE conference in March included one track of sessions available online, for the SHARE conference in August, there will be two virtual tracks, with one covering a range of topics, and the second focused on the Architecture Summit.
For information on the conference themes, go here.
For information on SHARE Online from Boston, go here.
For registration, go here.