Demands on IT organizations are increasing. Executives are placing higher value in supporting business objectives, providing rapid service deployment and scalability, and implementing new services (mobility, cloud), all while expecting capital and operational expenditures to remain the same. In order to meet these needs, IT is moving away from complex, home-built infrastructures for pre-configured, converged solutions. IDC reported that organizations spent more than $4.6 billion on converged systems in 2012 and anticipates roughly $8 billion will be spent in 2013.* IT executives are excited to see the quantifiable benefits of converged infrastructure solutions, such as VCE Vblock™ Systems.
“IT infrastructure is at the backbone of today’s modern business. It enables rapid expansion into new, fast growing markets.” – From Convergence with Vblock Systems: a Value Measurement
For the second consecutive year, IDC conducted in-depth interviews of Vblock System customers to quantify VCE’s benefits. In “Convergence with Vblock Systems: a Value Measurement,” an IDC white paper sponsored by VCE, IDC cites the astonishing results from in-depth interviews with eleven IT organizations, enterprises, and major service providers who run on Vblock Systems. The white paper demonstrates how customers leveraging VCE are well positioned to modernize their data center, launch and expand private clouds, and maintain speed, savings, and simplicity benefits.
The Results
IDC found that Vblock Systems largely improved IT infrastructure agility by cutting the time to deploy integrated systems from 160 days to 40 days, with 79% less staff time compared to traditional system deployments. An IT executive at a manufacturing firm noted: “Getting out of the piece part assembly business; I would say that was the number one driver for both myself and the manager of infrastructure and operations…when it came to moving to Vblock.”
“Converged Infrastructure frees server, storage, and networking administrators from routine, mundane maintenance tasks.” – From Convergence with Vblock Systems: a Value Measurement
Vblock Systems also optimize datacenter infrastructure, IT staff operations, and provide lower total datacenter costs and reliable IT services. IDC found:
- Optimized datacenter infrastructure: On average, the customers reduced their annual datacenter infrastructure costs by nearly $3.6 million, $75,778 per 100 users.
- Efficient IT staff operations: Vblock Systems provided five times faster time to market for new services, from 25 to 5 days.
- Lower total datacenter costs: Organizations in the study reduced the average annual cost per 100 datacenter users by 50% – $151,571 to $75,793 – by lowering maintenance, replacement, and IT staff costs.
- Reliable IT services: Designed for high availability with best-of-breed components, VCE Vblock Systems delivered a consolidated footprint and a simplified IT environment that freed staff resources and allowed customers in the study to reduce downtime hours by 96% per year.
IDC calculated that Vblock Systems infrastructure resulted in a return on investment of 294% over a three-year period and 435% over a five-year period compared to IDC data on traditional infrastructure.
IDC found that fewer management tools and improved staff efficiency was the top benefit to converged infrastructures. – IDC’s Converged Systems Survey, July 2012
In summary, IDC found that customers who deployed Vblock Systems:
- Sped deployments
- Simplified operations
- Improved business-support agility
- Reduced costs
- Freed staff to launch new applications, extend services, and improve user/customer satisfaction
Make sure to read the full white paper, “Convergence with Vblock Systems: a Value Measurement,” to see the stunning results and IDC’s conclusion for what converged systems mean for the datacenter executive.
*Source: IDC, Worldwide Converged Systems 2012–2016 Forecast: Adoption Fueled by Faster Time-to-Market Demands, Doc # 237979, Nov 2012
