Rackspace Survey Finds Businesses Would 'Love To Never Have To Buy Another Server Again'

Released on: November 18, 2009, 11:23 am
Author: Rackspace
Industry: Internet & Online

Rackspace Hosting, the world's leader in hosting and cloud computing, has announced the results of its latest survey, which highlights the growing problem of businesses struggling to cope with the demands of managing their own servers. More than half of the businesses surveyed responded that they would 'love to never have to buy another server again.'

The research underscores Rackspace's recent launch of No More Servers, a campaign and community dedicated to a new way of buying IT which includes managed hosting, cloud computing and email hosting. The new service has been created to help free businesses from the hassle of in-house server management and to enable them to instead shift their focus onto mission critical applications, core competencies and innovation. Rackspace is augmenting this initiative with Rackspace.co.uk/NoMoreServers, a location for companies to learn the benefits of hosting services.

The study, conducted by LoudHouse on behalf of Rackspace, investigated the views of more than 441 IT managers at mid-size enterprises and revealed that approximately one third of their IT staff's time is spent on server management, which is liable to limit their ability to focus on strategic initiatives that could benefit the business. Fifty eight percent of respondents cited the 'hassle of managing servers' as a challenge for their organization, while 61% of IT managers said 'time to drive innovation' was a challenge.

Additionally, on-site servers were seen to also cause 'server stress' for IT managers, who cited 'the need to be available 24x7', 'hardware issues and maintenance', and 'after-hours calls and issues' as the top three server management issues. The survey also found that 51% of respondents have made mistakes in their server capacity planning. Fifteen percent have bought too many servers and 36% have failed to buy enough. This leaves businesses exposed to the risks of financial waste and the inability to cope with user demand by not getting server spending right the first time.

The survey also revealed that 35% of companies identify themselves as ‘proactive and slightly ahead of the curve’ when it comes to describing their approach to new technologies, while 28% remain ‘cautious and reactive.’ When it comes to hosting and cloud computing, barriers to adoption include assurances of reliability (29%), evidence of cost savings (28%) and assurances of security (27%).

"IT should be an enabler," said Lanham Napier, president and chief executive officer of Rackspace Hosting. "The survey seems to reveal that a huge chunk of time and resources are spent keeping the lights on and preventing problems. Rackspace, with its world class Fanatical Support, can free organizations from the hassle of server management and enable their IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives that will positively impact the business."

About the Survey
Rackspace's online survey research was conducted in September 2009 and involved 441 US and UK-based IT decision-makers at companies with 100-500 employees.

About Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace Hosting is the world's leader in hosting, cloud computing and dedicated servers and has been ranked in the Financial Times Top 50 Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom for the past five years. Rackspace provides its customers with Fanatical Support by delivering a portfolio of hosted IT services, including Managed Hosting, hosting exchange and private cloud solutions, housed in our data centres.

For more information, please contact:
Brooke Hamilton
Corporate Communications Manager
Rackspace Hosting
4 The Square
Stockley Park
Uxbridge
UB11 1ET
+442087342574
www.rackspace.co.uk