Survey Finds 90% of ITDMs are Focused on Footprint Expansions, Addressing Performance and Latency Among Top Concerns

Report from NetActuate uncovers top network and infrastructure challenges facing ITDMs and drivers of footprint growth.

NetActuate, a leading provider of global network and infrastructure services, today released the results of its 2023 ITDM Global Network and Infrastructure Outlook Report. To get a closer look at current deployments and challenges, as well as plans and key drivers for footprint growth, the company surveyed 600 full-time employees in IT-related roles who had decision-making authority over network and infrastructure strategy and vendor selection. 

“Despite current economic uncertainty, companies are still growing their footprints to keep application performance fast and reliable,” said Mark Mahle, CEO of NetActuate. “The complexity of the challenges ITDMs face is also increasing. They must balance cost and security with growing complicated, global deployments that often include a mix of on-premises equipment, colocation, and multiple cloud providers.”  

Findings Highlight the Key Drivers for Footprint Growth, and a Complex Landscape of Challenges Faced by ITDMs 

The findings of the 2023 ITDM Global Network and Infrastructure Outlook Report reveal the complicated landscape for IT leaders in charge of network and infrastructure services. IT leaders are under pressure to keep costs under control and stay compliant with numerous regulations. At the same time, they must find ways to expand their deployments to ensure high performance and low latency for online product, application, and service delivery. As footprints grow, so do the numbers of vendors they must manage, which adds time and effort to not only IT, but also finance and procurement. Key findings include:

• 90% of respondents plan on global growth in the next 12-24 months
  As global markets continue to mature and workforces become more dispersed, it will drive more businesses to expand their presence. Despite current market instability, 90% of respondents were planning to grow their footprints in the next one to two years. US-based locations were the most popular expansion locations, followed by Canada, Mexico, South America, and Europe.
  
• Improving application performance and availability for end users is driving footprint growth
  When asked the key reasons they are deploying in multiple regions, nearly half of respondents cited application performance and availability for customers, while 44% added locations to reduce latency. Keeping applications available to remote workers was a driving factor for one in three respondents, and one out of four had increasing traffic that needed to be managed.
  
• Nearly 60% of companies still have on-premises solutions as part of their footprint, and close to half have hardware in data centers
  The survey results reflect an infrastructure landscape that is as hybrid as ever. As much as the public cloud has grown in popularity and usage over the last two decades, just 32% of respondents were deployed with a single cloud provider, while 29% deployed across multiple public clouds. Many more businesses still rely on their own hardware. Nearly 60% of respondents kept part of their infrastructure on premises, and 48% co-located their servers in a data center. A final 33% leverage self-managed private clouds. Importantly, our survey allowed for multiple responses, and respondents' choices were reflective of most businesses leveraging a combination of public cloud, private cloud, and dedicated, owned hardware for various types of deployments and applications, whether internal or external facing.
  
• 71% of respondents report that vendor management was consuming too much time and resources, and impacting their work
  Over half of respondents in the survey are managing more than six providers for  network and infrastructure services alone. Nearly 1 in 10 were dealing with more than 20 providers. As businesses look to expand their presence, especially into global markets, the number of vendors needed to reach every market with every service can add up very quickly. 

“Our survey highlights the competing priorities IT leaders must balance to keep online applications, products, and services fast, available, and reliable,” said Sandy Bhargavi, CFO of NetActuate. “The work of IT teams in charge of network and infrastructure services has become critical to operations and profitability than ever before. Slow performance can impact bottom lines every minute there is an issue. However, full-service global providers like NetActuate that offer end-to-end global solutions can help these teams successfully optimize and grow their footprints by seeking out innovative and affordable solutions. ”
 

The full 2023 ITDM Global Network and Infrastructure Outlook Report offers additional insights and is available to download.  To learn more about NetActuate’s services, please schedule a call with an engineer by visiting netactuate.com.