2 min Analytics

‘Nearly all IT teams buy tech their infrastructure cannot support’

‘Nearly all IT teams buy tech their infrastructure cannot support’

A new study shows that IT teams are under severe pressure to modernise faster than they should.

A new report, “IT Leader Insights: The State of IT Modernization Priorities and Challenges Amid Economic Headwinds,” reveals the challenges facing IT purchasers and decision makers as they seek to move on from legacy infrastructure in order to reap the full benefits of rapidly emerging technologies.

To create the report, Pure Storage partnered with Wakefield Research on a survey of 500 IT buyers at companies of 500+ employees or more across four major global markets (US, UK, France, Germany).

Three main technologies dominate

The three top most targeted areas for purchasing and deployment are not really surprising, given all the buzz that has surrounded them. IT buyers have cited that their top investments planned for the next five years are AI/machine learning (52%) and sustainable technology (51%). In addition, 46% predict they’ll invest in infrastructure automation or orchestration.

Additionally, the survey found that 4 in 5 (80%) IT buyers plan to invest in emerging technologies due to the current economic environment.

Buying tech their infrastructure cannot support

A stunning 90% of IT buyers said that the pressure of their digital transformation agenda led them to buy technology their infrastructure could not support. Worse yet, 74% admitted this resulted in being unable to deploy new technology to leadership’s full expectations.

In fact, more than three in five IT buyers say they “feel pressured all the time or often” to make decisions on purchasing technology based on current needs. They do this without fully exploring the consequences of these decisions in the longer term.

Perhaps as a result of the impractical purchases, 76% of the respondents said they expect “increased scrutiny on purchasing decisions” over the next five years.

The need to modernize is universal

Nearly all survey respondents (99%) said they plan to modernize their IT infrastructure to better support future technology investments over the next five years.

The top areas of IT infrastructure that they said are in need of updates to better support adopting new technology include network and security (58%), data management or storage (52%) and data center facilities (50%).