US Midmarket

Hyperconverged &
Converged Infrastructure
solutions adoption trends
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Methodology……………………….…………………..….……………..………………... 3
Executive Summary..………….…………………..….………………..……………….. 5

Midmarket HCI Adoption Trends

Executive Summary……………………………………………...…………………..…… 10
Current & Planned adoption………………………………...…………………..…… 11
HCI Adoption Drivers…………….…………..………………...…………………..…… 12
Adoption inhibitors……………………………………………...…………………..…… 14
Solution purchase considerations…………………………...…………………..… 15
HCI benefits…………………………………………………………………………………… 20

Midmarket CI Adoption Trends

Executive Summary……………………………………………...…………………..…… 26
Current & Planned adoption………………………………...…………………..…… 27
CI Adoption Drivers…………….…………..………………...…………………….…… 28
Projects driving CI adoption………………………………...…………………..…… 29
Solution purchase considerations…………………………...…………………..… 31
Challenges in implementing CI………………………………………………………… 33

2
Methodology

Completes 100-249 250-499 500-999 Total

N= 310 176 123 609

A total of 609 unique US midmarket firms completed the survey
A 24 minute questionnaire was administered to each respondent
Respondents were IT decision makers
Sampling quota was fixed by employee size categories: 100-249, 250-499, 500-999
This report consists of data and analysis for US only
Midmarket is defined as 100-999 employees

3
 Midmarket Segment Definitions referred to in the report
Midmarket is defined as 100-999 employees

Digital Transformation Segments IT Maturity Segments Cloud Maturity Segments

• Holistic = believe the Internet and digital
technologies impact every aspect of the
business and are a core part of
organizational strategy
• Inclusive = digital, while important, is a
small subset of strategic planning and not
seen as critical business-wide
• Siloed = some digital initiatives, but they
are not centrally coordinated nor always
part of the overall strategy
• In-the-shadows = no digital initiatives that
can be considered strategic
• Basic IT = Focused on delivering core IT
capabilities to internal users, but lack
ability to expand into more sophisticated
applications & technology categories
• Advanced IT = Progressed beyond core
applications & actively working with more
sophisticated solutions, including “second
order” (e.g., analytics, ERP) and emerging
(e.g., location-based intelligence, IoT)
• Enterprise IT = IT itself is run as a business
providing enterprise-grade support to al
aspects of the organization
• Intermediate Cloud = cloud adoption is
sporadic and with limited “connect and
integrate” of cloud applications, but
segment is accelerating adoption
• Mature Cloud = transitioned most IT to
cloud and is engaged in orchestrating
connectivity of business processes and
services
• Born-in-the-cloud = cloud is the primary
platform for both the services they provide
& the IT they consume themselves, with no
other model ever been used

4
 Executive Summary: The HCI opportunity – The business case
for “not-cloud”
Despite current trends, today’s infrastructure decisions go well beyond “Amazon or Azure?” On-premise solutions continue to evolve, and address important business requirements. Where does
hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) fit in today’s midmarket IT strategy? Cloud’s popularity isn’t simply a matter of it being a catch-phrase that resonates with both IT and business leaders; cloud
is atop corporate to-do lists because it responds to critical organizational needs. Cloud is an efficient platform for IT service delivery. Because it is provisioned “as-a-Service,” cloud embeds
professional support supplied by the cloud provider – a critical issue for midmarket firms, who have limited internal IT staff resources; and because it allows for customers to buy capacity on an as-
needed basis, cloud aligns IT costs with business benefit. Lost in much of the cloud chatter, though, is the fact that there is a counterpoint for each of these widely-recognized cloud attributes:

• IT efficiency is increasing, but that isn’t solely or specifically an attribute of ‘cloud’. Cloud is efficient because core delivery platforms are modern, optimized, and highly virtualized, meaning
that instead of the 3%-10% utilization rates that in-house servers typically clock in at, cloud providers can obtain 25%-40% (or higher) utilization of efficient alternatives to costly, power-hungry
IT assets, which improves cloud IT economics. But businesses that deploy their own efficient, virtualized modern gear are able to attain these benefits internally. Efficiency is a reflection of the
compute platform, not simply whether it is housed on-premise or at a remote facility.

• IT service delivery isn’t actually getting less complex. In many cases, cloud increases the overall complexity of a business’s IT delivery environment. Integration of installed systems sourced
from multiple manufacturers can be a time-consuming task for IT departments. One research project conducted by Techaisle found that in a two-year period, midmarket firms were expected to
move from an average of 1.9 to 3.3 different types of delivery platforms; the actual complexity reflected in this finding expands significantly with the addition of multiple in-house systems,
multiple hosting providers – and many different cloud systems, including SaaS, PaaS and IaaS. Each of these cloud systems is supported to a substantial degree by the cloud provider – but the
task of tying these systems together for corporate uses falls squarely on the internal IT staff.

• Cloud is less expensive than physical systems, and better aligns IT expenditures with business benefits. This is a popular perspective, and it isn’t without merit: cloud reduces up-front CAPEX
requirements, and for some systems, especially those with limited utilization or a small number of users, it will generally provide a very cost-effective alternative to on-premise systems.
Businesses may well find, though, that costs for in-house systems with high utilization rates (both hardware and software) are lower on-premise than in the cloud. This is true within the
depreciation period for purchased products; the comparison is even more compelling once the systems are fully depreciated, at which point the ownership cost (net of maintenance fees) falls
to $0 for on-premise equipment, vs. an ongoing ‘pay per sip’ fee charged by the cloud provider. As with efficiency, the ‘magic’ isn’t in processing location, but rather, in how effective an
organization is in understanding how IT is used within the business and planning appropriately. Firms that don’t understand what their needs are will be best served by an approach that
minimizes fixed investments; those that spend the time needed to match process requirements with IT infrastructure can make informed decisions to optimize investment vs. return.

The business rationale for advanced on-premise solutions such as hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) – systems that integrate compute, storage and networking in a highly-virtualized, software-
defined, scalable solution – doesn’t simply rest on this ‘not-cloud’ analysis, however. HCI offers real advantages to midmarket firms looking to optimize IT service delivery capacity and associated IT
investment.
5
 US Midmarket HCI landscape

CURRENT & PLANNED ADOPTION TOP DRIVERS OF HCI ADOPTION

Current 28%, planned 46% • 47% - Improve operational efficiency
Highest planned adoption within: • 46% - Cost reduction
• 52% in 250-499 employee segment • 42% - Improve scalability
• 52% in firms with holistic digital transformation
• 52% in born-in-the-cloud firms
• 54% in firms with Advanced IT

HYPERCONVERGED
INFRASTRUCTURE

ADOPTION INHIBITORS TOP SOLUTION CRITERIA CONSIDERATIONS

• 36% - No resources to evaluate • 45% - High availability of features
• 30% - Do not see any benefits • 39% - Ease of scaling capacity & performance
• 29% - Status quo with current infrastructure • 38% - Recoverability

6
 US Midmarket CI landscape

CURRENT & PLANNED ADOPTION TOP DRIVERS OF CI ADOPTION

Current 39%, planned 38% • 37% - Lower operating costs
Highest planned adoption within: • 36% - Improving IT security
• 39% in 100-249 employee segment • 35% - Efficient provisioning of resources
• 41% in firms with holistic digital transformation
• 39% in Intermediate Cloud maturity firms
• 42% in firms with Advanced IT firms
CONVERGED
INFRASTRUCTURE

SOLUTION SELECTION CRITERIA PROJECTS DRIVING ADOPTION

• 47% - Technology/brand reputation • 53% - IaaS Projects
• 45% - High storage, processing power • 43% - Virtualization initiatives
• 43% - Speed of implementation • 39% - Data center consolidation

7
 2018 Top 10 Midmarket Business Issues, IT Challenges & IT Priorities

Business Issues IT Challenges IT Priorities

Improving workforce productivity 39% Workplace transformation 43% Cloud 95%
Reducing operational costs 38% Budget constraints 41%
Mobile device management 34% Mobility Solutions 93%
Increase Profitability 35%
Improving quality of products and… 34% Data protection/recovery/business… 30%
Managed Services 90%
Increasing business growth 30% Cloud orchestration/Integration 27%
Excessive data growth 27% Analytics/Business Intelligence 88%
Managing inventory effectively 26%
Regulatory compliance 27%
Improving speed to market 25% Collaboration 88%
Data/application Integration 24%
Managing Uncertainty 24%
Social networking 23% Server Virtualization 82%
Creating innovative products 24%
Mobility Security 23%
Attracting and retaining new customers 23% Security Solutions (Cloud & Mobility) 79%
Finding qualified and trained people 20%
Focusing on new markets 17%
Maintaining current IT infrastructure 20% VDI/DaaS 68%
Reducing costs associated to IT 16%
Energy efficiency and monitoring 19%
Attracting and retaining employees 16% Converged Infrastructure 65%
Implementing new strategic IT… 18%
Keeping pace with competition 15% Mobility solution demands and devices 14% Big Data 63%
Coordinating supply chain 13% Controlling costs and improving… 14%
Improving effectiveness of sales and… 12% Internet of Things 55%
Digital marketing 13%
Digital marketing 12% Migrating to more modern hardware… 8% Artificial Intelligence 53%
Developing an outsourcing strategy 8% Implementing converged Infrastructure 5%
Government policies and regulation 6% Implementing omni-channel capabilities Virtual Reality/AR 37%
1%

8
Midmarket HCI Adoption Trends
 Hyperconverged infrastructure: Current state and future
directions
28% of US midmarket firms are currently using HCI solutions and another 46% are planning to adopt in the next 1-2 years, more than doubling of penetration. Highest potential adoption
rates are within midmarket firms that have a holistic digital transformation strategy, are born-in-the-cloud and are rapidly moving form Advanced IT segment to Enterprise IT segment.

Software-defined HCI delivers more compelling advantages (relative to conventional/siloed server, storage, networking and management technologies) than buyers obtain from converged
infrastructure. Some of the important benefits that buyers realize with HCI include:
• Agility – the ability to keep pace with competitors and changes in buyer expectations; rapid time-to-value for new systems, positioning IT as an investment rather than as an expense.
• Scalability – complexity associated with next-system deployment is reduced because HCI delivers as an integrated, modular solution; IT can scale capacity without equivalent investment
in new staff resources. This also avoids a key constraint of conventional on-premise systems: because HCI is scalable, there is no need to ‘pre-buy’ capacity, resulting in better alignment
between business needs and IT expense.
• Efficiency – HCI’s VM-centric management layer enables IT to realize high utilization levels, providing compelling return on investments in hardware, physical facility space and power.
• Manageability – given the staff constraints faced by midmarket firms, manageability is in many ways the single most important attribute of any IT delivery platform. HCI’s integrated,
software-defined architecture provides IT staff with an ability to deliver sophisticated capabilities without needing to maintain an elaborate web of resource connections.
• High availability – relative to cloud, which depends on the public network to connect users to corporate resources, HCI provides the promise of superior access to corporate applications
and data.
• Cost – cost can be calculated in many ways: it can be driven by CAPEX or OPEX, by the expense of hardware components and/or ongoing service fees, or by the time and degree to which
new IT capacity delivers tangible business benefit; it also includes the cost associated with delivery management by IT and non-IT staff. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question
‘what is the most economical IT delivery approach?’ – but there are scenarios in which HCI provides quantifiable advantages over other platform alternatives.

What is important to understand is that midmarket firms view technologies supporting HCI adoption as contributors to business growth as well. This comes due to agility in deployment &
management, scalability and high availability.

10
 Current & Planned Use of Hyperconverged Infrastructure
Current & Planned use of Hyperconverged Infrastructure Current & Planned use of Hyperconverged Infrastructure
by Digital transformation initiative
24% 17%
26%
40% 17%
28% 26%
38%
38% 58%
52% 46% 52% 40%
49% 45% 74%
45% 31%
24% 28% 31% 32%
11% 17% 11%
100-249 250-499 500-999 Midmarket Holistic Inclusive Siloed Shadows Non-existent
Currently using No, but plan to in the next 12 months No and no plans to adopt Currently using No, but plan to in the next 12 months No and no plans to adopt

Current & Planned use of Hyperconverged Infrastructure Current & Planned use of Hyperconverged Infrastructure
by IT Maturity by Cloud Maturity
7%
23% 19% 24%
38% 33%
31% 52%
54% 41% 49%
43%
50% 41%
19% 23% 26% 27%

Basic IT Advanced IT Enterprise IT Intermediate Mature Born-in-the-cloud

Currently using No, but plan to in the next 12 months No and no plans to adopt Currently using No, but plan to in the next 12 months No and no plans to adopt
11
Drivers of hyperconverged solution adoption within
midmarket firms
HCI solution adoption drivers

Improve operational efficiency 47%

Cost reduction 46%

Improve scalability 42%

Hardware upgrade 34%

Data center consolidation 29%

Improve backup/DR 27%

VDI initiative 17%

Need to increase VM provisioning 15%

Ongoing performance issues 13%

Reduction in interoperability issues 12%

New application development 11%

Dissatisfaction with legacy storage 5%

12
 Drivers of hyperconverged solution adoption within midmarket firms by segments
100-249 250-499 500-999 Holistic Inclusive Siloed
Improve Improve Improve
EMPLOYEE SIZE SEGMENT

operational 52% operational 60% Cost reduction 41% operational 62% Cost reduction 46% Cost reduction 61%
efficiency efficiency efficiency
Improve Improve Improve

DX STRATEGY
Improve Improve 48% 39% 39%
Cost reduction 45% 53% 41% scalability scalability scalability
scalability scalability

Hardware Data center Hardware Improve

36% Cost reduction 52% 40% Cost reduction 42% 38% 39%
upgrade consolidation upgrade backup/DR
Improve
Improve Hardware Hardware Hardware Data center
32% 28% 38% 36% 35% operational 33%
scalability upgrade upgrade upgrade consolidation
efficiency
Improve Improve
Improve Data center Improve Data center
30% 26% operational 33% 27% operational 34% 28%
backup/DR consolidation backup/DR consolidation
efficiency efficiency
Basic IT Advanced IT Enterprise IT Intermediate Mature Born-in-the-cloud
Improve Improve Improve Improve
Improve
operational 55% operational 47% 52% Cost reduction 46% operational 53% operational 65%
scalability
efficiency efficiency

CLOUD MATURITY
efficiency efficiency
IT MATURITY

Hardware Improve
Cost reduction 52% Cost reduction 43% Cost reduction 45% 39% 48% Cost reduction 59%
upgrade scalability

Hardware Improve Improve Improve Data center

33% 42% 41% 38% Cost reduction 43% 47%
upgrade scalability backup/DR scalability consolidation
Improve Improve
Improve Hardware Hardware Improve
33% 35% operational 39% operational 36% 32% 35%
scalability upgrade upgrade scalability
efficiency efficiency
Data center Data center Data center Data center Improve Improve
26% 27% 36% 31% 32% 29%
consolidation consolidation consolidation consolidation backup/DR backup/DR
13
 Reasons for not deploying HCI solutions
Midmarket firms - Reasons for not deploying HCI solutions

36%

30% 29%
27%

10%
8%
6% 5% 4% 3%

No resources to Do not see the Current Purchase and Infrastructure Lack of reference Disruption due to Concerns about Cannot use best- Leverage cloud
evaluate benefits infrastructure is implementation recently upgraded architectures deployment time vendor “lock-in” of-breed resources (SaaS,
fine costs technology PaaS, IaaS)

14
Purchase considerations for HCI solutions within
midmarket firms
Purchase considerations for HCI solution

High availability features 45%

Ease of scaling capacity & performance 39%
Recoverability 38%
Cost/ROI 36%
Management through a single interface 35%
Automation eliminating manual processes 26%
Public cloud integration 25%
Policy management 23%
Hypervisor supported 23%
Data deduping and compression 19%
Reference architecture 15%
Support for multiple hypervisors 14%
Customer references 11%
Vendor service and support 9%
VMware integration 6%

15
 Purchase considerations for HCI solutions within midmarket firms by employee size
segments
100-249 employees: Important purchase 250-499 employees: Important purchase 500-999 employees: Important purchase
criteria of HCI solution criteria of HCI solution criteria of HCI solution

High availability features 45% High availability features 49% Recoverability 44%

Ease of scaling capacity & performance 39% Cost/ROI 48% High availability features 41%

Management through a single interface 32% Ease of scaling capacity & performance 45% Ease of scaling capacity & performance 38%

Recoverability 30% Management through a single interface 40% Management through a single interface 36%

Automation eliminating manual

processes 27% Recoverability 36% Cost/ROI 33%

Automation eliminating manual

Cost/ROI 26% Policy management 30% processes 29%

Policy management 25% Public cloud integration 29% Hypervisor supported 24%

Public cloud integration 23% Hypervisor supported 26% Public cloud integration 23%

Hypervisor supported 19% Data deduping and compression 22% Data deduping and compression 19%

Automation eliminating manual

Reference architecture 18% processes 21% Reference architecture 18%

16
 Purchase considerations for HCI solutions within midmarket firms by Digital
Transformation strategy
Holistic DX strategy: Important purchase Inclusive DX strategy: Important purchase Siloed DX Strategy: Important purchase
criteria of HCI solution criteria of HCI solution criteria of HCI solution

High availability features 56% Ease of scaling capacity & performance 41% Recoverability 67%

Ease of scaling capacity & performance 44% Cost/ROI 38% High availability features 41%

Management through a single interface 40% High availability features 34% Management through a single interface 39%

Recoverability 38% Management through a single interface 32% Cost/ROI 33%

Cost/ROI 35% Hypervisor supported 31% Hypervisor supported 30%

Automation eliminating manual

processes 31% Recoverability 30% Data deduping and compression 29%

Automation eliminating manual

Public cloud integration 27% processes 27% Policy management 28%

Policy management 23% Public cloud integration 25% Ease of scaling capacity & performance 24%

Data deduping and compression 19% Policy management 23% Vendor service and support 22%

Hypervisor supported 16% Reference architecture 18% Reference architecture 19%

17
 Purchase considerations for HCI solutions within midmarket firms by IT Maturity
Basic IT: Important purchase criteria of HCI Advanced IT: Important purchase criteria of Enterprise IT: Important purchase criteria of
solution HCI solution HCI solution

High availability features 50% Ease of scaling capacity & performance 44% High availability features 52%

Ease of scaling capacity & performance 43% High availability features 38% Recoverability 45%

Recoverability 40% Cost/ROI 36% Management through a single interface 39%

Automation eliminating manual

Cost/ROI 38% Management through a single interface 35% processes 36%

Management through a single interface 37% Recoverability 33% Cost/ROI 34%

Hypervisor supported 24% Public cloud integration 27% Policy management 30%

Automation eliminating manual

processes 22% Hypervisor supported 24% Ease of scaling capacity & performance 27%

Automation eliminating manual

Policy management 21% processes 22% Public cloud integration 25%

Public cloud integration 20% Policy management 21% Data deduping and compression 23%

Data deduping and compression 19% Data deduping and compression 18% Hypervisor supported 20%

18
 Purchase considerations for HCI solutions within midmarket firms by Cloud Maturity
Intermediate: Important purchase criteria Mature: Important purchase criteria of HCI Born in the Cloud: Important purchase
of HCI solution solution criteria of HCI solution

Ease of scaling capacity & performance 43% High availability features 52% Recoverability 59%

Management through a single interface 38% Cost/ROI 41% High availability features 56%

High availability features 35% Ease of scaling capacity & performance 40% Cost/ROI 53%

Recoverability 32% Recoverability 39% Management through a single interface 47%

Cost/ROI 27% Management through a single interface 33% Ease of scaling capacity & performance 35%

Automation eliminating manual

Policy management 26% processes 32% Hypervisor supported 29%

Automation eliminating manual Automation eliminating manual

processes 23% Public cloud integration 30% processes 26%

Public cloud integration 20% Hypervisor supported 27% Public cloud integration 24%

Hypervisor supported 19% Policy management 25% Data deduping and compression 20%

Data deduping and compression 18% Data deduping and compression 20% Policy management 18%

19
Expected benefits from HCI deployment
Important purchase criteria of HCI solution

Reduce costs 52%

Improve operational efficiency 51%

Improve scalability 46%

Improve service & support 38%

Improve backup/DR 37%

Accelerate deployment time 34%

Increase agility of VM provisioning 19%

Reduce required training 12%

Redeploy IT staff 7%

20
 Expected benefits from HCI deployment by employee size segments
100-249 employees: Important purchase 250-499 employees: Important purchase 500-999 employees: Important purchase
criteria of HCI solution criteria of HCI solution criteria of HCI solution

Reduce costs 66% Improve operational efficiency 59% Improve operational efficiency 49%

Improve operational efficiency 45% Reduce costs 57% Improve scalability 47%

Accelerate deployment time 43% Improve scalability 50% Improve backup/DR 45%

Improve scalability 41% Improve service & support 38% Reduce costs 40%

Improve service & support 34% Improve backup/DR 29% Improve service & support 38%

Improve backup/DR 23% Accelerate deployment time 28% Accelerate deployment time 34%

Increase agility of VM provisioning 14% Increase agility of VM provisioning 22% Increase agility of VM provisioning 21%

Reduce required training 11% Reduce required training 17% Redeploy IT staff 10%

Redeploy IT staff 2% Redeploy IT staff 7% Reduce required training 8%

21
 Expected benefits from HCI deployment by Digital Transformation strategy
Holistic DX strategy: Important purchase Inclusive DX strategy: Important purchase Siloed DX Strategy: Important purchase
criteria of HCI solution criteria of HCI solution criteria of HCI solution

Reduce costs 62% Improve operational efficiency 52% Reduce costs 63%

Improve operational efficiency 51% Improve scalability 51% Improve operational efficiency 61%

Improve scalability 47% Reduce costs 41% Improve service & support 59%

Improve service & support 41% Improve backup/DR 38% Improve backup/DR 39%

Accelerate deployment time 37% Accelerate deployment time 35% Improve scalability 22%

Improve backup/DR 32% Improve service & support 28% Accelerate deployment time 17%

Increase agility of VM provisioning 20% Increase agility of VM provisioning 23% Increase agility of VM provisioning 11%

Reduce required training 14% Reduce required training 11% Reduce required training 6%

Redeploy IT staff 7% Redeploy IT staff 7% Redeploy IT staff 6%

22
 Expected benefits from HCI deployment by IT Maturity
Basic IT: Important purchase criteria of HCI Advanced IT: Important purchase criteria of Enterprise IT: Important purchase criteria of
solution HCI solution HCI solution

Reduce costs 64% Improve operational efficiency 55% Improve backup/DR 57%

Improve operational efficiency 50% Improve scalability 51% Reduce costs 52%

Accelerate deployment time 43% Reduce costs 46% Improve scalability 48%

Improve scalability 36% Improve service & support 37% Improve operational efficiency 46%

Improve service & support 31% Accelerate deployment time 29% Improve service & support 45%

Improve backup/DR 24% Improve backup/DR 28% Accelerate deployment time 34%

Reduce required training 14% Increase agility of VM provisioning 22% Increase agility of VM provisioning 23%

Increase agility of VM provisioning 10% Reduce required training 10% Redeploy IT staff 16%

Redeploy IT staff 2% Redeploy IT staff 4% Reduce required training 14%

23
 Expected benefits from HCI deployment by Cloud Maturity
Intermediate: Important purchase criteria Mature: Important purchase criteria of HCI Born in the Cloud: Important purchase
of HCI solution solution criteria of HCI solution

Improve operational efficiency 55% Reduce costs 56% Reduce costs 76%

Reduce costs 46% Improve operational efficiency 53% Improve scalability 59%

Improve scalability 43% Improve scalability 45% Improve operational efficiency 49%

Improve service & support 42% Improve backup/DR 37% Improve backup/DR 47%

Improve backup/DR 34% Improve service & support 35% Improve service & support 41%

Accelerate deployment time 32% Accelerate deployment time 34% Accelerate deployment time 35%

Increase agility of VM provisioning 19% Increase agility of VM provisioning 23% Reduce required training 24%

Reduce required training 11% Reduce required training 13% Increase agility of VM provisioning 12%

Redeploy IT staff 7% Redeploy IT staff 6% Redeploy IT staff 12%

24
Midmarket CI Adoption Trends
 Converged infrastructure: Current state and future directions
In its research, Techaisle has looked closely at converged infrastructure – hardware-defined systems that integrate network, server, storage and management technology in a single package.
In its survey Techaisle probed for converged infrastructure adoption drivers. Lower operating costs are a significant adoption driver along with security, efficient resource provisioning,
implementing cloud-ready infrastructure, business agility and CAPEX advantages. Midmarket firms are adopting converged infrastructure for one or more of five primary reasons:
1. To benefit from integrated design and efficiency
2. To tap into its ability to enable centralization/management of resources
3. To capitalize on performance/time-to-benefit advantages
4. To improve IT agility and its ability to meet business needs
5. To respond to core requirements for cost savings and improved security

• Current adoption of CI within US midmarket firms is 39% within another 38% planning
adopt within the next 1-2 years, a growth of 100% - doubling within the current
planning horizon. Techaisle believes that current businesses will also continue to invest
in converged infrastructure products, driving very high levels of demand for these
systems. This is unlikely to represent ‘net new’ server demand; instead, Techaisle
expects converged infrastructure growth to occur at the expense of traditional server
products.

• Additional data illustrates that suppliers of converged infrastructure should be proactive

in making potential customers aware of the benefits of their converged infrastructure
technologies. Specifically. Within the midmarket firms that are born-in-the-cloud, have a
holistic strategy of digital transformation and have mature IT within their organizations.
• Converged infrastructure is on a high-growth trajectory. Converged infrastructure
adoption is displacing pedestal/rack technologies rather than opening net-new
• For all the talk of a world predicated on software-defined resources, there is still need
opportunities, meaning that current incumbents are at risk from a core technology
for capable, reliable, scalable physical infrastructure to support these software layers
change. In addition to using converged infrastructure as a physical platform for
and the features and applications that sit atop them. The rise in virtualization has been
virtualization, buyers are adopting converged infrastructure to support data center
driving an accompanying demand for converged infrastructure: products that combine
consolidation and data migration, and as a platform for analytics, unified communications
processing, storage and networking into a robust and scalable unit that can support and
and IaaS projects.
respond to the options inherent in virtualization.
26
 Current & Planned Use of Converged Infrastructure
Current & Planned use of Converged Infrastructure by Current & Planned use of Converged Infrastructure by
employee size segments Digital transformation initiative
10% 14%
21% 23% 25%
31% 41%
26%
41% 60%
33%
38% 35%
39%
31%
64% 20%
47% 39% 45% 40%
30% 28% 20%

100-249 250-499 500-999 Midmarket Holistic Inclusive Siloed Shadows

Currently Using Planning to Use Not using, Not planning to use Currently Using Planning to Use Not using, Not planning to use

Current & Planned use of Converged Infrastructure by IT Current & Planned use of Converged Infrastructure by
Maturity Cloud Maturity
11% 3%
20% 16%
37% 13% 33% 29%
38%
42%
39%
50% 76% 68%
38% 46%
28%
13%

Basic IT Advanced IT Enterprise IT Intermediate Mature Born-in-the-cloud

Currently Using Planning to Use Not using, Not planning to use Currently Using Planning to Use Not using, Not planning to use
27
 Lower operating costs

37%
Improving IT security

36%
Efficient provisioning of

35%
resources

Cloud-ready infrastructure
30%

Faster delivery of additional

28%

resources

Better agility in responding

26%

to business needs
Faster reallocation of
Infrastructure

resources as requirements
25%

change

Lower capital expenses

24%

Lower total cost of

23%

infrastructure ownership

Improved IT infrastructure
21%

manageability

Increased automation
20%

Faster deployment
19%

Improved disaster recovery

17%

and business continuity

Reasons for using converged infrastructure solutions

Improved flexibility and IT

responsiveness to business
16%

requirements
Easier to deal with one
14%

vendor solution

Improved power and

12%

cooling efficiency

Prefer an integrated design

11%

Create a more efficient,

11%

shared IT infrastructure

Datacenter consolidation
10%

Centralization of IT
28
10%

resources
Midmarket Business: Reasons for Using Converged
Projects driving Converged Infrastructure Adoption

Projects driving Converged Infrastructure Adoption

53%

43%
39%

27% 26% 24%

19%
13%
7%

IaaS Project Virtualization Data center Unified Analytics Data Migration Custom VDI project Other
initiatives consolidation communications project application
project

29
 Projects driving Converged Infrastructure Adoption by IT
Maturity segments
Basic IT Advanced IT Enterprise IT

Virtualization initiatives 46% Analytics project 49% Virtualization initiatives 86%

Other 29% Data center consolidation 48% Data center consolidation 57%

Data Migration 26% Virtualization initiatives 46% Data Migration 38%

Analytics project 23% IaaS Project 28% Custom application 36%

Data center consolidation 21% Custom application 25% IaaS Project 33%

Custom application 17% Data Migration 23% Analytics project 24%

Unified communications project 13% Unified communications project 20% Unified communications project 19%

IaaS Project 11% VDI project 19% VDI project 10%

VDI project 3% Other 3% Other 7%

30
 Selection criteria for a Converged Infrastructure
Solution
Converged Infrastructure Selection Criteria
47%
45%
43% 42%
38%
32% 30%

23%

Technology vendor High storage, memory, Speed of Availability of service Ability to integrate Overall system cost Best-of-breed Overall functionality
/manufacturer brand processing power and implementation and support with other existing (including software components
/reputation network bandwidth systems licenses, hardware
costs, and
implementation costs)

31
 Challenges in implementing Converged Infrastructure Solutions

Challenges in implementing Converged Infrastructure Solutions

40% 39%
38%
35%

28%

14%

Infrastructure disruption High cost of implementation Time and resource investment Internal resistance to change Complex integration with Unrealized benefits
through rollout existing infrastructure

32
 Challenges in implementing Converged Infrastructure
Solutions by IT Maturity segments
Basic IT Advanced IT Enterprise IT

High cost of implementation 42% Time and resource investment 43% High cost of implementation 53%

Infrastructure disruption through Infrastructure disruption through

Time and resource investment 38% 40% 52%
rollout rollout

Infrastructure disruption through Complex integration with existing

36% Internal resistance to change 39% 33%
rollout infrastructure

Internal resistance to change 33% High cost of implementation 35% Time and resource investment 24%

Complex integration with existing

Unrealized benefits 17% 32% Internal resistance to change 22%
infrastructure

Complex integration with existing

13% Unrealized benefits 11% Unrealized benefits 19%
infrastructure

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