IT Audit Report: Leading the Transformation
By Brian Garrett, Vice President, ESG Lab; Vinny Choinski, Senior Lab Analyst; and Kerry Dolan, Lab Analyst
ESG Lab Reports
The goal of ESG Lab reports is to educate IT professionals about data center technology products for companies of all types and sizes. ESG Lab reports are not meant to replace the evaluation process that should be conducted before making purchasing decisions, but rather to provide insight into these emerging technologies. Our objective is to go over some of the more valuable feature/functions of products, show how they can be used to solve real customer problems and identify any areas needing improvement. ESG Lab’s expert third-party perspective is based on our own hands-on testing as well as on interviews with customers who use these products in production environments. This ESG Lab IT Audit report was sponsored by EMC.
Reaping the Benefits of Cloud Computing
EMC Corporation’s IT organization launched a transformational journey toward cloud computing beginning in 2004. In 2009, ESG published an initial audit of EMC’s achievements, documenting their impressive initial savings on equipment and power as well as improvements in productivity, efficiency, and resource utilization. We published an update in 2010 as EMC reached important milestones in its server virtualization, tiering, and automation efforts.
This 2013 update finds EMC leveraging the firm foundation of efficiency they have built; a key focus is on new levels of agility and productivity that EMC can achieve through a new cloud operating model for offering IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS). By sharing its experience through its EMC IT Proven program and a series of IT Audits, EMC offers a valuable service to other organizations that may have a vision for such a transformation but are struggling with what steps to take and what results to expect.
Background
After enduring several years of global economic uncertainty, organizations large and small are beginning to increase IT spending. The pressures, although by no means gone, have begun to recede. ESG research indicates that for both enterprise and midmarket organizations, just reducing costs—while still important—is no longer the top priority.1 As Figure 1 shows, for enterprises return on investment (ROI) has moved to the top of the list, followed by OPEX reduction, business process improvement, and better security. This move for ROI indicates that enterprises are taking a longer-term view of IT spending decisions, no longer focused solely on cost reduction tactics designed for a particular point in time. The increased attention for the midmarket is on generating revenue and savings by improving processes, a strategy for the future that can be woven into the fabric of the company.
