The report, which is titled ‘Vision 2030: Overcoming your digital infrastructure connectivity challenges and requirements’ surveyed 250 UK IT professionals on how they perceived their priorities and challenges to change between now and 2030.
The survey found that in light of increasing security and compliance complexities, 54% of organisations are opting for colocation over on-premises IT infrastructure, compared to just 33% in 2020.
61% of respondents also plan to increase their investment in data centre infrastructure over the next decade, while 33% expect investment levels to remain steady.
Furthermore, 75% of organisations expected their data management responsibilities to increase significantly.
Mark Pestridge, executive vice president and general manager of Telehouse Europe, told Capacity he thinks its more likely that the 25% of respondents who didn’t think their data management responsibilities would increase significantly were underestimating the data explosion that is anticipated, rather than not being affected by it.
Highlighting the growing apprehension among IT professionals, a significant 42% of respondents pinpointed software as the most vulnerable aspect of their digital infrastructure over the next decade. This finding underscores the urgency for organisations to bolster their software defences.
Telehouse said the survey exposed a readiness gap, with more than half (55%) of respondents acknowledging their partial readiness to grapple with the challenges posed by emerging technologies like IoT and edge computing.
11% of organisations admitted to having limited capabilities, a shortcoming that could significantly hamper their growth and competitiveness if not promptly addressed.
Yet more said they had shortcomings in the IT skills required to take advantage of emerging technologies. 29% of respondents said they were lacking employee’s with necessary skills in AI, 20% identified a lack of cloud-related skills and 14% expressed concern over a lack of skills in security.
35% of organisations have initiated internal training programs focusing on AI, edge computing, and cyber security.
This skills gap is a problem the percentage of IT professionals that expected the integration of AI and analytics to be their most significant infrastructure challenge has grown from 23% to 33% since the last iteration of the research was conducted in 2020.
Furthermore, 33% of respondents expressed that cyber-attacks are their top concern regarding downtime.
Summarising the report, Pestridge said the research “underscores the formidable digital infrastructure challenges that organisations are grappling with as they navigate emerging technologies”.
“The exponential growth of data and the growing demand for digital connectivity make it imperative for businesses to adopt robust models and establish the right partnerships to harness connectivity opportunities," he continued.
