IT pros prioritise data management as an investment in 2019

As we enter 2019, IT professionals are prioritising investment in data management. This is according to TechTarget's annual IT Priorities survey, which questioned 267 IT pros about their enterprise storage options.

Data management is increasingly critical

As TechTarget highlights, data management is becoming increasingly important in the enterprise. At present, companies are investing more time and resources in managing, storing, and leveraging the power of their data.

If data is the fuel of the digital economy, organisations are right to prioritise its management. Although companies face increasingly complex challenges regarding regulatory compliance, the potential power of data is extraordinary.

Overall, 19.5% of the survey's respondents said that they plan to make data management a priority this year. Just over 20% also stated that they expect to deploy off-premises cloud storage.

However, many IT teams have no plans to use the public cloud for their primary or secondary storage needs. Almost 20% of respondents said that they do not use public cloud storage services.

An additional 17.6% used off-premises cloud services to store less than 10 terabytes (TB) of data, while 11.2% stored 10 TB to 99 TB. On the other hand, around 13% said that they stored 1 petabyte or more in off-premises cloud for primary and secondary storage.

Top priorities for data storage

In terms of primary storage, only 12.4% of the respondents said that they would employ a primary storage initiative with all-flash arrays. Last year, however, 25% cited all-flash arrays as a top 2018 priority.

Hybrid storage arrays also fell from 25% in 2018 to just 15% this year. According to the report, this could be due to the resilience of the all-flash arrays bought back in 2018.

IT organisations have no real need to splash out on the next generation of flash storage. The adequacy of their existing products could therefore be responsible for the lack of investment this year.

For secondary storage, 25% of respondents cited cloud backup as their top priority. However, more than 20% chose backup software alongside backup for virtual servers.

Nevertheless, these figures have declined since TechTarget's survey in 2018. Last year, 24% of respondents said that they would invest in backup software while more than 32% planned to deploy backup for virtual servers.

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