SolarWinds Study Reveals Hybrid IT is the Reality for Majority of Businesses; Security Concerns, New Skillsets Top of Mind for IT Professionals

AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwired - March 29, 2016) - SolarWinds, a leading provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, today released the findings of its IT Trends Report 2016: The Hybrid IT Evolution. The study features insights from IT practitioners, managers and directors proving that the vast majority of businesses have shifted away from on-premises-only infrastructure to hybrid IT environments, creating new concerns and pressures for IT professionals.

"The findings of this year's study paint a clear picture: cloud adoption is nearly ubiquitous, but it's not now and will not in the foreseeable future be suitable for all workloads, and even if it were, very few if any companies would convert all of their existing applications to run in the cloud," said Joel Dolisy, CIO, SolarWinds. "The resulting dynamic -- one set of critical on-premises services connected with another set of services in the cloud -- is hybrid IT. And at the center of this evolution is the IT professional who needs to ensure always-on performance of applications, devices, networks and systems -- regardless of location. They need to be empowered with the support to gain the skills and tools required to properly monitor and manage hybrid IT environments, which in turn will allow businesses to truly unlock the potential of the cloud."

Key Findings

IT infrastructures have evolved from traditional on-premises-only to a hybrid strategy that links internal and external IT services driven by the existence of the cloud.

• Nearly all (92 percent) of the IT professionals surveyed say adopting cloud technologies is important to their organizations' long-term business success; more than a quarter (27 percent) say it is extremely important.
• Only 43 percent estimate that half or more of their organizations' total IT infrastructure will be in the cloud within the next 3-5 years.
• 60 percent say it is unlikely that all of their organizations' infrastructure will ever be migrated to the cloud.
• Overall, only 9 percent say their organizations have not migrated any infrastructure to the cloud.
• The number of small businesses that have not migrated anything to the cloud went from 18 percent in 2015 to just 6 percent in 2016.

IT professionals are faced with a dual mandate: increase efficiency through cloud services while also ensuring critical systems, databases and applications are secure.