Digital Fortress Survey Connects MSPs and Cloud Infrastructure

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Jul 9, 2015) - Digital Fortress has completed a survey of nearly 100 IT decision makers and influencers in large and midsize US companies that shows a strong connection between the use of public cloud infrastructure and managed services. The survey, which ran online the last two weeks in June, found that for managing public cloud workloads, 65% of companies plan to partially outsource management to a third-party, and 70% want a single vendor to manage all IT infrastructure.

The results of Digital Fortress's survey would seem to support other industry data. A recent report from 451 Research found that managed cloud services revenues are expected to grow from $17 billion in 2014 to $43 billion in 2018. Another report states that cloud computing is one of the top four spending priorities for enterprise IT this year, along with managed services, application development and ERP. Digital Fortress, which provides managed cloud and colocation infrastructure and services, operates in 63,000 square feet of data center space across two facilities in the Seattle area. Year to date orders are up 200% and the firm now provides hybrid IT services to hundreds of companies worldwide.

According to the Digital Fortress survey, when evaluating IT infrastructure providers, IT executives say the most critical factor is security, followed by availability, network bandwidth, reliability, support and 24x7 on-site staff. Regarding the business benefits of managed infrastructure, IT executives place the highest value on increasing uptime and availability (49%), followed by improving end-user application performance (27%), scaling for peak traffic (24%), and focusing IT on core business needs (also 24%). Other key findings from the Digital Fortress 2015 MSP and Cloud Infrastructure Survey include:

• A large majority, 87%, say that they currently have workloads in the cloud
• Of those companies, 48% have a private cloud deployment, while 25% use the public cloud
• In five years, IT executives will migrate more workloads to the public cloud (39%), with private cloud deployments staying the same (48%)
• A majority (68%) of respondents currently manage all aspects of workloads in their own data center, while 32% use a third party managed services provider
• A scant 5% of companies plan to outsource all cloud workload management to a third-party
• When selecting an MSP, 70% of companies prefer a single vendor for managing cloud and on-premise or colocated infrastructure

"Our survey shows that even though cloud computing is popular, it hasn't diminished the need for IT infrastructure management," says Matt Gerber, CEO at Digital Fortress. "With 86% of respondents having workloads in the cloud and in data centers, companies need ever more guidance in managing and monitoring their distributed environments. MSPs should focus their investments on successfully delivering the core IT benefits of reliability, availability, security and performance, across multiple infrastructures, to compete for enterprise dollars."

About Digital Fortress

Digital Fortress provides managed cloud and colocation infrastructure and services. As the largest independently-owned data center operator in the Pacific Northwest, Digital Fortress focuses on providing the most cost-effective management of distributed workloads across private, hybrid and public IT infrastructures. Digital Fortress is strategically positioned close to top carrier hotels, peering networks, and cloud providers to enhance hybrid IT performance and end user experience. Through diverse networks and power infrastructure combined with skilled engineers working 24xForever, the company delivers highly secure and reliable colocation and managed cloud solutions. With more than 90% of its electricity supply derived from clean, inexpensive hydroelectric and wind power, Digital Fortress can pass through low cost clean energy to its customers. Hundreds of customers rely on Digital Fortress to simplify IT infrastructure management. 

For additional information about the company or its hybrid IT services, please call 877-720-0483, visit our website dfcolo.com, check out our blog dfcolo.com/news/ or email info@dfcolo.com.