With all the buzz surrounding cloud technology, it would be easy to think physical infrastructure is on its way out. However, new research by Spiceworks shows most businesses still have on-premises servers with no plans to ditch them.
A staggering 98 percent of businesses are still running their own server on-site. And since only 15 percent of organizations have no current plans to buy new servers, it’s clear the market is still very much physical.
According to BackupAssist Founder and CEO Linus Chang, the fact the demand for physical infrastructure was still so high was not surprising.
“This study confirms the general trends we see among our customer base. The need for on-premise servers won’t disappear anytime soon,” he said.
But the cloud craze isn’t all vapor
Even though physical infrastructure is still very much king, businesses are still spending a lot on the cloud. According to the research, organizations are spending 20 percent of their IT budget on cloud-based infrastructure and services.
Mr Chang said balancing physical and cloud infrastructure was going to be the next big challenge for IT professionals.
“The next wave of opportunity will be in seamlessly integrating cloud and on-premise services while paying close attention to the cyber security ramifications,” he said.
“We foresee that as data gets fragmented across on-premise and multiple clouds, and infrastructure sprawls, data management and business continuity will become an increasing challenge, even for small businesses.”
Server sales are booming
Meanwhile, server sales are skyrocketing, and it looks like customers are going straight to the manufacturer instead of talking to their MSPs.
When it comes to purchase channels for new server hardware, small businesses are the most likely culprit to circumvent MSPs and resellers and just go right to the factory.
The top spots in the market are still dominated by U.S.-based manufacturers. However, this might change in the next ten years. Chinese manufacturers with a sizable presence in Asia are catching up.
With great data comes great responsibility
Since the vast majority of businesses are storing data physically, this means it needs to be protected. Data loss can cripple or end a business, and it can come from many sources: hardware faults, theft, human error, fires, ransomware, or natural disasters.
That’s why you need to protect your data with a trusted backup and disaster recovery product like BackupAssist. BackupAssist is the number one software for Windows Server backups, made affordable for SMBs. Why not try out the fully featured 30-day trial here?
