This commentary report outlines the top findings arising from research conducted by Vanson Bourne.

1. Maximizing storage solutions
Red Hat
Key research findings
September 2017
Red Hat - key research findings1

2. • Only the minority of IT decision maker and c-suite respondents are totally satisfied with their
organization’s storage solutions when it comes to data security (39%), their overall
experience with the vendor (35%) and flexibility (34%)
• More than four in five (81%) respondents report that their organization has felt frustrations
as a result of their storage solutions and an even bigger proportion (93%) state that their
organization could experience negative impacts due to using the wrong storage solution
• But, the vast majority (95%) of respondents believe that moving to an agile or more agile
storage solution would bring benefits for their organization
 In addition, nine in ten (90%) agree that a good storage solution is an extremely
valuable tool for organizations
Red Hat - key research findings2
Top 3 findings from the research

3. • Respondents’ organizations are most likely to use private cloud (64%), file storage (61%) or solid state drive (55%) as their storage
solution
 On average, 14% of respondents’ organizations’ IT budget is spent on storage and they review which data storage solution to
use every 10 months
• Around two in five (41%) respondents state that their organization's present storage solution is damaging their competitiveness
• Storage solutions have become even more frustrating for organizations over the last twelve months according to almost half (47%)
of respondents
• Of respondents who know who has responsibility for storage within their organization, the CIO is the most likely (28%) final decision
maker when it comes to which storage solution to use
• Investing in a storage solution without considering the quality of consulting services and global support is short-sighted according to
82% of respondents
• The majority (81%) of respondents’ organizations are being held back from making the shift from a traditional storage solution to an
agile storage solution
Red Hat - key research findings3
Other key findings

4. • 500 IT decision maker and c-suite respondents who have responsibility for data storage, or an understanding of it, were interviewed
• From the US (200), UK (100), India (100), Singapore (50) and Australia (50)
• Respondents’ organizations have at least 1,000 employees from a range of public and private sectors
• Respondents’ answers to relevant storage and solutions based questions were used to score them depending on whether they do or
do not value storage solutions within their organization, putting them together with other like-minded respondents, resulting in four
groups: storage laggards (42), storage evaluators (182), storage adopters (190) and storage leaders (86)
• The research was conducted by Vanson Bourne:
Vanson Bourne is an independent specialist in market research for the technology sector. Our reputation for robust and credible
research-based analysis is founded upon rigorous research principles and our ability to seek the opinions of senior decision makers
across technical and business functions, in all business sectors and all major markets. For more information, visit
www.vansonbourne.com
Red Hat - key research findings4
Who was interviewed, and how?