2024

Data Center
& Infrastructure
Report
PRESENTED BY
Introduction
As a global data center and infrastructure solutions provider,
Service Express is interested in how organizations worldwide
manage their data centers and infrastructure effectively.
We launched our first annual survey and report in 2018 to
discover more about IT decision-making, actions and plans.

The primary objective of these reports is to provide context

and insights into data center and infrastructure management
with feedback from various IT roles.

This year, we’ve compiled responses from over 1,000 IT

professionals on infrastructure priorities, workload deployment
methods, sustainability practices and more to share how
IT teams prepare and adapt for the future.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit

Meet our experts

Jake Blough
Chief Technology Officer
Jake drives innovation, sets the company’s technology
direction, and leads research and development for
new products, services and data science.

Nick Ockwell
Chief Information Officer

Nick develops global IT strategies, transforming

processes and leveraging technology to guide the
road map, vision and plans for company growth.

Chad Peters
Director of Infrastructure Solutions

Chad identifies how customers can best meet

performance, security and cost control demands
by evaluating infrastructure trends, IT practices,
reliability data and emerging OEM technologies.

01 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

02
Table of contents

05 18
Priorities and challenges Managed services

07 09

19
Budget Workload
outlook deployment

Sustainability
13 14
Infrastructure Hardware
hardware refresh cycles

20
Human capital

15
Data center 23 25
maintenance CIO outlook Survey
for 2024 background
Introduction
Lorem ipsum dolor sit

Key findings

#1

Master your budget

management expertise
Despite ongoing budgetary constraints, IT leaders
are expected to deliver more services every year.
This expectation poses major challenges as complexity
increases for staffing demands, infrastructure
investments and cloud costs.
READ MORE ABOUT BUDGET OUTLOOK ON PAGE 07

#2

Find the right balance in your

hybrid deployment strategy
As IT leaders draw on more firsthand hybrid experience,
they’re reevaluating where to house workloads,
where to achieve the best performance and how to
implement the most cost-efficient environment.
READ MORE ABOUT WORKLOAD DEPLOYMENT ON PAGE 09

#3

Act on the growing

commitment to sustainability
The impact of data center and infrastructure
sustainability is directing more IT decisions toward
alignment with business needs, corporate responsibility
and environmental goals.
READ MORE ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY ON PAGE 19

01
SERVICEEXPRESS.COM 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT
04
Priorities and challenges

Top priorities
Top priority
The top priorities — strengthening security, improving internal processes, developing IT
team members and reducing IT costs — have stayed consistent since 2019. With many
IT departments facing workforce reductions, leaders must commit to investing in employee Strengthening
well-being, training and growth. Implementing automation can streamline processes to security
free up limited staff resources and IT budgets; the savings can help fund security efforts
and employee initiatives. 45%
Participants ranked their top three priorities
for the next 12 months

Strengthening
security 45%
Improving internal
processes 35%
Developing IT
team members 34%

Reducing IT costs 34%

Upgrading network
infrastructure 25%
Implementing emerging
technologies 22%
Upgrading server
infrastructure 20%
Implementing a
hybrid cloud solution 18%
Reducing
technical debt 15%
Strengthening data center
privacy & compliance 14%
Optimizing hybrid cloud
infrastructure 13%
Upgrading storage
infrastructure 12%

Sustainability 7%

0% 25% 50% 75%

05 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

Priorities
Lorem ipsumand dolor
challenges
sit

Top challenges
Security Talent and workforce New technology adoption

Protecting data and operations Companies operating with limited IT teams must continue to adapt and
requires a singular focus to invest IT budgets must find creative, adopt new technologies. Artificial
in reinforcing and upgrading security cost-effective ways — such as intelligence (AI) offers multiple use
measures. The rise in security incidents flexible hours, career development cases and must be leveraged to gain
and the significant business impact opportunities and greater employee competitive advantages, improve
on organizations demonstrate how autonomy — to provide an engaging productivity and reduce costs.
challenging and necessary it is to work environment that can attract Companies must be diligent in their
defend against threats and attacks. and retain talent. approach and selection of technology
partners, specifically focusing on what
rights the partner has to data usage
and ownership.

Participants ranked their top three challenges

for the next 12 months

Security 54%
Budget reductions
or freezes
45%

Talent and workforce 41%

New technology adoption 37%

Data privacy & compliance 28%

Implementing a
hybrid cloud solution
20%

Asset management 19%

Understanding and
optimizing cloud costs
16%
Optimizing
OpEx vs. CapEx
12%

Sustainability 12%
Vendor relationship
management (VRM)
10%

0% 25% 50% 75%

MORE BUDGET FINDINGS AND INSIGHTS ON THE FOLLOWING PAGES

01
SERVICEEXPRESS.COM 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT
06
Budget outlook

IT budget changes
Nearly half of respondents forecasted IT budget increases in 2024. Rising labor and Top change
software contract costs will drive up spending as suppliers look to maintain margins in an
inflationary world. IT management must scrutinize expenses and look for alternative ways Budget increase
to optimize budgets to maintain and grow the bottom line. Budget increases will only be by 10% or less
sustainable if goals are met and additional spending improves company profitability.

28%
How do you see your IT budget changing in 2024?

Increase by 26% or more Decrease by 10% or less

4% 16%
Increase between 11–25% Decrease between 11–25%

17% 5%
Increase by 10% or less Decrease by 26% or more

28% 2%
No change

26%

07 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

Budget
Lorem ipsum
outlook
dolor sit

Cost-saving measures
As a result of persistent supply chain issues, companies delayed hardware refreshes Top measure
and controlled costs by using equipment far longer than initially planned. IT leaders can
further reduce capital budgets and operating expenses using third-party maintenance
Extending
(TPM) solutions to extend the equipment life cycle.
equipment life
IT teams are also consolidating workloads and exploring hybrid, public and private cloud
solutions to reduce spending in 2024. Companies should approach this evaluation from 48%
a capital budget, operating expense, IT skills and resource perspective. Moving workloads
from on-prem to alternative hosting strategies with specialist providers can allow companies
to focus their IT resources on value-added initiatives rather than managing infrastructure
and data centers.

Participants ranked their top three

cost-saving measures for the next 12 months

Extending
equipment life
48%
Data center
consolidation
43%
Moving from
on-prem to cloud
40%

Workload consolidation 40%

IT business process
automation
36%

Vendor management 25%

Not planning to reduce
data center costs
25%

Other 18%

Staff outsourcing 15%

Moving from 10%

cloud to on-prem

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

01
SERVICEEXPRESS.COM 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT
08
Workload deployment

Workload
environment
On-premises data centers are still the predominant
hosting option at 47%. Companies are taking a
methodical approach to their hosting strategies that
includes evaluating capital and operating budgets
and finding a hybrid solution for their IT resources.
Other workloads are distributed fairly evenly among
colocation, public and private cloud providers.
Over the last four years of reporting, we’ve seen a
small shift from on-prem to these three other strategies;
in absolute terms, workloads are still growing in all
four areas.

What percentage of
your current environment
is in the following?

On-prem data center

47%
Hosted private cloud

18%
Public cloud

18%
Colocation

17%

09
Workload
Lorem ipsum
deployment
dolor sit

Off-premises drivers
Companies are migrating off-prem to improve disaster recovery and business continuity Top driver
measures and to offset the significant capital and operating spend needed to run
on-prem data centers.
Disaster recovery /
Business continuity
Maintaining a secure on-prem data center requires an array of resources. The security
investments, processes and dedicated skills of specialized third-party hosting partners
provide additional benefits to moving off-prem. 61%

Participants ranked the top three drivers impacting

their company’s decision to move workloads off-prem
over the next 12 months

Disaster recovery /
Business continuity
61%

Lower capital costs 46%

Improved security 44%

Application 35%

Consolidation 33%
Limited staffing
capabilities
28%
Rapid capacity
expansion
28%

0% 25% 50% 75%

From the expert

“While third-party IT providers can enhance security, the key lies in due diligence
and collaboration. Trust but verify continues to be the security mantra, ensuring that
your company’s security standards are in line and supported by your IT providers.” Nick Ockwell
CIO

01
SERVICEEXPRESS.COM 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT
10
Workload deployment

Public cloud challenges

While public cloud offers flexible environments, recruiting and retaining qualified cloud Top challenge
engineers and unpredictable costs are problematic. In addition, many applications and
environments aren’t optimized to leverage the full benefit of cloud technologies and deliver Internal staff
the desired return. Reengineering workloads for specific applications typically requires skill set
more investment, time and resources.

A hybrid mindset considers on-prem, private and public cloud options to best 58%
serve the company’s business model and needs. For example, public cloud provides
significant flexibility for compute capacity; private cloud and on-prem solutions
provide more predictable, steady volume increases.

Participants ranked the top three challenges they’ve

experienced with their public cloud solution

Internal staff skill set 58%

Predicting costs 48%

Complexity 47%
Migrating legacy
equipment / applications
40%

Configuration options 31%

Security 30%

System performance 21%

Finding the right
cloud partner
20%

0% 25% 50% 75%

From the expert

“Ultimately, choosing a hybrid hosting sourcing strategy depends on your
organization’s specific needs, existing infrastructure and long-term goals.
Rather than focusing on a quick win, you need to consider the ongoing costs
of each solution. Pay careful attention to flexibility, cost optimization, security, Nick Ockwell
regulatory compliance, scalability, disaster recovery and risk mitigation.” CIO

11 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

Lorem ipsum dolor sit

01 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

Infrastructure hardware

Servers, storage and network

Servers
Dell EMC maintains the largest market share ahead of HPE and Cisco. The Dell PowerEdge
server is widely recognized for its value, ease of use and open access to updates,
making it a popular option for large organizations.

Which servers does your company currently use? Nutanix Supermicro

10% 7%

Dell EMC HPE Cisco IBM Oracle Lenovo Other

60% 37% 33% 20% 13% 10% 6%

Storage
Dell EMC’s dominance in the storage market will likely persist due to its broad portfolio that
serves a variety of use cases. A growing number of companies are adopting Pure Storage as a
less costly alternative to other options.

Which storage equipment does your company currently use? Other

14%

Dell EMC HPE NetApp IBM Pure Storage Hitachi

53% 24% 23% 18% 15% 6%

Network
Since its inception, Cisco continues to be a leader in the network ecosystem space.
However, IT teams are beginning to adopt a broader network strategy, including other
manufacturers specializing in firewalls, WAN and edge use cases.
Brocade /
F5 Ruckus Arista
Which network devices does your company currently use?
13% 8% 5%

Cisco HPE / Fortinet Dell EMC Juniper Other Extreme

Aruba
76% 17% 15% 14% 10% 6%
19%

13 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

Hardware
Lorem ipsum
refresh
dolor
cycles
sit

Hardware investment
The global supply chain crisis, tightening budgets and economic uncertainty pushed many
companies to delay refreshes and extend their equipment life. The shift to longer refresh
cycles continues growing for multiple reasons, including a better understanding of long-term
hardware reliability and equipment performance, the pressure to reduce spending and a
greater commitment to sustainability. When existing infrastructure meets demands,
a CapEx-intensive refresh should be reevaluated.

What is your current refresh cycle for your

data center equipment?

8+ years 1–3 years 8+ years 1–3 years

13% 7% 23% 5%

8+ years 1–3 years

15% 6%

Servers Network

Storage

6–7 years 4–5 years 6–7 years 4–5 years

31% 49% 33% 39%

6–7 years 4–5 years

34% 45%

From the expert

“Large cloud hyperscalers have made news by moving from a three-year to a
four-to-five-year refresh cycle. As we meet with customers, we review reliability
and longevity data to show that the useful life of equipment extends beyond
seven to ten years for most products.” Jake Blough
CTO

SERVICEEXPRESS.COM 14
Data center maintenance

Maintenance decision drivers

In considering the many factors influencing their maintenance decisions, IT professionals Top driver
rank price, quality service and resolution time as the most important. Equipment failures
and downtime impact business efficiency and results. Increasingly, companies are looking
Price
for infrastructure management and support automation to reduce spending while
improving support and customer experience.
59%
Participants ranked the top three drivers that influence
the decision-making process regarding their organization’s
server, storage or networking maintenance support

Price 59%

Engineer knowledge & skill 46%

Customer experience 38%

Response time to issue 38%

Ease of placing a service call 27%

System monitoring
& alerting
20%
Data center infrastructure
management (DCIM)
14%

Flexible service agreement 14%

Managed services 13%

IT service management
(ITSM)
11%
Reviews / references: Gartner,
peer, industry reputation
9%

Multivendor support 8%
0% 25% 50% 75%

15 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

Data
Loremcenter
ipsummaintenance
dolor sit

Maintenance challenges
Maintenance issues have changed little in the past five years of our reporting. High costs, Top challenge
engineer concerns, parts availability and administrative difficulties persist. Despite continually
raising prices, the manufacturers have reduced investment in service delivery and limited
High cost of
warranty coverage options. Success for the manufacturer relies on selling new equipment,
service
not servicing it post-sale.

51%
Participants ranked the top three challenges
they experience when working with their current
maintenance provider

High cost of service 51%

Parts delays or
quality issues
34%
No other issues
currently
33%
Lack of service engineer
skill / knowledge
33%
Slow response
to service needs
30%
Administrative difficulties:
red tape, complex terms & 28%
conditions, penalties

System monitoring quality 23%

Difficulties placing
service calls / tickets
22%

Limited portal functionality 17%

Pressure to buy new
hardware
15%

0% 25% 50% 75%

01
SERVICEEXPRESS.COM 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT
16
Data center maintenance

Third-party maintenance (TPM)

Companies are increasingly recognizing the many advantages of third-party maintenance, Top value
including streamlined service, broad engineer knowledge and lower costs. IT teams seeking
alternatives to manufacturer support must find improved service and value with TPM
Knowledgeable
providers to meet their IT infrastructure and budget needs.
engineers

49%
What do you value most about a third-party
maintenance provider?

Knowledgeable
engineers
49%

Better service experience 44%

Value for the price 38%

Extended
equipment life cycle
36%

Legacy equipment support 35%

Multivendor support 23%

More flexible
coverage options
22%
Less administrative
complexity
20%
Helps meet
sustainability measures
15%

Speedier parts delivery 13%

0% 25% 50% 75%

From the expert

"Our TPM solutions extend beyond cost-savings, technical expertise and quick
resolutions. We empower our customers to optimize their CapEx and OpEx budgets
by sharing valuable insights using a variety of resources, including our longevity
Chad Peters
and reliability studies."
Director of Infrastructure
Solutions

17 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

Managed
Lorem ipsum
services
dolor sit

Strategic outsourcing
Cloud computing, security, and backup and recovery are the most common service areas Top service
organizations look to outsource to specialized companies for needed skills and resources.

Cloud
Potential security vulnerabilities and disasters threaten financial and reputational integrity.
computing
For many small to medium-sized enterprises, the cost of recruiting and retaining specialists
while providing qualified IT security resources is prohibitive. Due to economies of scale and
targeted expertise, a managed service provider can offer a reliable, cost-effective alternative. 41%
Third-party solutions enable IT leaders to lower costs and allocate scarce resources to
other business-facing initiatives.

Which managed services are you using or planning

to use in the next 12 months?

Cloud computing 41%

Backup and recovery 37%

Security 33%

Disaster recovery 28%

Infrastructure support 26%

Help desk 20%

Network administration 17%

Mobile device management 15%

Storage administration 15%

System administration 13%

0% 25% 50% 75%

01
SERVICEEXPRESS.COM 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT
18
Sustainability

Environmental responsibility
For years, sustainability was a minor concern for most companies; it’s now becoming a Top measure
mainstay for corporate governance. Organizations are switching from nice-to-have to must-
have practices to reflect the shift in business priorities. In anticipation of future environmental
Extending
regulations, leaders are preparing for new and stronger sustainability demands. IT teams
equipment life
continue taking steps to limit carbon emissions by extending equipment life cycles,
reducing e-waste and optimizing energy usage.
57%
What sustainability measures are part of
your IT operations or strategy?

Extending Partnering with vendors with

equipment life sustainability best practices

57% 22%
Using electronic or Using renewable
e-scrap recycling programs energy sources

42% 15%
Upgrading Not currently taking any
infrastructure sustainability measures

37% 9%
Reducing energy
consumption

35%

From the expert

“Although reducing power consumption is an obvious target for sustainability,
consider the overall impact. The bulk of carbon emissions comes from the
manufacture and transport of the product. A company can show more progress
in carbon avoidance or total carbon emission by extending equipment life across Jake Blough
the board instead of upgrading to a newer energy-efficient model.” CTO

19 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

 Human capital

Talent trends
How can IT leaders address the employee experience? Ideas include establishing a hybrid Top experience
balance of remote and in-office work by bringing teams in on specific days to advance
engagement, collaboration and team building while mitigating the need to return to the
Increased
office full time. Build and retain talent with training and development programs to support
remote work
the pursuit of new technology skills and specialty certifications. Support individual growth
with opportunities to work on new initiatives and technologies for job satisfaction and
career enhancement. 53%
In your IT role, are you experiencing
any of the following?

Increased remote work 53%

Increased salaries to
retain or attract talent
30%
New challenges in
attracting or retaining talent
28%

Higher burnout 27%

Lower staffing levels 26%

Improved employee
engagement
24%
More geographically diverse
talent base due to remote work
23%

Higher voluntary turnover 20%

Increased benefits outside of
salary to retain or attract talent
19%
0% 25% 50% 75%

SERVICEEXPRESS.COM 20
Lorem ipsum
Human capitaldolor sit

Automation, staffing and training

We concluded the survey by asking participants this open-ended question:

Aside from an extra four hours a day, an unlimited budget

or a genie in a bottle, what would make your job easier?
Within the many clever, creative and thoughtful responses, we've identified
and addressed three central themes.

Automation Leadership skills are essential for all IT managers.

Ensure that your management teams are engaged
with their team members, creating aligned goals and
Automation technology has made substantial progress expectations, learning how to support individuals and
in the past several years. Companies should and are providing timely and constructive feedback. Never
taking advantage of three main tools of automation: underestimate the impact of good and bad leaders.

• Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

• Machine Learning (ML)
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Strategic implementation of these tools greatly From the expert

enhances your productivity and employee engagement
by removing mundane tasks from overworked teams.
RPA is a great fit for repetitive tasks within a user “While companies may view training and
interface (UI), such as closing help desk tickets or career development as non-essential
making changes to a ticket based on email or chat. business expenses, losing the expertise and
Data science combines experience with ML techniques productivity of a single individual requires
to make predictions and automate tasks and report considerable effort and budget to recruit,
generation. AI with Large Language Models (LLM) is hire and onboard a new team member.”
still in its infancy but is rapidly transforming work tasks.
It quickly and easily generates answers from existing Nick Ockwell, CIO
knowledge bases or applications without needing
to access or scan reports or require immediate staff
support. Be ever vigilant with AI security. A thorough
corporate AI usage policy is necessary to ensure the
confidentiality of your customer and company data.
Training
Always invest in your workforce and, subsequently,
Staffing your company’s success. Organizations that provide
high-quality training programs empower employees
Staffing is typically one of the largest costs to keep pace with changes, build quality products and
in any organization. Recruiting and retaining top deliver excellent service. In addition, training programs
talent is critical to the health of your workforce. expand the talent pool to include those candidates
The considerable cost and disruption of losing top who can power your company culture and succeed as
performers reduce your company’s ability to achieve they learn instead of relying only on specific technical
its goals. Focus on career development opportunities, abilities. People can learn new skills with the right
training, work-life balance and providing purpose resources and support, but changing a mindset or
to promote and maintain talent engagement. attitude is often much more challenging.

01
SERVICEEXPRESS.COM 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT
22
CIO outlook for 2024

Prioritize the essentials

Below are the 2024 priorities I’ve shortlisted for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) with the
understanding that the specifics will vary based on your organization’s industry and goals.
You should focus on these key areas to effectively lead your organization’s IT strategy Nick Ockwell
and achieve greater business value: CIO

#1 #2

Cybersecurity AI implementation
With the increasing frequency and sophistication Invest in AI and automation technologies to keep
of cyber threats, CIOs must prioritize cybersecurity pace with business expectations, improve operational
measures to protect sensitive data, maintain the trust efficiency and enhance customer experiences. As you
of customers and stakeholders, and minimize the make these changes with AI, pay particular attention to
impact to the organization when, not if, a security regulatory and contractual risks, specifically in terms
attack occurs. of data use and ownership.

#3 #4

Hybrid hosting strategy Employee engagement

Develop a robust hybrid hosting strategy that aligns
and talent development
with your organization’s goals, whether on-prem,
Foster a culture of continuous learning and
public, private or hybrid cloud adoption.
career development. Invest in your workforce to
retain staff and avoid the cost and disruption of
employee turnover.

#5 #6

Strategic partnerships Customer-centric approach

Collaborate with technology partners and specialist Keep the customer at the center of all your IT
third-party providers to introduce innovation. Using decisions. Focus on enhancing their experience
partner expertise, create competitive advantages, and meeting their evolving needs to provide
resolve business and IT issues, and address continual value and support.
organizational gaps, such as disaster recovery.

23 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

Lorem ipsum dolor sit

01 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

Survey background

Survey demographics
Service Express surveyed 1,006 IT professionals throughout the US and Europe
from April–July 2023 to create this report.

Responsibility

System Administrator / Server, Storage, Network or

Server, storage or network engineer Data Center Manager Other
32% 19% 9%

VP or Director: Infrastructure, C-level:

Technology or Systems CIO, CISO, CTO
29% 11%

Revenue

$250,000 to $50M $501M to $1B Other

29% 13% 3%

$51M to $500M $1B+

32% 23%

Employee count

1 to 500 1,001 to 5,000 10,001+

26% 30% 17%

501 to 1,000 5,001 to 10,000

14% 12%

25 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

Lorem ipsum dolor sit

Industry

Educational services Retail or wholesale trade

21% 7%
Professional, scientific & Government
technical services

18% 3%
Manufacturing Transportation &
warehousing

15% 3%
Finance & insurance Energy & utilities

10% 2%
Healthcare Media

10% 2%

Industry categories that measured at less than 1% are not listed.

01
SERVICEEXPRESS.COM 2024 DATA CENTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT
26
About Service Express
Service Express is an industry-leading data center solutions
provider specializing in global multivendor maintenance and
managed infrastructure services. Companies around the globe
trust Service Express to deliver reliable end-to-end support.
Service Express’ flagship technology, ExpressConnect®,
simplifies maintenance for IT teams with support automation,
hardware monitoring, account management and more.

Let’s connect
For more information, visit serviceexpress.com.

US: 844-734-6833 Europe: +44 808 196 5828

Copyright 2023 Service Express.

Reproduction without written
permission is forbidden.