Of those surveyed, 95% of IT managers said the success of their data centers relies on proper performance analytics and IT optimization, with close to half reporting their data center is “extremely reliant” on these benefits. according to TeamQuest's Global IT Management survey, conducted by Kelton Research.

IT optimization and data center performance were seen as critically important to solving a range of issues including capacity management for big data, cloud outages and workplace productivity.

However, less than one in four managers (22%) describes their IT organization as able to predict the timing and/or consequences of a forecasted scenario; and as able to identify the action steps to remedy it.

Efficiency in IT systems was the top concern. 93% of respondents indicated that proper IT optimization and performance analysis would improve IT efficiency. 73% think their organizations overall IT risk would decrease due to these advantages.

Nearly three in four (74%) IT managers who use IT optimization and/or proper performance analysis solutions report that improved IT efficiency has benefited their company. Reduced outages (62%), better productivity (61%) and fewer resources spent on unexpected issues (53%) were among the advantages cited.

Other Key Findings:

■ On average IT managers deal with eight unexpected IT issues per week each requiring seven staff members to resolve.

■ Amongst the most common IT issues are network slowdowns or outages (42%), poor performing applications (37%), availability issues (37%), equipment failures (36%), and unanticipated change requests (34%)

■ 83% of IT managers said their organization lacks proper virtual machine management

■ 74% of IT managers believe IT risk would shrink if they had proper virtual management

■ 90% of IT managers believe that without the proper planning, virtual machine management is risky

■ 63% of IT managers have experienced cloud outages and 65% of those believe it could have been prevented. Nearly half (49%) believe that improper capacity planning was to blame

■ 89% of managers said IT optimization or performance analysis would improve overall business productivity

■ 88% said IT optimization or performance analysis would improve workforce productivity

“IT professionals around the globe seem to agree that their data centers are more reliant on IT optimization tools, proper capacity planning and the ability to use analytics. Not only are they proving to have a significant impact throughout the enterprise, delivering on everything from preventing cloud outages to improving overall business productivity, but they are also allowing IT the time they need to focus on improvements rather than incidents, ” said Per Bauer, TeamQuest Director of Global Services.

Survey Methodology: The TeamQuest Global IT Management survey was conducted between October 29, 2014, and November 16, 2014, among 419+ IT managers in 10 countries, working in companies with 1,000+ employees.