When upgrading infrastructure, what top benefits are organizations looking for, and what drives their decision making? A new research paper from Forrester outlines the challenges infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals face and explores the benefits they expect when upgrading their servers.
Security and automation remain top challenges
Security is an ongoing issue for I&O professionals to monitor, manage and remediate. Seventy-one percent of organizations surveyed report increasing threat vectors and more sophisticated ransomware as a challenge. Also, I&O professionals are required to deal with remediating access control, managing threads, and monitoring BIOS/firmware exploits.
Additionally, automation is on the rise, adding another layer of complexity. More than 50% responded to having entirely or mostly automated processes around OS patching, firmware updates and security audits and scanning, while only 27% reported automation for configuration compliance. Forrester further reports that properly provisioning servers and ensuring compliance is taking longer. These daunting security issues and routine management tasks sap IT resources, costing organizations time and money.
New servers enhance security and reduce complexity
Forrester reports that organizations expect their new servers to enhance security, implement more automation, and reduce complexity. 54% of respondents who plan to upgrade in the next two years claim automation as the top capability they seek and 33% desire continuous security innovation. Overall, I&O professionals expect that new servers can help reduce the amount of time spent on provisioning and remediating security vulnerabilities.
PowerEdge servers deliver for customers
Customers can take advantage of the full benefits modern infrastructure brings with the new Dell PowerEdge server portfolio. PowerEdge servers help organizations meet the demands of digital transformation with a portfolio that supports diverse workloads and business objectives. The portfolio drives business success with differentiating capabilities around adaptive compute, autonomous compute infrastructure and proactive resilience. Each server is designed with intrinsic security, from manufacturing, through the supply chain, and retirement – all from a single, trusted vendor.
Also, OpenManage systems management solutions can simplify managing PowerEdge servers. The OpenManage portfolio offers numerous capabilities that are designed to automate routine tasks and enhance security. Robust capabilities such as automatic certificate enrollment, auto discovery, and automated firmware updates free IT resources to focus on higher value activities. Additionally, zero touch deployment from iDRAC brings more automated functionalities such as server discovery, installation and configuration, security settings, OS deployment and updates.
OpenManage Enterprise is equipped with configuration and firmware drift detection to minimize risk concerns over time. IT administrators can create firmware and configuration baselines for compliance monitoring and enable automated updates on their schedule.
Another critical security aspect is ensuring that IT staff have the appropriate permissions. With scope-based access and control (SBAC), administrators control access rights, guaranteeing users can only access devices related to their scope of work.
Learn more at Dell Technologies World
PowerEdge servers and OpenManage solutions deliver secure infrastructure and make it easy to implement automation across organizations. To learn more, check out the “The path to autonomous compute infrastructure” presentation and other PowerEdge sessions at Dell Technologies World (registration required) on May 5-6, 2021.