Less than 17 per cent of IT managers in the UK are confident that their IT infrastructure is ready for the future according to a study commissioned by data storage and management specialist NetApp.

The independent research, conducted by Vanson Bourne, polled the opinions of 200 IT decision makers across the UK, and found that 83 per cent of respondents knew that their IT infrastructure was not ready for the future. Six percent thought their aging legacy systems were by no means ready for future challenges.

The survey revealed that 66 per cent of organisations with more than 3000 employees, was substantially unprepared for the future, and yet 28 per cent of them were solely responsible for growth and demand. Laurence James, UK Product Alliances and Solutions Marketing Manager for NetApp UK said that the indings from this survey were unsurprising.

“There are a number of organisations, both large and small who are uncertain of their future infrastructure requirements. This is something they will undoubtedly have to tackle and I suggest they look to implement a cost-effective agnostic solution that enables them to simplify data management to help lower risk while increasing control. This will ultimately enable them to adapt quicker in response to change,” James said.

The survey findings show that the need for organisations to review their IT infrastructure and prepare for the future is paramount to their success. Nearly 59 per cent of respondents were stopped from expanding their infrastructure due to contracts, software and hardware they already have in place. If providers of their current solution are not expanding into an area that is of interest to the IT department, such as virtualisation, then there is no easy way for the department to adequately investigate that technology.