Survey: Application Use & Challenges in Government IT Infrastructures

© 2014 SOLARWINDS WORLDWIDE, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Survey: Application Use & Challenges in

Government IT InfrastructuresA look at which applications they’re using, where apps are stored, how application

problems are identified, how app performance issues are addressed, and more

July 2014


Study Overview: Areas of Discussion

» Which applications are being hosted, and where in the IT environment are they hosted?

» How is the root cause of an application problem identified?

» How quickly can government IT Pros: identify application problems, determine the location of the problem, determine the root cause, and fix the problem?

» How much monthly downtime do agencies have from application performance issues?

» How have SLAs for response time or related metrics for key applications changed over time?


Which applications are hosted where in federal IT environments?

On premise

In a public cloud

In a community

cloud

In a private cloud at a

government agency

In a private cloud at a

public cloud provider

In a hybrid cloud

Is not running in my IT

environment

Email applications 8.0% 3.4% 43.2% 40.9% 0.6% 1.1% 3.4%

Video or Web- conferencing applications 8.0% 1.1% 36.9% 49.4% 1.7% 0.6% 4.0%

Office applications 11.9% 1.1% 44.9% 39.8% 2.3% 0.0% 1.1%

File sharing applications 10.9% 2.3% 4% 47.4% 35.4% 1.1% 1.1%

Social media applications 1.1% 4.6% 3.4% 39.1% 43.1% 2.3% 10.9%

Collaboration applications 11.4% 0.6% 1.1% 85.7% 2.9% 0.6% 1.7%

Analytics applications 3.5% 0.6% 43.9% 2.9% 36.4% 2.9% 9.8%

Enterprise resource planning applications 4.6% 0.6% 2.3% 46.2% 39.9% 2.3% 9.2%

CRM applications 5.7% 0.6% 43.7% 38.5% 1.7% 0.0% 10.9%

Proprietary/ custom business applications 11% 4.0% 1.2% 82.1% 0.6% 0.0% 2.9%

Answered question 176

Q: Which of the following applications are you hosting in your IT environment?

Most respondents said applications are hosted in either a community cloud, a private cloud at a government agency, or a private cloud at a public cloud provider.

The majority of collaboration apps (86%) and proprietary and custom business apps (82%), are hosted in a private cloud at a government agency.


How are the root causes of application problems identified?

Individual or cross-functional team using monitoring tools specific to their primary application or infrastructure area

54.0%

Individual or cross-functional team using the interfaces data from the individual applications or infrastructure they use

42.0%

Specific application performance management software solution

9.1%

Individual or cross-functional team using integrated monitoring across application and infrastructure silos

5.7%

We don’t have a tool or strategy to identify the root causes of an application problem.

4.0%


The majority of government IT Pros depend on their own siloed IT solution to identify root causes of application issues

Q: What best describes how you identify the root cause of an application problem? (Respondents could select multiple answers.)


How quickly are application problems identified?

Determine where the problem is

located

Uncover the root cause of a problem

in an applicationFix the

problem

Less than an hour 9.1% 2.3% 2.3%1-6 hours 5.7% 10.8% 6.3%7-24 hours 81.8% 40.9% 51.1%1-2 days 2.3% 43.8% 36.9%3-4 days 1.1% 1.1% 1.1%About one week 0.0% 0.0% 1.7%More than a week 0.0% 1.1% 0.6%Answered question 176

Most government IT pros take up to a day just to determine where an application problem is located within their environments, find its cause and resolve the problem

Q: On average, how quickly can you identify application problems?


How much downtime do application performance issues cause each month?

Almost 86 percent of respondents experience less than one hour of application down-time per month

Q: How much downtime do you have from application performance issues each month?

None 0.6%

Less than an hour 85.8%

1 to 6 hours 9.1%

7 to 12 hours 4.0%

More than 12 hours 0.6%



How have SLAs for response time or related metrics for key applications changed over time?

In the past 2 years

In the next two years

SLA reduced 1-25% 2.3% 2.3%SLA reduced 26-50% 3.4% 1.1%SLA reduced >50% 79.5% 39.8%SLA increased 1-25% 2.8% 43.8%SLA increased 26-50% 0.0% 0.6%SLA increased >50% 0.6% 0.6%No changes 11.4% 11.9%Answered question 176

Nearly 80 percent of respondents said their response time SLA metrics for key applications have reduced more than 50 percent in the past two years as organizations

call for shorter response times

Q: If you have SLAs for response time or related metrics for your key applications, have they changed or will they change over time?


Demographics: Federal government employer

78.40%

8.00%

6.80%

5.70%

1.10%

Current Employer

Intelligence Agency

A Department of Defense or Military con-tractor (working onsite)

Federal civilian or Independent government agency

A Federal government contractor (working onsite at a federal civilian or independent government agency)

Department of Defense (DoD) or Military Service

Answered question: 176


Demographics: Job title

80.10%

10.20%

4.00%3.40%

Current Job Title/Function

Security/IA staffIT/IS staffSecurity/IA director or managerIT director/manager



Demographics: IT focus area

Network

administra

tion

Secu

rity

Serve

rs

Virtualiz

ation

Stora

ge

Applications

Syste

ms

Database

Help Desk

Web perfo

rmance

Other 0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

29.00%

25.60%

21.00%18.80%

17.60%15.30% 15.30% 15.30%

13.60%

9.10%

0.60%

Area of IT



Demographics: Involvement in IT decision making

Make the final decision regarding IT operations and management and/or IT security solutions or contractors

82.4%

On a team that makes decisions regarding IT operations and management and/or IT security solutions

6.8%

Manage or implement IT operations and management and/or IT security solutions

6.3%

Evaluate or recommend firms offering IT operations and management and/or IT security solutions

3.4%

Develop technical requirements for IT operations and management and/or IT security solutions

1.1%


Q: How are you involved in your organization’s decisions or recommendations regarding IT operations and management and IT security solutions and services?

Thank you for viewing our survey results!

Please visit www.solarwinds.com/federal for more information

http://www.solarwinds.com/federal


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Date post:	20-Aug-2015
Category:	Government & Nonprofit
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Survey: Application Use & Challenges in Government IT Infrastructures

Government & Nonprofit