TechWeb has announced the results of a study that it sponsored, conducted by research firm, Enterprise Management Associates. The survey revealed insights from 169 IT professionals from organisations with over $100 million in annual revenues. The research results indicate the biggest single cost factor in enterprise data centres is staffing expenses, as companies experience skills shortages, difficulties attracting and retaining staff, high error rates from manual intervention and language issues when outsourcing offshore. Findings include:

• The biggest single cost factor in enterprise data centres is staffing costs.

• Low skills, poor processes and lack of documentation, account for a significant volume of all errors.

• The vast majority of enterprises (77%) report that data centre operations staff spend most of their time on routine operations, maintenance, and common break-fix tasks.

• 75% of enterprises believe that outsourcing data centre operations to non-English-speaking countries increases the rate of human or manual error.

• Turnover remains a critical issue for organisations but nearly three-quarters (73%) of enterprises find that these automated tools allow their staff to be more productive, reducing the pressure to replace staff when they move on. Over two-thirds (68%) of enterprises responded that they find it difficult to attract and/or retain skilled IT staff to manage their data centers. They are also facing an aging workforce that will result in a labor shortage of 35 million workers by 2030, yet only 37% of enterprises have hiring plans that include specific accommodation for this impending retirement of senior IT staff.

"At first glance, the findings present broken models of managing data centre operations; yet these challenges can easily be overcome with automation tools," said Andi Mann, research director, Enterprise Management Associates. "Automated data centre operations and management tools reduce the impact of resource shortages, the cost of data centre operations, the skills required and the volume, scope and impact of errors."