ActualTech Media 2016-2017 Audience Survey...2017 ACTUALTECH MEDIA AUDIENCE SURVEY 5 Learning Styles...

2017 ACTUALTECH MEDIA AUDIENCE SURVEY 1

ActualTech Media 2016-2017 Audience Survey

Executive Summary


Introduction One of ActualTech Media’s key goals for 2016 and 2017 is to gain deeper insight into the insights, knowledge, and plans for our half-million strong audience, including details about what they are looking forward to in 2017. Our continuing goal is to make sure that our services are constantly aligned with the needs of our audience.

We launched a comprehensive survey of our audience, with this report representing the culmination of that effort, with responses aggregated from a pool of close to 1,200 individuals. In this report, you will learn a lot about our audience, including their self-assessed knowledge levels around specific current and emerging technologies, their thoughts around what kinds of content assets are of most value to them, how they feel about different kinds of video assets, and much more.

43%

IT Staff

31%

IT Management 22%

Senior IT Management (CIO/VP)

4%

Executive Management (CEO/CFO)

What is your primary role?

43%

Staff

57%

Management


Job Responsibilities

38%

IT Systems Management

36%

IT Management (CIO)

33%

Architecture & Planning

32%

Storage

31%

Security

30%

x86 Servers Virtualization

30%

Backup

30%

Networking

20%

Service Desk

25%

End User Computing

20%

Application & Database

19%

Cloud Computing

1 role39%

2 to 4 roles29%

5 to 8 roles20%

9 or more roles11%

Just 39% of our audience has a single job

29% have two to four roles

20% have 5 to 8 roles

11% are jacks-of-all-trades with nine or more roles

Although most of our respondents have multiple job responsibilities (61%), the “Big Three” job roles are very general in nature and consist of IT Systems Management, IT

Management, and Architecture

Main line technical responsibilities enjoy even

ownership in the organization, with each being held by

approximately one-third of our audience base

The remaining job functions are carried out by around one-fifth of our audience with Cloud Computing responsibilties handled by 19%


Self-Identified Subject Matter Expertise

Subject Matter Expertise and Learning Interests

81%

Storage

81%

Virtualization

78%

Data Protection

78%

Network

72%

Security

71%

Cloud

47%

HCI

46%

VDI

39%

SDDC

34%

DevOps

29%

Containers

Respondents have deep familiarity with common

technologies

People seem to be generally comfortable with their skills, but many want to continue to grow

81% of respondents indicate high levels of expertise with Storage

and Virtualization

Other technologies and services, such as Containers and DevOps

are far less understood

Knowledgeable Not Knowledgeable

42%

33% 32% 29% 28%

24% 22% 22% 21% 21%

19% 18% 18%

42% say they want to learn more about cloud – the clear front runner in

educational need

Security (33%), Virtualization (32%), Hyperconverged Infrastructure (29%),

and Data Protection (28%) round out the top five learning needs

DevOps and Containers do not enjoy high levels of interest from IT pros… yet

Self-Identified 2017 Learning Needs


Learning Styles ROI and TCO calculators are out and Explainer Videos and Webinars are in, according to our audience. 24% of the audience say that ROI and TCO calculators are not helpful. On the other hand, a full 65% of the audience say that

explainer videos are very useful and 31% day that they are useful. Just 4% do not find explainer videos useful.

Explainer

Videos Webinars Blog

Posts

White Papers

Case Studies

eBooks

Short Form Print Books

Infographics ROI/TCO Calculators

Very Useful Useful Not Useful

65%

31%

4%

57% 38%

5%

41%

45%

14%

39%

47%

14%

39%

46%

15%

38%

47%

15%

33%

47%

19% 29%

50%

21% 28%

48%

24%


Opinions on Video

2017 Project Plans

61% 52% 48%

42% 39% 36%

21%

33% 40% 43%

45% 49% 52%

42%

6% 8% 9% 13% 12% 11%

38%

Interview with a

vendor technical

expert

Interview with a third party

expert

Animated explainer

video

Multiperson/roundtable discussion

Case study Whiteboard Interview with a

vendor executive

Very useful Useful Not useful

85%

71%

40%

16%

15%

29%

55%

72% 64%

46%

19%

12%

30%

54%

81%

30 seconds to 1 minute

1 minute to 2 minutes

2 minutes to 4 minutes




Greater than 15 minutes

Too Short Perfect! Too Long

Your technical experts are beloved by the ActualTech Media audience

61% of the audience finds interviews with your technical experts very useful

Just 21% say the same about interviews with vendor executives.

The audience indicates that they find most types of video useful

The “Goldilocks Zone” for video is four to six minutes in length

72% of the ActualTech Media audience say that this is the “perfect” video length

Shorter than four minutes and people think they’re not getting enough

Longer than six minutes and people’s attention begins to wander


2017 Technology Plans

Budget Spend in 2017 will be significant for the essentials, which include Storage (41% plan to buy storage), Cloud

(37%), Virtualization (36%), and Security (31%)

Data protection (22%) is an eternal need, with organizations constantly looking for new, better, and

more cost-effective ways to support this need

Budgets for 17% of the audience include Hyperconverged infrastructure services and products

Containers have yet to find a comprehensive place in people’s technology plans with just 7% of the audience showing

purchasing interest

41%

37%

36%

31%

29%

22%

17%

14%

13%

12%

9%

7%

Storage

Cloud

Virtualization

Security

Network

Data Protection

Hyperconverged

VDI

Mobility

Data/BI

SDDC

Containers


Would you like a report like this or are you in need of other content assets or demand generation services? Contact Maria Plasterer for more information ([email protected])

© 2017 ActualTech Media

No reuse or reprints allowed without written permission from ActualTech Media

Information may be referenced if it includes attribution to ActualTech Media

ActualTech Media 2016-2017 Audience Survey...2017 ACTUALTECH MEDIA AUDIENCE SURVEY 5 Learning Styles...

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