T’s role in business has changed. Where it once was regarded as a cost center, it is now often considered to be a revenue creator. This evolution has fundamentally shifted IT organizations’ priorities when it comes to infrastructure design and architecture. Today, a major emphasis is being placed on acceleration. Consider that 59% of IT decision makers surveyed by ESG say that data is their business, and 22% of respondents indicated that they plan to develop new data-centric products and services in the next two years. In fact, nine out of ten IT organizations say they must move faster than three years ago when deploying applications, infrastructure, and services, with 41% of them accelerating by more than 50%.