Give an IT decision maker (ITDM) unlimited budget, and he or she is most likely to invest in…storage? That’s right, storage.

While eager to explore the possibilities of new technologies, a recent survey finds that, if costs were no object, ITDMs see the most to gain from unlimited data storage (73%) followed by fast, powerful application performance (71%). Both of these hinge on the third top pick: unlimited bandwidth (69%).

Here’s why: Getting and storing data enables the richer data streams that will make the application of advanced technologies, such as AI and augmented reality, more practical.

“The existing computing platforms do not have the bandwidth and capabilities to process, store, manage, transmit and secure the big data we need to solve problems,” writes futurist James Canton, CEO of the Institute for Global Futures. “And the gargantuan ‘data tsunami’ coming, driven by the Internet of Things, mobile devices, enterprise applications and digital transformation of the planet—cannot be managed without new computing tools.”

Making sense

Everything ties into having the bandwidth to transmit enormous amounts of data, storage resources to house it, and the processing capabilities to make sense of it.

Rolling out its new  ActiveCore^SM SDN platform recently, Comcast Business announced the first business product is a Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) service that offers enterprises a “robust, future-proof alternative to legacy MPLS solutions; allowing them to easily add capacity to branch offices at scale and unlock the potential of virtualized networks for today’s connected economy.”

With the ability to route gigabit SD-WAN capability into virtually any remote location, ITDMs will gain the bandwidth and performance to put their innovation goals into play. Now they just need more and cheaper storage to house their data.

Read the white paper.