Modern Data Centers: What You Need to Know
We're witnessing the quintessential purpose behind data centers in the world today. Every company with its sites on information must be able to accommodate the vast amounts of data collected as well as running and housing critical business applications needed to conduct daily operations. A report issued by DCD Intelligence states: "Almost a quarter of the data center footprint in the North America region is outsourced, and the amount invested in data center outsourcing and colocation has increased by 13% over the past twelve months. Companies are outsourcing at a higher rate and are opting to take advantage of the cost efficiencies and IT resources associated with colocation. This allows CIOs the opportunity to expand their data center footprint on an as-needed basis, rather than invest in an entire expansion up front."
Building Your Futuristic Data Center
Today's data centers have no need for costly proprietary hardware. It's time to rethink how data centers can be more effectively designed and what part management will play in the "makeover" process. The following fundamental tips on how to bring your data center into the future begins with assessing your organization's needs:
1. Modular Design
Avoiding complex, incompatible frameworks and consoles that require networking, storage silos, and servers. Modular designs make doing business easier and allow flexibility by allowing you the option of adding or removing building blocks as opportunities present themselves. Benefits include:
- Permanent, vendor-defined ratios provided for assessing company resources and available storage capacity
- Resources available on-demand
- Prevents over-provisioning
- True modularization capabilities
- Scalable on demand
- Modular consoles are interoperable and streamline
2. Smart, Cost-Effective Changes
Stop paying for technology you don't need. A more efficient data center reflects the combining of functions instead of costly, specialized devices that only compute and store information. Single resource tiers are an excellent choice for melding server and storage resources necessary for implementing any task or application. This eliminates the need for expensive hardware and networking equipment. Benefits include:
- Improved uptime
- Worldwide scalability
- Continued service in the event of site failures
- Inexpensive commodity hardware capable of running distributed software allowing fast scalability
- Increased flexibility when dealing with "consumerization,"
- Operates with compute-intensive VDI systems, storage-intensive services (like Dropbox) and virtualized enterprise applications
3. Customer Service is Priority One
Bandwidth, when combined with low round-trip times, is a powerful force when seeking to prevent data related disasters. Together, they make it possible to provide almost 100 percent availability; a very important feature for your customers to know about. Service continuity rather than disaster recovery should always be first in the minds of management.
Competitive Advantages
The world of technology was never meant to stay the same. It demands attention, education, and action by individuals and companies who want to compete and succeed in a world that demands change. Learning how best to adapt to this constantly evolving business environment means increasing data computing, storage capacity and adding new capabilities without spending a lot of hard-earned cash. As far as futuristic data centers are concerned, perhaps "small" is the next Big Thing."
