The Future of Enterprise Data Centers

For over half a century, enterprise data centers have been stored and processed vital information for businesses. Though they have evolved with every technological advancement throughout the years, these technical environments are finally feeling the effects of disruption in the technology world.

Due to changes in areas such as hardware/software, telecommunications, artificial intelligence (AI), and operations, traditional data centers are being forced to keep up in order to continue playing such a huge part in data management. The question, of course, is this: what do the infrastructure and operations managers need to do in order to set their enterprise data centers up for success in the future?

Hybrid IT

Many companies have adopted a “hybrid IT” model, a term coined by Gartner to describe an IT organization that plays the role similar to that of a service broker. This means that enterprise data centers would various applications or workloads are distributed to areas where they have the most potential to deliver the best results for the business.

In addition to the new hybrid IT infrastructure model, others are emerging. Some of these include modular micro/edge models, cloud radio access network (C-RAN) edge solutions, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Outposts, Microsoft Azure Stack, on-premises consumption-based purchasing models, and colocation interconnection options.

Simplify

In order to stay ahead of the curve, data centers need to simplify their infrastructures. This will give them a better chance of quickly adjusting with the changes in the market. Infrastructures are transitioning more and more from complex systems to those that are simple and standardized.

The idea is to make it easier to adapt to rapid technological advancements. There are already resources available for standardization and rationalization initiatives. Organizations would keep nonstandard workloads on-premises; they would move applications off-premises and then to the cloud once standardized.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI and machine learning technologies have been huge game changers for infrastructure and operations in many organizations. The benefits of AI are seemingly endless, including reduced response time, quicker root cause analysis (RCA) and a rise in productivity.

Businesses around the globe are implementing these technologies in an effort to keep their competitive edge. Applications, including predictive analytics and deep learning have been effective in improving a business’s productivity, as well as their position in their industry.

Decrease in Physical Space

Over the years, enterprise data centers have been adjusting in size. They have gotten smaller and denser, while growing vertically. New designs have an average height of more than 8 kW/rack versus 5 kW/rack just half a decade ago. Since workloads are being redistributed to the cloud, edge, or collocation, they are are not taking up as much physical space.

Efficiency

Efficiency has always been a primary goal for leaders in infrastructure and optimization. As most areas of a business appear to grow quicker than their IT budgets, it is important for an organization to focus on initiatives to optimize cost-effectiveness, thereby improving efficiency.

Multiconnected Environment

One of the most important parts of hybrid IT is network connectivity. With workloads making the move to the cloud, the enterprise wide-area networks (WANs) were in need of a readjustment to accommodate the latency effect created by data traffic. Organizations are in the process of developing network initiatives in order to implement a multiconnected environment. These include colocation, software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) and software-define networking (SDN).

Energy Conservation

Energy consumption is a big issue for data centers, since they tend to use up a large amount of energy. Many organizations have been taking a green approach to their data centers. The goal is to reach the maximum amount of production while utilizing the minimum amount of materials and energy.

The tough part is doing this without having to compromise performance, security, and resilience. In cooperation with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, data center infrastructures will will work toward becoming increasingly greener and sustainable in the future.

Government Regulations

Due to increasing priority privacy, risk, and ethics when it comes to digital data, enterprise data centers have come under much scrutiny by the government. In fact, there are a number of regulation guidelines that directly target data center infrastructures. For example, the SEC Rule 17a-4 sets requirements for companies that work with brokering or trading financial securities.

Another example can be seen in the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was passed to strengthen data security in an effort to protect those who live within the EU or elsewhere in the world. Violation of the GDPR guidelines will suffer high financial penalties.

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About the Author: Victor

Victor brings nearly ten years of enterprise and SMB sales experience in the information technology and software space. Prior to joining Valicom, he served as regional channel sales manager working for one of the industry’s largest enterprise labeling software companies. With a focus on great customer service in helping channel partners grow their businesses, Victor joined the Valicom team in late 2015 after relocating to the Madison area. Victor holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication from UW-Milwaukee, and when he’s not in the office he enjoys exercising, travelling abroad, and spending time with his growing family.