EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

s we come to the end

Justin Augat , VP of Marketing at iland Cloud , said IT organisations have long experienced the management and logistics challenges of owning and operating their own data centres . Whether it be responding to new resource requests , managing a new solution , or migrating off an old hardware unit , the activities that need to be performed regularly within the data centre are as dependent on technical aptitude as they are on speed of execution . “ For many , these challenges are nothing new . In fact , they are commonly cited as primary drivers for the adoption of cloudbased services ,” said Augat .

“ But for some organisations that have not yet transitioned to cloud , or have unique conditions or requirements that prohibit their move to cloud , the yearend tradition of data centre planning must be completed to ensure smooth operations in the future ,” continued Augat . “ Unfortunately , 2021 may be more important than years past to get right . 2020 was obviously filled with surprises and challenges that most data centre operators did not anticipate . This meant that in many cases , organisations were ‘ building the plane while flying it ’ as IT leaders quickly adapted to change ( and resource demand ) while managing to the plan of record . As a result , organisations put major projects on hold in anticipation of continued uncertainty .

“ While it ’ s very possible that 2021 will be more predictable , it will prove wise to expect the unexpected next year – but what does this mean ? Let ’ s focus on three major categories that IT teams will likely continue to deal with in 2021 : remote management ; supply chain ; and supporting data centre equipment .

• Remote management may be the single biggest challenge that administrators faced this year . This includes supporting existing employees working from home , onboarding new hires remotely and enabling IT administrators ( that could no longer enter the physical data centre ) to do all of the above remotely . For 2021 , smart leaders are going to anticipate a similar trend , but likely with a lower growth curve : 1 ) Infrastructure to support work from home ( including software , increased resources for security , capacity , bandwidth and more ). 2 ) Dedicated remote support personnel ( including backup plans for personnel that may be impacted by COVID ). 3 ) Scalable plan / programmes to make it all happen .

• Supply chain management : When employees started working at home , IT leaders rushed to order new hardware and other physical equipment . Unfortunately , many hardware suppliers could not keep up and the resulting demand / supply created a massive shortage . While the situation has largely been corrected , the need to embrace economies of scale will enable IT leaders to quickly adapt to any supply chain issues / shortages .

• Supporting data centre equipment : Looking beyond storage , servers and networking equipment , leaders need to be cognizant of the supporting equipment to keep IT running . Also , in this category , companies should consider what personnel equipment is needed to support the data centre . In this case , consider corporate supplies of high-end masks , rapid tests and other costs that may be incurred to support data centre activity until the pandemic is over .

“ Prudent risk management is necessary until the ‘ all clear ’ is given on a global level , for a brighter , more predictable 2021 ,” said Augat .

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