Intelligent Data Centres Issue 27 | Page 32

GREATER INVESTMENT IS REQUIRED IN EXTERNAL SOLUTIONS RATHER THAN THOSE ON- PREMISES MOVING FORWARD . optimisation businesses require to operate across different industries , site-specific workloads , evolving partner ecosystems , computing at the Edge such as Internet of Things ( IoT ), and data sovereignty .
EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
JAMES HART , CEO , BUSINESS CRITICAL SOLUTIONS
Content supplied by the DCA
irst and foremost , it ’ s important to understand

F that the IT infrastructure and operations are absolutely critical to any Digital Transformation and therefore should be at the heart of any decisions . As a result , leaders in IT infrastructure and operations are morphing into business enablers and are now increasingly key to any business strategy . We are seeing an integration of physical and virtual roles into one digital platform that interconnects data with different ecosystems tailored to business requirements .

In order to support Digital Transformation , we are seeing greater numbers of enterprises migrating their data centres to the cloud and there is no doubt that cloud continues to dominate the sector , with hyperscalers that are designed to expand rapidly and host cloud services unlikely to slow down because of increased investment in public cloud services due to the pandemic . This is helping companies transform , enabling them to become more agile , highly responsive and increasingly more adaptive than ever before . However , one size does not fit all and so many leaders are looking to hybrid systems where enterprises mix in-house computing with the movement of larger systems to the cloud .
The main lesson here is that leaders need to consider data centre models that reflect how we now live in a world where on-premises data centres , private clouds and public clouds interconnect and act symbiotically . Traditional data centres based on the siloed approach and heavily reliant on physical hardware and servers need to be transformed dramatically to facilitate this . New models need to adapt by offering solutions that facilitate speed and agility while not diminishing the high standards of governance that already exist .
We are seeing traditional approaches being remodelled to achieve the flexibility and

GREATER INVESTMENT IS REQUIRED IN EXTERNAL SOLUTIONS RATHER THAN THOSE ON- PREMISES MOVING FORWARD . optimisation businesses require to operate across different industries , site-specific workloads , evolving partner ecosystems , computing at the Edge such as Internet of Things ( IoT ), and data sovereignty .

According to Gartner , ‘ By 2022 , 60 % of enterprise IT infrastructures will focus on centres of data , rather than traditional data centres ’. This is a consequence of data being distributed and managed throughout the infrastructure right to the edge of technology and geography . Greater investment is required in external solutions rather than those on-premises moving forward .
Finally , power is now a major consideration with Digital Transformation – a driver in the increasing demand which is currently outstripping energy efficiency gains that are embedded in new designs . In turn , this will determine a shift to sustainable power as energy usage is increasingly under the spotlight and there are societal pressures for carbon-neutral operations . There is a greater emphasis on alternative power sources such as wind and solar as well as the use of battery storage and there are some exciting innovations such as new hydrogen cell technology that are showing some early , promising results . Those organisations that embrace sustainability as part of their Digital Transformation will reap the benefits . ◊
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