EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
HERMAN CHAN , PRESIDENT , SUNBIRD SOFTWARE
he data centre industry
T is currently undergoing a multitude of transformations that are permanently changing how data centres are managed , but three trends are shaping up to have the largest impact . premises / dedicated private clouds , multiple public clouds and legacy platforms to meet their infrastructure needs . Yet , about 30 % of organisations say that migration to the cloud is a key challenge . Data centre managers are faced with big decisions about where their workloads will take place . They need to weigh up many factors including cost , time-to-market , risk factors , security concerns and whether efficiency improvements would enable them to take on more workloads in owner-operated / colocation data centres . As organisations tailor their workloads and spending based on their own unique needs , both cloud computing and enterprise data centres are poised to play major roles in the IT mix for modern businesses .
• Decentralisation and Edge Computing . According to Gartner , more than 75 % of all enterprisegenerated data will be created and processed outside of the traditional data centre or cloud by 2025 . Instead , much of this data will be handled at decentralised Edge sites . Modern infrastructure managers are faced with more sites , more remote assets and unique requirements that are causing them to rethink the management paradigm . Without the ability to go onsite , they still need to maximise utilisation of space and
• Sustainability . According to KPMG , 80 % of all worldwide companies ( and 90 % of the largest companies ) now report on their sustainability . 30 years ago , that figure was just 12 %. Sustainability has become a primary concern for customers , stakeholders and government regulators as they seek to reduce environmental impact , maximise efficiency and lower operating expenses . While large-scale data centres and cloud operators are looking towards hyper-efficiency and zero carbon footprints in the coming decades , sustainability is now a concern for all data centre professionals , raising the bar for the entire industry . Data centre managers need to understand the impact on sustainability when making decisions about whether workloads will be done in owner-operated / colo data centres or in the cloud .
• Hybrid . IDC expects that by 2022 , more than 90 % of enterprises worldwide will rely on a mix of onpower resources , issue work orders to remote hands , monitor the health of all sites , track all assets and connections , and secure all sites and equipment . To achieve this , leading experts are developing comprehensive remote infrastructure management strategies supported by intelligent hardware , environment sensors , remote security equipment and remote monitoring , tracking and operations software .
Data centre managers need to be able to adapt to these trends or risk falling behind . Industry experts are deploying second-generation DCIM software to turn the challenges of modern data centre management into opportunities to improve operations .
DATA CENTRE MANAGERS NEED TO BE ABLE TO ADAPT TO THESE TRENDS OR RISK FALLING BEHIND . www . intelligentdatacentres . com
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