| | | RssFeeds
 
Get Free Newsletter Search   Search Search
         

Follow Us:

 
 
NC Print 
February 2010
Editorial
Four factors to consider before firing up that DLP solution
By Invitation

»The Analyst Angle

»ProductivIT

»Technology & Risks

How to plug the loopholes in two-factor authentication
Google Wave: An experimental ride
Managing Document Mammoths

» Jigar Shah

» Vidhii Partners

How The Koobface Worm Gang Makes Money
Zoeb Adenwala
On the Record

»Andrew M Dutton

»Jim Wagstaff  

Printer vendors don ‘consultant’ hat to push MPS
Case Study

»FT Rides Web 2.0 Wave Securely

»Eko’s Mobile Platform Accelerates Financial Inclusion

»Open Source Infrastructure Management tool helps JSL reduce downtime

5 points to make when your CEO cries cloud
How to be a guinea pig and not get slaughtered
Cisco launches enterprise social network solution
Top 10 security challenges for 2010
In the News
 EDGE 2009

Read More About the Best IT Implementations in the Country

 
       Read more >> 

Archive
 

 
 Keeping up with technology

In 1965, when Gordon Moore predicted (in effect) that the cost of computing power would halve every 18 months, few people realized that eventually the cost of the infrastructure to support processors would exceed the cost of the processors themselves. Today, the density of processing power is rising dramatically, which means that data centers are continuously evolving their infrastructure to cope with rising power and cooling demands. While data centers have resident experts to meet these challenges head-on, most enterprises don’t.

Networks have undergone upgrades from fast Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet, and CAT5 to CAT5e and then to CAT6, all in the space of three years. If this isn’t enough, pretty soon we’re going to see Augmented CAT6 (10 Gigabit) networks being implemented as standard.

On the server front, blade servers are finally coming into their own, but implementing blade servers properly to achieve near-100 percent uptime is far from child’s play. Again, it’s the data centers that have the technical muscle to be able to do this for their customers as a matter of routine.

Most of our customers tell us that one of the biggest drivers for their outsourcing initiatives is not access to technology but to people. Managing intrinsic voice and data platforms demands the right people in place to deliver high availability, security and performance. There’s no margin for error, which means that you need to have an in-house brain-trust that is capable of keeping things up and running on a 24x7 basis while also keeping an eye on available technology upgrades to make sure you don’t concede a technological edge to your competitors.

What this comes down to is that the cost of having to constantly upgrade network technology, infrastructure and skill-sets is simply far too high for the average enterprise to swallow. This is one of the prime reasons why, over the last three years, enterprises around the world have  realized that they’re far better off outsourcing hosting infrastructure to data center service providers.

 Service game

One of the most cited reasons for the extinction of dinosaurs was that they were too big and ponderous to be able to rapidly adapt to a cataclysmic event, while smaller and more nimble creatures were able to adapt to their new environment and continue evolving.

The parallel here is painfully obvious: the data centers that have been through the cataclysmic dotcom crash and are still alive and kicking are the ones that have adapted their business methodologies and core market
offerings. The take-it-or-leave-it all-or-nothing offerings of earlier days have been replaced by a more customer-friendly à-la-carte approach where customers can now pick and choose what they want from a wide range of services aimed at enhancing availability, performance and security.

Data centers which have done this successfully now position themselves as managed service providers, a name which implies that the physical data center is simply a delivery mechanism for providing customers with new market offerings such as SaaS (software as a service) or on-demand grid computing (whereby customers can get on-demand computing power for only as long as they need it).

Through such value-added services that rise above basic server co-location and bandwidth, smart data centers have managed to keep customers coming back for more.

 The ride continues

In a recent study, the Datacenter Users Group, a worldwide group of influential data center managers, found that all current data center facilities in the world are expected to reach maximum capacity before 2011. That’s less than four years away. Demand currently exceeds supply, which led service provider Telecity RedBus to increase hosting fees by more than 60 percent last year, with an indication that they could do so again in the near future-yet their data centers continue to run at near-full capacity.

Does this mean a rosy outlook for these technological powerhouses?
Yes and no.

Data centers today face serious challenges in the areas of power and cooling. Server density has become so high that data centers are becoming the largest consumers of power in a world that is doing all it can to reduce power consumption as much as possible. IT industry analysts expect global server sales to double between 2007 and 2009, which means there is going to be even greater demand for quality hosting space.

At the end of the day, the growing demand for quality hosting and managed services-market-corrections notwithstanding-is fueling data center innovation and growth. As the cost-basis and market demands continue to shift, it’s those data centers which progressively evolve their infrastructure and service offerings that will continue to flourish.

Print this Page   E-mail this Page
 

 

 Global CIO

Global CIO: The Top 10 CIO Issues For 2010

For CIOs, 2010 will require new emphases on customers, revenue, external information, and a passion for rapid change           
           Read More >> 

 

 Editor's Blog

What’s your storage strategy?

        

Read more >>  

 

 CIO Profile

Satish Pendse Muralikrishna K

VP and Head, Computers & Communication Division, Infosys Technologies

 Read more >>  

 

 International News

Facebook Hit By Clickjacking Attack

Social network targeted by emerging brand of attack that's hard to kill

 Read more >>

 

        

 Work Smart

Archive your mail      


Read more >>  

 

ADVERTISEMENTS >>
 
Powered By: ssCMS 2.2.0.0