Het fysieke datacenter bevind zich in turbulente tijden. Er is aandacht van de CFO voor de uitgaven in deze omgeving, het moet ‘groen’ vanuit wet en (bedrijfs)regelgeving, en de gebruiker van het datacenter is aan het veranderen. Cloudcomputing en andere ‘verstorende’ technologieën zorgen er voor dat het anders moet op het fysieke vlak.
Harvard Business Review kopte enige tijd geleden met ‘The Disappearing Data Center‘
Few CEOs ever visit their own data centers, and from IT’s point of view, that’s probably a good thing, because they’re not a pretty sight. The typical center is a mishmash of new and out-of-date hardware that is often expensive to run and maintain. In fact, costs of data-center facilities have been rising faster than IT budgets
(De Nederlandse collega’s van IT Executive namen dit over in ‘Datacentrum kan naar buiten‘)
Uiteraard worden er de nodige opendeuren in getrapt, maar de essentie is wel juist; het fysieke datacenter moet aansluiten bij de beweging die IT maakt. Hierbij ontkomt men niet aan de verandering die ICT op dit moment ondergaat.
Gaat het datacenter uit organisaties verdwijnen en gaan we allemaal op in ‘the Cloud’ ??… Nee, ik denk het niet. Ik ga daar in met Michael Manos mee; o.a. wetgeving gaat dit niet geheel toestaan:
There is a host of legislation across the globe that is the beginning to govern the protection and online management of their their citizens through legislation and mandates in accordance with their own laws. This is having (and will continue to have) a dramatic impact on how infrastructure and electronic products and services will be deployed, where that data is stored, and how revenue from that activity can and will be taxed by the local country. This level of state exercised control can be economically, politically, or socially motivated and cloud services providers need to pay attention to it.
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…but the need for the corporate data centers is not going away. They may change in size, shape, efficiency, and the like, but there is a need to continue to maintain a home for those company jewels and to serve internal business communities.
Het is wel duidelijk dat er verandering nodig is.
Harvard Business Review noemt hierbij ook de containers:
A creative new option for remote arrangement is the “container-based” data center. With the help of companies such as HP, Microsoft, and Sun, firms can build their own portable data centers—server farms that can be moved to a new location where, say, utility costs are lower. These data centers are built from modular pieces that look like giant Lego bricks; essentially, they’re made out of shipping containers that house IT equipment and are carted to a site on trucks and placed in rows. Many companies think of these centers primarily as backup facilities, but their modular design makes it easy to add or subtract capacity rapidly.
Dit raakt 100% mijn onderzoek het afgelopen jaar en sluit aan bij de resultaten en mijn presentaties hier over.
