As data center costs continue to skyrocket, the focus of data center management is beginning to shift to optimizing data center infrastructure. Over the next few years, here are some of the new trends that are sure to influence future data center decisions:
(i) Remote monitoring of data centers
The debate over whether to outsource enterprise data centers continues. Enterprises have decided to continue to run IT in-house and have found cost-effective vendors that use external data center monitoring. In some cases, the physical infrastructure equipment, external monitoring and first level of support require security access. Additional infrastructure firewalls and security measures are required, which will increase the complexity of the data center. On the other hand, as staff salaries and workspace are continuous expenses. In addition, it is easier to scale a team to the size of an external environment.
(ii) Location of data center
The question of where to locate a data center is a rather important decision. Because technological advances have made it possible for most tasks to be performed remotely, with only a small number of staff needed on site, this provides a wide range of geographic choices for the location of the data center. Some of the factors that have a considerable impact on this decision are:
Climatic characteristics of the site area
Lowest cost per kilowatt-hour
Minimal harm to the environment
Lower cost of production
Lower population density in the site area
Low construction cost
Low labor cost
Feasibility of "natural cooling": Use of outdoor air to cool the data center, requiring less mechanical cooling. [page]
(iii) Green IT
Energy consumption directly impacts cooling costs; after all, heat dissipation comes primarily from equipment. The strategic business plan will have a direct impact on the type and amount of IT equipment installed in the data center. Knowledge of the types of equipment in the data center and how efficiently they work is important because it will affect the data center power and cooling strategy, as well as the physical design strategy of the data center. Making IT more efficient and cost-effective continues to be a focus for the industry, both for manufacturers and consumers.
(iv) Scalability and Modularity
In the past few years, only scalable and modular architectures for hardware and software have been available to meet the growing demand. Given the cost and demand pressures on infrastructure, it is now necessary to implement a scalability and modular design approach to data center infrastructure.
Such an approach, for example, as applied to UPS and power distribution systems, will allow a data center to add/disable one part without affecting another data center. Flexible design allows managed service providers to add and remove certain parts of the data center based on customer requirements. A flexible design is also needed to cater to the different loads and tasks of customers.
(v) Disaster Recovery Optimization and Availability
Historically, hardware utilization has been low and virtualization has a long way to go. However, the focus has been on how to improve the efficiency of the production data center, but not the disaster recovery (DR)/backup center. Because they have been "shut down" or "idle". Now, organizations are realizing the importance of investing in this "idle" equipment. And they are adopting innovative ways to utilize them for Disaster Recovery (DR) infrastructures. The trend of using DR centers for testing and training is growing. Designs need to take into account the ability to switch over to the safest, quickest means of production.
(vi) Data center infrastructure management
The convergence of IT and data center infrastructure management is a reality. Most infrastructure equipment is addressed per IP, just as IT equipment has been implemented for years. Several companies in the development phase have to converge two different environments. The ability to plan IT components and physical infrastructure elements according to scenarios will allow designers to know how planned and changing IT environments affect the physical environment and vice versa. For example, if we install a specific type of IT hardware, how will that affect the load on the UPS and cooling system? Avoiding costs that do not exceed the engineering costs will achieve a smooth introduction of these products into the market.
It is vital that these factors are fully considered in the early stages of data center strategy and design - after all, these features will have a very significant impact on IT budgets and, if not planned for, could have a detrimental effect on data center computing power and operating costs.