Where exactly are data centers going in the next few years? The rise of the cloud and the ubiquity of high-powered computing is rapidly increasing the volume of data being processed by networks and IT systems.
The data center has become critical to the efficient operation of the modern enterprise. Internal projects, external applications, user data and everything else are now entrusted to data centers. Increasing reliance on the cloud, by both consumers and businesses, and the continued expansion of the Internet has bought with it fresh challenges for data centers and the staff that manage them.
From provisioning to cooling, the data center today has to deal with issues faster, while also doing more on less hardware. Virtualization and blade servers are allowing data centers to squeeze more and more processing power into racks, but at the same time driving up the requirements for energy and cooling.
From software-defined networks (SDNs) to big data, the data center will need to rise to the occasion of a number of challenges in 2014 and beyond.
1. Maintaining Legacy Systems
Although certain technologies continue to drive data centers forward, problems may remain with legacy systems, potentially adding more complexity to an already complex infrastructure. The forerunners to enterprise data centers—storage, compute and network layers—are still seeing growth, meaning IT teams face the prospect of managing new and legacy systems in tandem.
2. Energy Efficiency
Regulations and the need to become energy efficient are driving companies to find new and innovative ways of controlling costs and power use. For instance, some companies are building facilities in areas where electricity is cheaper or even where climates are cooler, as Google’s recent $608 million investment in a data center in Finland demonstrates.
3. Outsource or On-Premise?
Outsourcing to the cloud has driven businesses to give their data to others. Though outsourcing is on the rise, concerns surrounding privacy and security are strong enough reasons to keep company data behind bricks and mortar. The rise of the modular data center may entice businesses to deploy scalable solutions closer to customers. Speed should always be a priority, and being able to deploy one hop from customers can give businesses far more flexibility than being stuck at six hops.
4. Cloud Services
Amazon’s cloud platform has led IT managers to look at hardware as no longer the physical restraint that it once was. Instead, they view it as a platform that can be rapidly deployed and then used more effectively through virtualization. This shift has led to hardware vendors having to differentiate themselves on services and extras, as the hardware has increasingly become a commodity—which can only be a good thing for data center teams.
5. Software-Defined Data Centers
The shift from hardware to software-defined systems has made the data center more business focused than ever. The CIO is now becoming a key component of any business strategy as technology drives companies to focus more on using technology to meet their needs.
It’s too early to tell if software-defined data centers (SDDCs) will be the ubiquitous architecture of the future. Critics dismiss it as marketing talk; advocates see it as the final frontier for IT provisioning.
A true SDDC will be autonomous, able to offload workloads effectively and able to deal with failures to minimize service downtime. The hardware will still be there, but it will be used in new ways as virtualization of all layers allows for more control and higher agility and streamlines the SDDC around business strategies.
Although “software defined” may have an uncertain future, it’s still important to understand where it may lead and to act on the changes if they happen.
6. Big Data
Software-defined networks will help make big data a reality, allowing companies to collect, analyze and act on data faster than ever, placing the data center at the very heart of the long-term strategy and goals of the business.
7. Standards and System Integration
Widespread adoption of the cloud will require industry virtualization standards across not only the network virtualization but also storage, if it comes into fruition. There are currently a few competitors in the space, however OpenStack appears to be a front runner and has support by major vendors—Cisco and HP, to name a few. Given more industry standards in place and enhanced compatibility between systems, data centers will be able to benefit from deeper system integration and improved efficiency.
One thing for certain is that the future of the data center lies in having closer ties with business goals, in efficiency, consolidation and the power of the software-defined future. Removing the physical limitations implied by hardware and allowing software to define networks is a clear step in the direction of future data centers.
Source : http://www.datacenterjournal.com/it/sdns-big-data7-challenges-facing-data-center-2014/
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