Convergence is crucial to relieving data centre pressure

Developments such as cloud computing, big data and virtualisation are causing an explosion of data within organisations. This is changing business needs and more worryingly, putting pressure on IT infrastructure. As the backbone of IT, this is significantly impacting investment in data centre solutions to achieve cost efficiency and to reduce downtime. For example, in December, analysts predicted that by 2017, big data technology and services would be worth €23.9bn ($32.4bn) annually. With more companies entering the big data market, there’s a rapid increase in spending on data centres to accommodate for the ‘data deluge’.

Last year, Google disclosed that it invested €1.2bn ($1.6bn) on building data centres in just three months, from April to June. And it’s not just Google – according to Gartner, global spending on data centres hit €103bn ($140bn) last year and only in January IBM confirmed it will build a new cloud data centre in London this year as part of an €884.5m ($1.2bn) global investment that includes opening 15 new cloud data centres worldwide.

During Q3 2013 the storage market generated 622.6 petabytes of new storage capacity, an increase of 101 percent from the same quarter in 2012. Because of this, companies are searching for ways to handle the floods of information whilst keeping up to date with IT demands. For instance, the ability for IT infrastructure to allow access to data anywhere at any time for employees, whilst meeting the business demands of cost efficiency, preventing security threats and increasing productivity. Often the IT infrastructure in place to protect and manage corporate data is traditionally siloed. This causes bottlenecks in IT networks, such as inadequate data traffic management or transfer, which can result in higher operational costs due to maintenance, in addition to reduced flexibility and agility. Today there are plenty of approaches to IT infrastructure inside data centres, such as application-centric infrastructure, hybrid cloud management and converged infrastructure. But which one is the most efficient to address data centre complexity and reduce costs? Which one can solve these key business demands around the masses of corporate data?

Indeed, on speaking with customers I’ve seen that data growth, business continuity and cost pressures are at the front of customers’ minds.
Converged infrastructure enables a standardised, repeatable approach to data centre architecture. This greatly reduces operational and troubleshooting costs associated with the accidental architectures many organisations arrive at through reactively plugging resource gaps to deal with increased workload demands on their infrastructure.

To meet these demands, organisations should look to embrace a centralised model to combine networking, server and data storage technologies into a converged infrastructure, which increases IT speed and agility. Converged infrastructure, in my opinion, offers an effective solution to managing the data storm. It can simplify system management, maximise data centre efficiency and enhance IT service quality. The good news is, according to IDC, a greater number of IT customers are now “realising the value of integrated systems” and how to best simplify IT operations. What’s more, the analyst house estimates that total worldwide spending on converged infrastructure will hit €13.1bn ($17.8bn) in 2016, up from €3.4bn ($4.6bn) in 2012.

As the marketplace expands and adapts, vendors are vying to retain competitive edge; they cannot afford to have rigid, clumsy IT infrastructures in place. Despite this, I do feel there’s still a lot of education in the market needed for resellers to be able to get a piece of this growth opportunity. To maximise data centres, a converged infrastructure strategy cannot be disregarded. It’s important for resellers to learn more about converged infrastructure and how it can help solve business demands. Continuity of business and speed to market in the case of new business applications or services are two key priorities for IT departments today. When you can ensure a repeatable approach to infrastructure deployment, management and troubleshooting with full support of all vendors involved (as you can with Converged Infrastructure), then you limit risk of downtime, reduce time to problem resolution and massively reduce time to business.

For the reseller too, it’s essential to understand that every business is different and flexibility is the key to success. By integrating converged infrastructure into IT environments, processes can be adapted to individual end customer needs and to businesses of all shapes and sizes. As IT infrastructure complexities grow, this solution helps companies address the need to store increasingly large volumes of corporate data, whilst reducing costs, decreasing complexity and accelerating ROI. I believe now is the time for organisations to capitalise on this large and growing market opportunity to bring in new customers and tap into new markets.