NC May-Jun 2022

OPINION: DATA CENTRES
THE DATA CENTRE IN 2022 AND BEYOND
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' FOR THE DATA CENTRE,
ACCORDING TO PETER MILLER, SALES MANAGER AT ETB
TECHNOLOGIES
We live in an ever-changing, datahungry
world - and IT and data
centre managers need to ensure
their set-up is fit for purpose, especially with
the changing nature of work accelerated by
the pandemic. These managers need to
question whether their existing estates meet
the businesses' needs both now and in
preparation for any future challenges
caused by external forces - be it regulatory
or another unprecedented global crisis.
One side-effect of the pandemic was a
reallocation of budgets as businesses had
to rethink their physical office and IT
needs. According to data from Synergy
Research Group, cloud spend in 2020
"dwarfed" investment in on-premise
solutions, growing by 35% to reach almost
$130 billion versus just $90 billion for data
centres. However, as offices reopen and
the way we work changes once again, it is
possible that budgets will again change
and on-premise infrastructure will increase
in 2022 in beyond.
With no crystal ball at hand to see exactly
what will change about business operating
models, it seems like ensuring IT estates are
fit for the future is a lost cause; however
there are some things to consider that will
help - whatever changes come our way.
COMMIT TO A FULL REVIEW
Reopening offices doesn't mean returning to
the way things were in 2019. Many
businesses will maintain a hybrid working
model, so what worked before businesses
went remote doesn't necessarily mean it will
work as we return.
A hybrid model means a high level of
traffic as team members access and save
files from multiple locations. IT managers
must ensure their estate can cope with this,
and consider where adaptations and
improvements might be needed, specifically
concerning storage capacity, networking
capabilities, and connectivity and
bandwidth. This is particularly important as
we continue to see employees use online
collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams to
edit documents in real-time, as well as
access internal servers.
Part of this review should involve a
consultation with the wider organisation to
better understand the company's full IT
usage. Reviewing the tools, processes and
practices that occur at all levels will better
inform the technical team of any
enhancements that are needed within an
organisation's data centre - and beyond.
Only once this has been done can changes
be made to strengthen the data centre and
make it fit for purpose in the future.
BUILDING IN FLEXIBILITY
If the pandemic has taught us nothing else,
it's that we need systems and processes in
place that can be turned on and off when
our technology and operations requirements
change - potentially overnight. While this
was most obvious in March 2020, no one
could have envisaged then that it would be
two years until we considered returning to
the office again. As a result, we all know
now that embedding flexibility within data
centre architectures to scale up (or down)
according to the current organisational
needs is an absolute must.
Achieving this requires planning: not just
consideration of what's needed right now,
32 NETWORKcomputing MAY/JUNE 2022 @NCMagAndAwards
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