Keys to the Future of Data Centers in 2015

Planning changes to your data centers in 2015 or the near future beyond that? There are trends worth knowing about as you plan any changes.

TechRepublic.com has identified five trends in data centers. The article says, “The technologies and processes that power our data centers have grown at an exponential rate. What was once considered state of the art is now considered a relic, and the IT skills needed to manage these new data centers are changing as well.”

Artificial Intelligence: “As more and more companies make advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, it is only a matter of time before those innovations make their way into data centers. Last year, Google made headlines when it announced that it wasusing machine learning through neural networks to optimize its data centers, even releasing a white paper explaining the process.”

Wired has an article on artificial intelligence you might find helpful because it discusses how it evolved. It says, among other points, “Nowhere has AI had a greater impact in the early stages of the 21st century than in the office. Machine-learning technologies are driving increases in productivity never before seen. From workflow management tools to trend predictions and even the way brands purchase advertising, AI is changing the way we do business.”

IPv6: “It’s no secret that we’ve exhausted a lot of our options regarding current IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) addresses — IPv4 ran out of addresses and the routing tables have gotten too big. The intended replacement that will, hopefully, alleviate this issue is the introduction of IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6). While probably still a ways off, IPv6 will definitely affect the data center.”

Network World has an article on IPv6 you might find interesting while on the topic. It says, “Imagine for a moment that there were a nation-wide shortage of phone numbers. The 10-digit numbering scheme just isn’t cutting it anymore. The powers that be decide to expand the scheme, but rather than just tacking on a single digit and thus expanding the available number pool by a factor of 10, they decide to think big. REALLY big. Instead of the base 10 decimal number scheme where every digit is 0-9, they go with hexadecimal where every digit is one of 16 characters (0-9 and a-f). And not only so, but they expand the number of digits from 10 to 32. … IPv6 is kinda like that. Actually, IPv6 is exactly like that.”

Solid State Drives: “Solid state drives (SSDs) are nothing new, but they are still a touchy subject in the enterprise data center, due to expense and interface issues. While Moore’s Law has done its fair share of making SSDs cheaper than they used to be, they still require a hefty investment relative to their spinning counterparts and have some interface issue to contend with. However, more and more companies are beginning to use them.”

Virtualization: “Another IT constant that will continue to drive change in the data center is virtualization. The list of current benefits is long, including better testing, easier backups, and faster redeployments, among others. There are arguments about the viability of virtualization, especially regarding data reading from storage in virtual environments.”

Cloud Solutions: “For many, the hybrid cloud solution works well to balance the performance and simplicity of the public cloud with the security and stability of an on-premise data center. In addition to security concerns, cloud costs are still a barrier for some companies.”