Data Center

Charting the Path to Automating the Data Center

Data centers are quickly becoming the new nerve centers of organizations. As dependency on them increases, so does the need to reduce costs and increase performance and productivity. Automation promises all these benefits. if automating the data center is beneficial, how close can we get to complete automation? Is complete automation even desirable? What are the challenges?

The Lean Data Center: Just another bandwagon?

Surveys show large numbers of CIO's are applying/deciding to apply lean principles to improve their data center operations. But applying the “lean techniques” developed by car manufacturers 30 years ago, to today's data centers, will require experimentation and a fundamental change of mindset by employees. So far, experts are acknowledging the trend exists, but there isn't much documentation on exactly how to do it and what is involved.

Data Center Virtualization: Digging Deeper

Data centers are the vaults where we store mission critical information and intellectual property that users may need to access on quick notice but which also need to be protected. What does it take to successfully 'virtualize' a data center? Is it a smooth ride? If not, what issues need to be addressed?

Data Centers: Belt Tightening vs. Strangulation

Despite the global wide financial meltdown, businesses still need to keep running, and Data Centers are the very soul of most businesses. The need to accommodate continually accumulating data and ongoing computing growth doesn't stop, even during an economic slow down. Obvious strategies to handling things include virtualization or consolidation, but those are also expensive. Are there any other strategies that will streamline our Data Centers while keeping the corporate bean counters off our backs?

Is your IT prepared for fluid customer expectations?

In our mobile and interconnected world, we're constantly playing catch up with "what", "how much", and "where" as we try to meet the expectations of our customers who want it all yesterday. We may feel we're not "in control," but could IT change that? If so, how? For example, what if we were to create a dynamically scalable and extensible IT application and infrastructure portfolio where all costs are variable and all IT is provisioned "on demand" to meet this end? Would this be a good idea? Would it solve our problems?