Fragments

Data center: Hype, or a big story?

September 1st, 2009 | by Klemen Stular |

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The next day, He created the data center. Or at least it sounded that way, when somebody from my team who had already made up his mind stepped into my office and wanted me to buy his arguments. Then you hear giants such as Cisco screaming the same tune, and you’re puzzled: are the next-generation data centers just another new bunch of technologies, bundled into an appealing marketing package and overcommunicated enough to create hype? Or is there something more fundamental that we shouldn’t miss, no matter what the cost?

Okay, let’s cut the b——t and get to the point. What is the “next-generation data center” (DC)? Data centers have been around for years — nothing new there. Virtualization is being reinvented and remarketed, but it’s been available for decades, too. (Remember IBM’s VM operating system?) Disk capacity consumption has been growing forever; no news on this front, either. So what’s the exciting new value? The problem is that no one (okay, almost no one) can tell you a persuasive STORY. We all know that sales today needs a story – a very good story. But when it comes to a new technology wave, we quickly jump into selling boxes and bits and bytes and capacities and bandwidths — and we don’t tell the story. We feel that there’s something deeper hidden behind the technology facade, but we don’t know how to describe it to the outside world. I’m still lacking a good story from those who started the DC stampede, as well as from their followers. (True believers?)

Lacking a better story, let me give you my view of what’s behind the next-generation DC. (By the way, we call it “NIL HyperCenter.”) It’s a changed approach and a new architecture. If you decide to build your data center with us, what you’ll get is a process and a goal. You’ll see what your existing IT environment will transform into over time if you start today and work systematically. No one who tries to stay at least marginally honest with you can promise you overnight big savings, efficiency improvements and an easier life. On the other hand, what everybody will tell you is that you just cannot afford not to start moving toward it sooner or later. It’s just a matter of time. Because if you don’t act on your data center, it will get relatively more expensive, less efficient and less competitive, which will hurt your business over the next few years. You can’t improvise forever. That’s the only real truth I can share with you.

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