IT RESELLER – MARCH 2011
Racking up the benefits T
he special report featured in this edition of IT Resellerfocuses on some of the most recent flagship data centre projects that a
group of leading VARs have been involved in. And, from a general perspective, the report also drills into many of the current hot technology topics within the world of the data centre infrastructure. Indeed, there is an abundance of envelope-pushing features to ponder; everything from evaporative cooling, flywheel and hydrogen cells. It’s all there for end users to take on board if they’re forward-thinking enough. There is even intelligent Environmental Monitoring equipment to consider. As Sudlows’ Andy Hirst states, both power and cooling are rapidly developing in their approach to delivering energy efficiencies in line with a more sustainable and green ethos. And if this ethos really is being increasingly embraced by end users, this can only be great news for the
companies concerned in terms of energy savings, as well as for the environment in general.
And with an eye on the not too distant future, he believes the market is now at that crucial stage where all the separate elements that come together to create a data centre will be accurately controlled, operated and measured by a unifying intelligent infrastructure. In other words, data centre infrastructures will be able to be fine-tuned to be more flexible and reduce their power consumption in real-time and in-line with forecast trends. And remaining on the theme of energy efficiency, let’s not forget Virtual Desktop
Infrastructure (VDI). This, believes Comtec’s Nick Ewing, is something that will become a major trend, due to its energy saving properties together with additional savings in software and operating system management costs, hardware lifetime and data security improvements.
And as any VAR will know, another common talking point in the world of the data centre is the Cloud. Ewing has commented that, so far, the impact of Cloud Computing is yet to land fully. However, he adds, there is no doubt that organisations in the public and private sector are keen to realise its potential. Ewing has even gone so far as to say that the Cloud might change the shape of the business as companies seek to outsource rather than host their own applications. Nevertheless, he reflects, when the continuing increase in IT dependency is dialled in, the most likely outcome is that there will be an increasing number of ever more sophisticated data centres as more on-demand functionality is sought by users. In this scenario, the need for absolutely dependable services could indeed make or break brands.
And we can sometimes lose sight of the fact that when we talk about the Cloud there is still ultimately a data centre involved. “As Hirst has commented, the Cloud cannot simply be the panacea to all storage issues. The innovations will no doubt keep coming and, while the level of adoption may vary in the early stages, one can’t help remembering that, in other markets, many major developments of the past were slow to get off the ground, but once they did they became literally life changing – just consider the television as an isolated example.
Ed Holden Editor »
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