Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/394834
THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 23 www.datacenterjournal.com SAVE THE DATE OCTOBER 26-29, 2014 JW Marriott Desert Ridge | Phoenix, AZ 25 TH ANNIVERSARY 1 9 8 9 – 2 0 1 4 www.7x24exchange.org MARQUIS PLUS+ PARTNERS GOLD PARTNERS SILVER PARTNERS 2014 FALL CONFERENCE CORPORATE LEADERSHIP PROGRAM PARTNERS (AT PRESS TIME) MEDIA PARTNERS CONFERENCE KEYNOTE MAKING THE EXTRAORDINARY POSSIBLE Mike Desens Vice President and Business Line Executive, System Z IBM End-To-End Reliability: Mission Critical Facilities SCALING TO THE FUTURE 2014 FALL CONFERENCE 14F DCJ_STD_8375w525_5fx.q8_DCJ Half page ad 7/14/14 11:56 AM Page 1 aged data center infrastructure and some outsourcing can combine the benefits of both approaches at the best price for the company. In particular, LeClair anticipates a decreasingly clear line between the in- house and outsourcing camps as cloud- based services reach maturity. InDustrIes Clearly, a company's industry will have a tremendous effect on its range of IT options. A major online retailer or finan- cial services firm will tend to have different needs than, say, a construction company or public-relations firm that simply wants to highlight product solutions or man- age communications with customers. In addition, some industries simply tend to have different common practices. "Some industries are more conservative in their use of technology in general and in the adoption of new technologies in particu- lar," commented LeClair. "For example, manufacturing was slower to adopt virtu- alization than other industries, lagging the mainstream IT world by a couple of years initially. We are now seeing it move to virtualization in a significant way—it just took a little longer to take hold." Beyond the preferences of companies, however, are requirements imposed from outside—specifically, government regula- tions. Certain industries like finance and health care are overrun with regulations that bleed over into the IT realm. us, companies serving in these industries may either lose some data center options or must go to greater lengths to ensure that they comply with regulators' demands. "e healthcare (HIPPA), government (FIPS) and financial payments (PCI) industries are just a few examples of where regulatory requirements have had a major impact on how data centers are operated and how applications are executed," notes LeClair. "Each brings in unique require- ments and challenges that can go beyond just the obvious mandates." ConClusIons e range of IT options for compa- nies is broadening, and although it enables more possibilities and better accommo- dates different industries and budgets, it necessitates making some potentially dif- ficult decisions. e disparate approaches of outsourcing and traditional data center construction may seem worlds apart, but many companies combine the two in a hybrid approach that takes advantage of the benefits of each—outsourcing for non-central tasks and traditional IT for mission-critical or otherwise central tasks, for instance. e key to a successful project is evaluating your data center needs in light of your company size and budget, your industry, and the types of applications and processes you intend to run. In some cases, simply maximizing the capacity of your current infrastructure is enough. If you opt to build (or even outsource, or use a hybrid approach), however, it's important to rec- ognize that a traditional data center is not the only option—nor is it an option that's gone completely by the wayside. In many cases, a complementary approach may be the best option. n