Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/394834
www.datacenterjournal.com 4 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL g rowth in the cloud and in various IT outsourcing op- tions could lead the casual observer to think that the enterprise data center is an endangered species. en again, a casual observer might also buy into the informal notion that the cloud is some truly incor- poreal entity that stores and processes data and provides IT services without the need for actual hardware. Clearly, however, that's not the case: someone, somewhere must house the equipment that provides these services. e critical question, therefore, is not whether there will be data centers out there, but who will build and operate them. Will all data center infrastructure move to cloud, colocation and other outsourcing providers, or will companies still keep a share of on-premis- es facilities under their own control? In-house Data Centers: hIgh Costs, hIgh hassles Increasing demand for IT services means companies face a choice: either add more capacity as it becomes necessary or buy extra infrastructure now and wait for demand to catch up. A growing focus on modular infrastructure and design has led to rising favor for the first approach, since the second ties up extra capital without providing any return (except a negative return, thanks to depreciation). But both approaches involve capital costs, and in light of a tough economy—despite the con- stant government and media harangue that recovery is always just around the corner— capital costs can be painful for companies that have little cash to spare or that wish to hold on to some reserves. Naturally, then, the cloud seems like the perfect fix. And for those companies that still want to maintain some physical control of their IT destinies, colocation shoves the peripheral data center tasks like cooling and power distribution onto some- one else while leaving server hardware effectively in the hands of the company management. Brian Warren, Senior VP of Product Marketing at CoreSite, says that companies face two basic challenges in implementing an onsite data center—operational and economic. Operationally, greater demand drives the need for greater resources: "As the amount of data being stored by a company grows, so do the physical server space requirements, security and reliability requirements, and IT staffing require- ments." In other words, as noted previous- ly, more demand for service means more capital outlays (and operational outlays too, although every service costs money regardless of whether it's provided in house or outsourced). On the economic side, "ere are relatively minimal upfront costs associated with deploying in a multi-tenant [colocation] data center (MTDC), and reducing capex is an attractive option to many executives. MTDCs can leverage ef- ficiencies of scale from the broad customer base to achieve a more competitive cost structure for space, power and network infrastructure than most single-tenant data centers could attain." Even companies that already have in- house data centers face difficult decisions when it comes time to expand. Dumping an existing facility for the cloud may be go- ing overboard in many cases, but continu- ing to pour capital into the data center may also be unacceptable. Kemp Tech- nologies CMO Atchison Frazer notes that the "big- gest driver is greater scale, capacity and demand for applications; tradi- tional data centers are to a degree finite resources, and porting applications from in-house infra- structure to hybrid/cloud architecture (external) is both a cost-efficient and business-agility value proposition." A move to the cloud is thus tempting, but a mixture of approaches may be the order of the day for many companies. "e other factor is a natural refresh cycle of data center equip- ment: what to upgrade or retrofit, what to net-new build, what to virtualize and what to move to the cloud. Most enterprises want bi/tri-modal data centers that offer more 'liquidity' in terms of moving around resources, and thus external flexibility is key," said Frazer. keePIng thIngs In house Regardless of the benefits—cost or otherwise—to data center outsourcing, some situations may demand at least a cer- tain level of in-house infrastructure. Frazer notes that "security, compliance, data protection, disaster recovery, virtualized applications, business-continuity com- munications and so on all require in-house data center resources and a robust, high- performance physical IT infrastructure." Such benefits may be mandatory in certain industries. For instance, the financial industry in particular faces regulations that hinder cloud adoption, and company- owned data centers may be worth the cost (assuming they are even negotiable) in some situations. But Frazer also says that despite all the advantages of the cloud, compa- nies must determine which applications, business processes and unified com- munications permit hosting in the cloud as opposed to a local data center. And that decision may involve more than just regulations or simple economics; some mission-critical applications or processes may be too sensitive or too central to hand over to a third party—with all the uncer- tainties and legal complications that can go along with outsourcing. Companies that wish to keep control of their IT deployments, however, face a difficult balance beyond simply the costs—both capital and operational—of IT equipment proper. e location of a company-owned facility may be extremely problematic, particularly for certain industries. In some cases, a business can the "biggest driver is greater scale, capacity and demand for applications; traditional data centers are to a degree finite resources, and porting applications from in- house infrastructure to hybrid/cloud architecture (external) is both a cost-efficient and business-agility value proposition."