In 
What leads the mindshare of CIOs when it comes to managing new technology trends?
Some of the trends which continue to dominate the minds of CIOs include the following, from technology perspective.
Managing Big Data: With the increasing use of e-commerce and social media, managing data is quite a challenge as it comes largely in unstructured and in multi-structured formats.
Cloud Computing: The need for CIOs is to define what is core internal IT and what is external IT and what can be put in the cloud.
Security: This has always been and will continue to be a concern. More so in today’s era where more & more businesses are now becoming web dependent and multiple devices are being used. This opens up the IT infrastructure and hence a need for greater security.
DCIM: Managing the infrastructure with as minimal disruption remains a challenge. The need to have DCIM exists, however as the industry is quite nascent there are different expectations from DCIM going around today. Hence articulating the specific problem area becomes very critical.
Increasing efficiencies: Doing more with less. Business demands are always increasing and as the role of IT is help create a ‘Competitive Advantage’ for the business, this situation has never been truer. Hence organizations are looking at ways of increasing their existing efficiencies.
From market perspective, major trends include increased number of DCs in Govt and public sector space, more outsourcing of DCs and consolidation of existing DCs.
How is data center evolving in terms of meeting new challenges?
We need to understand the challenge first. Our marketplace is now becoming more and more Web dependent. Getting information, servicing clients, reaching out to clients, understanding consumer behavior, etc is now web centric. IT (read DC) have to be far more open and global. This throws up its own set of issues of security, accessibility, response times, and backend infra, etc. Since the consumer is now becoming more web enabled so are the businesses. Hence, we now see active involvement of CMOs in IT space. Most large organizations have IT guys in marketing department helping bridge the gap between the new market and traditional IT. In a few years from now, we will have traditional backend closed IT (doing heavy duty number crunching processes) & open IT (which will be the front face of the organization) having touch points with its consumers. This front face will be actively managed by CMO.
What's your advice for IT managers to choose the best data center solutions and how to make their data centers future-ready?
Firstly, define and articulate the problem which needs to be solved. More often than not, the problem gets diluted in searching for tools/solutions which apparently seem to provide everything. Throwing a budget at the problem does not solve it. Secondly defining of owners of the problem is very critical. Who will be responsible and how will they manage the same. Thirdly they need to appreciate that no single vendor will solely solve all problems in current and in future. Hence IT managers should focus on doing it one step at a time. Choose technology/vendors which are open and ready to work with their organization closely.
How do you see data center five years down the line?
In the cloud. Honestly, it is difficult to predict that, specially keeping in view the changing technologies and the way business is done today. What is certain is that marketing and IT department will very closely be linked in providing business offerings of the company.
What are some of your compelling offerings in the space and they differentiate from others in the market?
Raritan has been providing DC solutions for over two and half decades. We currently have solutions which address improving efficiencies in power, providing asset management, change management, capacity management, energy management to name a few. Besides solving larger issues in DC, Raritan also focuses very closely on day to day operational issues /irritants while managing a DC. Raritan provides:
‘Secure Lock cables’ (these ensure that once the power cord is plugged in they remain locked and that there is no accidental unplugging of the same).
The Intelligent PDUs have been designed in a manner which cater to main power source being plugged in from (a) Top – top (b) Top – front (c) Bottom – bottom & (d) Bottom front. This ensures smooth deployment in the racks.
Colored PDUs. Two different colors PDUs are used to differentiate incoming Power from main source & secondary source.
Optimized High resolution: In today’s environment the demand is for viewing in high resolution.Raritan’s latest KVM offering provides 1920 x 1080 HD viewing for High Performance Applications.
Are businesses deploying environment sensors to optimize power consumption in their data centers?
It is not only about environment sensors, it’s about understanding the DC at the most granular level possible. For example, more the cooling, more the amount spent on power. For every centigrade degree increase in temperature, the power costs saved is about five per cent. However, we just can’t increase the DC temperature at random. Every rack has different equipment and therefore produces different levels of heat. Hence understanding temperature at various points in rack is very important. ASHRAE recommends that the temperature be measured at three places (top, middle & bottom) at the back and one in the front. Similarly, a humidity sensor/rack is also very critical. Once we have an understanding of this, we can increase the temperature in DC accordingly. The DC managers need to view cool air as NOT cool air flowing but as money flowing in the air. Hence more cooling means more money floating in the air.
Would you share any recent case study with our readers?
One of the leading IT companies in the networking space was spending a lot of money on power in their DCs. They chose to deploy Raritan Intelligent PDUs along with the Power IQ - intelligent vendor agnostic power management software tool. The objective was to understand power consumption at device level across the DC and then take corrective steps to fine tune the DC operations. The plan was that after taking the necessary steps the money invested would be saved in 18 – 24 months. In reality, they recovered the money in less than 12 months. Now every year they re-invest the money saved in more of these tools and now are to manage more with less.
Add new comment