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Cloud, mobility, big data and the need to be “always on” are putting data centre infrastructure under inconceivable pressure. Organizations are trying to address the difficult task of meeting the technology demands of modern business with applications running on ageing hardware. With the current economic climate also a hindrance, managing opposing pressures is going to be a tough call for these companies.
Standing still and sweating existing assets is not a viable long-term option either. Server consolidation and virtualisation took some of the heat off overcrowded server rooms but it was typically a quick fix that failed to get to the root of the problem. Without extra effort to go further, the additional capacity is rapidly filling up again. Any resulting reduction in energy costs and space requirements are short term.
The success mantra for IT organizations today, is to implement more efficient technologies and processes, deploying the generated savings back into the development of innovative services thereby driving future business growth. Eliminating complexity and simplifying IT improves productivity resulting in lowered operating costs.
Great performance improvements, productivity gains, and cost reduction from improved ease of management, and energy and space savings are just some of the advantages of replacing older servers and storage with faster, more efficient systems that have been engineered to accommodate these new technology trends can deliver .
Modern hardware can do much
Modern hardware can do much, much more than previous generations and not just in terms of sheer horsepower. Some elements of performance are totally different. New integrated solutions, particularly those that engineer server, storage, networking and software together, can support so many more workloads, and take advantage of built-in compression technologies and intelligence to automate certain activities like database tuning in storage.
Most importantly, successful IT organizations recognise that modernizing can also provide a real competitive advantage within their industry, enabling IT to add real business value. How?
Replacing old hardware can boost the performance and availability of mission-critical applications, reducing the time needed to deploy new applications and business initiatives. Delivering innovation is very difficult when running a business on ageing hardware. As a result, many IT departments are reluctant to embrace big data, business intelligence or mobility projects because they know that their architecture wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Moving onto the latest technologies
There are other consequences of failing to upgrade legacy systems. If you look at cloud, running old architectures makes it difficult to deliver the hybrid models that so many organisations are looking to introduce. Many enterprises and government departments are looking to solve the modern business challenges being thrown at them by moving to a hybrid cloud model. This might mean storing heavily regulated data in an internal data centre but shifting other workloads such as development onto hardware provided by a third-party cloud provider. Modernization is a must for any organisation looking to get the most from this new environment.
Furthermore, in a recent survey of almost 600 CIOs and IT directors, conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Micro Focus, more than half (51 per cent) admitted that their business was exposed to compliance and risk issues. This was largely because they found it difficult to justify the expense of maintaining core applications.
A desire to stay with legacy systems and do things the way they’ve always been done is only natural. Yet this short-term view is damaging to business. New, more powerful hardware that combines server, storage and networking technologies provides a platform to truly transform business operations.
Regardless of whether an organisation is public or private sector, a migration strategy must focus on the desired outcomes rather than the technical details of moving from legacy internal systems to hybrid architecture. When making such a significant change to operations they must look to include innovation where possible and avoid letting the need to cut costs control the outcome. Focusing solely on cost will fail to generate the advantages that such a transformative project should deliver.
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