AFCOM, the international association of data center managers and
enterprise IT executives, confirmed on March 30 what many people in the
business are already well aware of: That a high number of data centers
are not fully protected from potential disasters which, in turn, could
bring their enterprises to their knees.
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which knocked out or severely
damaged several data centers in northeastern Japan, has brought this
issue into clear focus for the entire industry.
For example, Sony revealed on March 17 that its Sendai factory and data
center--even though a well-protected facility--was severely damaged
in the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck near there.
The Sendai Sony facility, now offline, was the only one in the world
capable of manufacturing most of Sony's Professional Media Products.
There is no indication as to when it might be gearing back up for
production.
AFCOM, at its biannual conference in Las Vegas, released its annual
"State of the Data Center" survey, a status report on data centers
which polled 358 data center managers from around the world.
The purpose of the survey is to illustrate how data centers are
adapting to changes in IT products and services, power and cooling
issues, and to macro- and local economic impacts. The top-shelf issues
have remained the same for several years: proper use of energy,
physical and digital security, space limitations and convergence of
functionality into smaller devices.
Key findings, according to AFCOM:
- Hundreds, possibly thousands, of data centers are not prepared well
enough for potential disasters. More than 15 percent of respondents
said their data center has no plan for data backup and recovery; 50
percent have no plan to replace damaged equipment after a disaster;
about 65 percent have no plan or procedure to deal with cyber-criminals.
- Mainframes on the wane: Even though many midrange and large data
centers utilize one or more mainframes, usage of the large machines has
leveled off and is in decline.
- Cloud system adoption continues to grow. This is hardly unexpected.
In 2010, only 15 percent of all data centers were using any type of
cloud service in production or testing. This year, that percentage has
shot up to 37 percent; 35 percent are now seriously studying or testing
it. AFCOM said that the cloud computing trajectory will continue for at
least five years, with 80 to 90 percent of all data centers adopting
some form of cloud IT--either public, private or hybrid--by 2016.
- Web application growth: Eighty-seven percent of AFCOM respondents
reported an increase in the number of Web applications they use today
in production, compared with the number they were using in 2008.
- Data centers continue to get larger: Despite the edgy macroeconomy,
data centers have been expanding in size; 44 percent of IT managers
report that they now have more floor space that they did three years
ago. Nearly 50 percent say they are currently in the process of
expanding; and only 16 percent say they have downsized.
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