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CIOs and IT managers should stop thinking of the data center as a place and start seeing it as more of a process.
The idea of a data center as an enclosed, climate-controlled room where all of a companys computing takes place is being replaced by the concept of virtual data centers that draw on storage, computing and networking resources, wherever they may reside.
Virtual storage, virtual servers and software services that can be provisioned internally or procured on a contract basis from external vendors confront the CIO with an overwhelming array of infrastructure choices. And the number of those choices keeps growing.
Sun Microsystems on Oct.17 was championing the idea of shipping containers retrofitted to serve as data centers that could be hauled around the country to add capacity, serve as temporary centers or provide emergency backup for corporate computing needs.
In this eWEEK Special Report, we delve into this changing role of the data center. To read reports from the annual Gartner Symposium & ITxpo regarding the changing nature of the data center, virtualization and storage, click here for Stan Gibsons report and here for Eric Lundquists.
Part and parcel with the new definition of data centers is the need to virtualize servers and storage operations within the corporation. For our recent reports on virtualization, click on these links here and here to read about servers and here for storage.
EMC has been the leader in virtualization and has been active in making acquisitions to fill out its data center portfolio. For the latest news on EMC, click here.
Meanwhile, new data center priorities include accelerating applications within corporations. For a report on application acceleration, click here.
Power consumption has also risen to be a top priority for data center administrators. For a report on power consumption, click here.
Is RFID the best way to track your data center assets? Read Scott Fergusons piece here.
Need some advice on driving down storage costs? Mike Vizard provides a guide to getting storage under control, here.
Think that grid computing might be the answer for your data centers needs? Click here for Baselinemag.coms grid planner and calculator.
Need to learn more about application acceleration? Click on the Baselinemag.com primer here.
Is the era of data centers housing enterprise applications coming to an end as a new era of software as a service dawns? To read about this possibility, click on the CIOInsight.com article by Alan Alter, here.
Thinking of going green in your data center? Click here for a slide show outlining 10 simple steps to going green by the editors of CIOInsight.com.
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