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Dimensional Data launched a tool designed to help organizations assess their capabilities and prioritize initiatives for building a next-generation data center.
The Data Center Development Model was created for businesses seeking guidance and actionable plans to make their data centers more responsive and agile.
“Business is expecting the IT infrastructure to be aligned with their business requirements and business model,” Kevin Leahy, group general manager of Dimension Data’s data center business unit, told eWEEK. “That means not just lowering cost and increasing speed and availability, the traditional requirements IT has been responding to for decades, but actually aligning the costs and delivery to when the business needs it and they can consume it.”
To meet that requirement, Leahy said IT needs to focus beyond the physical data center and seamlessly integrate cloud consumption into a single network platform that delivers all of the new application and service models the digital enterprise requires.
The model scrutinizes 11 critical domains in the data center, tracking their as-is state and to-be state.
The output of the workshop-style engagement is a road map, which provides practical implementation recommendations for a next-gen data center.
Recommendations include identifying infrastructure gaps and determining the most efficient operating model for the data center, inclusive of management and operations.
“Big data is both a promise and a curse. Big data by definition is all about leveraging large amounts of data,” Leahy said. “To do this well, businesses have to get a handle on not only all of the information, but also where it is coming from, and then manage based on anticipated value. Interestingly, data center plans used to start with server needs and from there, progress to the projected amount of storage those servers need.”
The model also helps businesses understand the best ways to exploit public cloud, hosting and co-location options and where each creates value for the business. Security is also addressed.
“Today, a large portion of IT, particularly in small business, is using industry standard applications that can easily be sourced from cloud SaaS,” Leahy explained. “The remainder that is custom for business value can do one of two things– retrofit into a much smaller more efficient data center using today’s converged environment and automation platforms, or move to a co-location facility that has the economies of scale to build ultra-efficient data centers with shared services.”