Things in the world of data center administration are moving so fast that many administrators are being forced to make infrastructure-critical decisions at a lightning-fast pace – definitely much quicker than ever before. In fact, it’s not hyperbole to say that many companies are completely reassessing their business plans based around the modern data center’s direct capabilities.
Multi-Tenant Platforms with Lots of Power Are Essential
We could talk about this in a much longer post, but the important thing is this – the explosion in popularity of cloud computing IT amongst consumers has made powerful, multi-tenant platforms for data centers essential. In short, this means that your business’ infrastructure has to be capable of handling an increased density for new kinds of workloads or you have to assume a competitor will soon take advantage.
As your users go on to demand more and more from this infrastructure, though, how are you planning on adapting? When do you make decisions to optimize and scale your company’s data center that change the entire environment?
There’s a lot to think about in terms of how to carry out this migration. However, what too many don’t do is think about when this should be done.
When Density Becomes an Issue
While virtualization has certainly done a lot for housing more users, applications and data, there’s only so much it can be expected to do. At the end of the day, it can’t tackle the density challenge all on its own. There still must be hardware environments. If you’ve deployed some high-density equipment and still can’t find enough space in your hardware, it’s time to think about something even bigger.
When It’s Time to Improve Power and Climate Control
Another example of knowing when it’s time for migration is thinking about the climate control elements necessary. Did you know that cooling infrastructures consume more electricity in data centers than any other infrastructure component in a facility?
Fortunately, you can make some simple improvements to the room in order to “right-size” the infrastructure and maintain proper temperatures. These would be:
- Sealing the openings of any cables
- Installing blanking panels
- Adjusting cabinet positions
- Adjusting the location and number of perforated tiles
- Sealing any spaces in a row where cabinets were missing
Still, some of you might be wondering about what can be done if simple fixes like these just aren’t an option anymore. In that case, rack, floor and aisle airflow control inside of a data center are vital pieces to understanding when it makes the most sense to move to a new setup. Whether you’re working with a brand new one or a preexisting data center, be sure you have a good plan in place for both environmental and airflow controls.
When Business Begins to Change
This one may seem a bit obvious, but it’s still worth bringing up and discussing. Data centers now impact business operations of a company like never before. You’re literally only capable of what your data center is able to support.
As we mentioned earlier, this is why many organizations now base their business plan on what is technologically possible. Whole new business plan concepts are in their early days because of this phenomenon.
When your business begins to change, you need to immediately think whether or not it’s about to hit a limit because of your data center limitations.
It’s still very important to consider how a migration will work, but hopefully the above has shown you that you also must figure out the when as well. Anticipate when it makes the most sense to evolve your colocation setup and your company will be much better for it.