Data Center Operators: It’s Time To Stop Guessing About The Future

Close your eyes and try to picture what your data center will look like in five years. Chances are you will have a hard time doing so. After all, you’re not a wizard; you can’t predict the future! And it’s difficult enough to predict what your environment will look like three months from now, if you’re not using the proper monitoring software.   

Here’s the problem: As a data center operator, you need to be able to predict the future. Your business is growing, and it’s relying on its data center more than ever. And it’s your job to manage capacity and optimize your facility to handle future densities.

We get it: This is not easy. You don’t want to overprovision for future growth, as this could be expensive and wasteful. At the same time, you don’t’ want to under-provision, as this could leave you in a pinch.  The trick is to wind up somewhere in the middle.

Here at Server Technology, we found that many IT leaders today are struggling with basic questions about data center capacity and density planning.  So, we partnered with DCD Intelligence and created a new white paper titled “Managing the Unpredictable: How to Increase Data Center Density and Capacity Without Increasing Risk.”

The white paper explains the need for precise planning and resource management.

“Denser environments and capacity planning can help Data Center Managers prepare for the future with limited information,” the white paper explains. “To achieve this, data center operators need a sharper understanding of their own resource requirements namely bandwidth, compute outputs and storage to properly assess, and adjust for hard-to-predict workloads such as traffic from the Internet of Things, the nascent network of Internet-connected devices able to collect and exchange data.”

So, what will you learn in the white paper?

First, you will gain an updated projection for global data center power requirements. For example, the white paper explains that power is still a top operational cost in global data centers. Twenty-seven percent of ongoing data center expenditures are on power. And according to DCD, power requirements will only increase as data center demand grows in the coming years. Growth can be expected even as businesses adopt virtualization and power optimization technologies, and as improvements are made in per watt computing technology.

As you will learn, higher densities are the solution. But there are many things you need to consider as you increase densities. Increasing density needs to be an exact science and not quick fix.

You will also learn how Server Technology’s customers are increasing densities in their own facilities, and how you can use intelligent PDUs to increase densities and operating temperatures without adding risk.