Top Three Datacentre Trends To Watch Out For in 2018

By Mr. Prasanna Sarambale, CEO – Data Center business and Group Head – Business Development, Sterling and Wilson

Be it the government’s vision of ‘Digital India, the rapid proliferation of social/digital media with an increased number of internet/smartphone users, rising business needs for using analytics to draw consumer insights, the influx of data and its consumption is permeating our daily lives.

These shifts – explosion of data and hyper-convergence along with newer innovations in the IT infrastructure are not only disrupting the way the industry operates but have made data center solutions a critical factor across all sectors.

As per industry reports, India’s data center market size is expected to touch the US $4.5 billion marks by 2018. Given the volume of data generated every day, cybersecurity will continue to remain a consistent concern. Although most firms will have multiple cloud security measures, the need for security at rack level is imperative.

The evolution of physical infrastructure requirements and deployment have been in-line with the evolution of IT equipment and organizations are making efforts to stay steps ahead of a probable security breach.

The increased data consumption and dependency on technology require a Smart-Data approach that optimizes all aspects of IT operations, while also managing risk and reducing the cost to companies. We are at the heart of this transformation by combining our existing expertise with next-gen technologies to become more new-age and introduce cutting-edge offerings to customers.

Echoing global trends, we see a strong growth in the Indian data center market over the coming years. Here are some trends that envelope the sector, globally and in India.

 

Localization – A real game-changer

As stated above, although the wave of digitization has seen new heights in IT, it also brings with it, rampant cyber security issues which is one of the main considerations for CIOs. We’ve seen heavy data breaches hit Indian organizations over the past few years, resulting in the implementation of localization laws which has further fuelled the growth of the Indian datacentre industry.

 

As data sensitivity increases and laws become more stringent, most companies will need to set up their data centers in India in order to provide minimum latency. This trend is already being seen with organizations such as IBM that have two local data centers in India. Due to local demand, even Oracle announced plans to move their cloud services to India in 2017. Whether you are a global giant or a small shop, there is critical data involved, and companies are willing to expand their cloud services.

 

 

Hyper-convergence for better ROIs

In the process of evaluating the data center architecture, organizations look for minimum data center complexity and reduced costs. In my opinion, customers sometimes face high levels of infrastructure complexity due to new developments in analytics. A convergent structure simplifies the traditional model by providing one management console for your IT solutions. From our experience, streamlined solutions have resulted in significant savings of time and money, including the implementation of SCADA. The organizational shift to a converged infrastructure sends out a loud message on the importance of efficiency and reduced time & cost. Less complexity and assets to manage gives more time for innovation and agility within the datacentre.

 

 

‘Green’ Data to stay ahead of the curve

In the past decade, customer focus on energy efficiency has made the data center industry a real frontrunner in adopting energy efficient measures, especially globally. It is widely agreed that data centers consume a huge amount of energy, but adoption of green options is also on the rise within companies. I believe that to be successful in this line of business, we need to be responsible and capitalize on renewable energy sources.

 

Prominent Global firms like Apple have met their goal of 100% green energy use in its data centers five years ago. Even in India energy storage solutions are being fine-tuned with the government’s push towards more renewable and green energy concepts such as free cooling and waste recycling. While this concept has already established a solid ground in other countries, it is slowly gaining popularity in India as well.

 

The quantity and velocity of data will continue to increase as more and more new technologies emerge but by implementing some of these changes we can certainly prepare well for the future. This is not just an option but a business imperative to target superior security by ensuring utmost encryption of data which has never been more important than today.

Prasanna Sarambale is the CEO, Data Center business, and Group Head – Business Development for Sterling and Wilson Pvt Ltd, an associate of Shapoorji Pallonji & Company Pvt Ltd – India’s leading EPC company with the focus on MEP, Renewable Energy, T&D, Data Centers, Cogeneration, Diesel power generation.