ChannelVision Magazine

“At the end of the day, I don’t mind sending out leads if a client is not right for us,” Walters said. “It’s all about providing customers with the correct information and finding them a solution that will help them. Sometimes you may not be right for a particular client, but someone else may be.” Consolidation to continue One thing is certain: Data center consolidation is bound to accelerate in the coming years, as large organizations across the public and private sectors continue to look for ways to reduce costs, streamline data delivery and improve sustain- ability efforts. It’s no secret that data centers can be notorious energy hogs, in some cases consuming as much power as small cities. One area where we have already seen heavy data cen- ter consolidation is within the federal government, which is currently in the process of reducing its data centers to comply with the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative. The goal is to close 25 percent of the government’s tiered data centers and 60 percent of its non-tiered facilities, reducing physi- cal space by about one third. This trend also has been accelerating in the private sector as well. “[Organizations] are shutting down a lot of data centers,” Wal- ters said, “However, I tell my team when looking into investment op- portunities to be cautious about buying them. If the price is right, yes, we will go for cheap. But it’s important to think about why they are going for cheap. Really, it boils down to the question of whether we need large scale data centers anymore or smaller, more strategic hubs.” According to Walters, business- es should be paying close attention to their data to guide their strate- gies and decisions. “Everything is a battle for data right now,” Walters added. “No one cares about the hardware that you have. It’s all about the data that it holds, and how you manipulate that data.” Walters also touched on another important issue, which is the need for strategic, location-based storage. There is a great deal of interest in edge computing right now, as busi- nesses are using it to reduce costs and latency. Currently, about 10 percent of enterprise-generated data is created and processed outside of a traditional data center or cloud. Gartner predicts that by 2022, this figure will exceed 50 percent. Pump the brakes With so much change taking place in the data center space it’s easy to get carried away, especially if there are board and network ad- ministrators involved who are eager to press forward with digital transfor- mation initiatives. Businesses are strongly en- couraged to slow down, conduct thorough research and ques- tion whether their strategies will help or hurt the organiza- tion in the long run. Walters reminded us, for instance, that this is not the first time some- one has declared the cloud is dead. The data center was handed a death sentence at least a decade ago, and yet here we are today wrestling with the same questions. “It’s perfectly fine to sit in a room with everyone saying ‘abort mission’ on the data center and be the one saying ‘I think we’re okay,’” she said. Walters stressed the need for partners to take a patient and consultative approach with these types of decisions. “Listen to the client, think about what they want and proceed with caution,” she advised. Zettabytes High Priority Projects Next 12 Months Source: 451 Research Improving existing IT asset utilization Q. Which of the followig data center projects are high priorities for your organization over the next 12 months? Data center consolidation Upgrading/retrofitting an existing faciliy Aligning data center processes across IT & facilities groups Closing down excess capacity Upgrading power and cooling equipment Outsourcing data centers to a third-party provider Leasing additional colocation space Building or buying a new data center 55% 50% 32% 22% 22% 22% 22% 20% 20% 17% 15% 13% 11% 10% 11% 9% 9% 8% 42% 34% 63% 22% 62% 20% 72% 17% Percentage of IT As ets On-Premises Today Source: 451 Research National or l cal retailer On-line only retailer Security dealer Broadband service provider Direct from manufacturer Other 250-999 employees 1-249 employees 1,000-9,999 employees 10,000+ employees Company-owned or leased data centers Off-premises hosted/manag d environments Channel Purchase Locations - Networked Camera Source: Parks Associates mpanies Are Moving to a Hybrid Cloud Environment e: 451 Research hich of the followig best describes your organization’s overall approach and strategy around cloud based IT? re moving to a hybrid cloud environment that leverages both ses and off-premises cloud resources in an integrated fashion ding on on-premises cloud and leveraging off-premises public cloud/SaaS, but the two will be separate Cloud does not feature in our IT trategy ving to off-premises public cloud and SaaS environment only We are building an on-premises cloud environment only 44.4% 17.3% 16.0% 12.0% 10.3% Apr ‘18 Apr ‘17 U.S. broadband households that own a networked camera True Private Cloud Spending ($B)(CAGR 29.2 150.0 200.0 250.0 300.0 Revenue $B Hosted True Private Cloud (CA High Priority Projects Next 12 Months Source: 451 Research 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 Source: Computer Economics t all tant Improving existing IT asset utilization Q. Which of the followig data center projects are high priorities for your organization over the next 12 months? Data center consolidation Upgrading/retrofitting an existing faciliy Aligning data center processes across IT & facilities groups Closing down excess capacity Upgrading power and cooling equipment Outsourcing data centers to a third-party provider Leasing additional colocation space Building or buying a new d ta cent r 10% 0% Percen 55% 50% 32% 22% 22% 22% 22% 20% 20% 17% 15% 13% 11% 10% 11% 9% 9% 8% 42% 34% 63% 22% 62% 20% 72% 17% Percentage of IT Assets On-Premises Today Source: 451 Research On-line only retailer Security dealer Broadband service provider Direct from manufacturer Other 250-999 employees 1-249 employees 1,000-9,999 employees 10,000+ employees Company-owned or leased data centers Off-premises hosted/managed environments Channel Purchase Source: Parks Associates Companies Are Moving to a Hybrid Cloud Environment Q. Which of the followig best describes your organization’s overall approach and strategy around cloud based IT? Apr ‘18 Apr ‘17 U.S. broadband househol True Private Clo 300.0 Channel Vision | September - October, 2018 36