Making the most of data centre flexibility

The evolution to all forms of cloud computing – private, public, and hybrid – is being influenced by a combination of consumer behaviors and the ever-increasing pace of business. Consumers continue to demand more connected personal services online, from any location, at any time, and from any device. These same expectations and devices are being brought to the workplace with demands that IT organizations deliver infrastructure services in the same way. The combination of higher expectations and increasing overall demand for services is forcing IT to rethink how to deliver services to users internally and externally. 

From a budgetary perspective, IT organizations feel increasing pressure to reduce overall IT costs. Initiatives that can simplify IT operations through consolidation, standardization, unification of platforms, and automation of the IT infrastructure offer the potential for tremendous cost savings. But that is only part of the equation. These same initiatives must also allow IT to be more nimble, allowing the business to launch new applications and services more quickly.

With traditional data center architecture, IT organizations often spend as much as 70-80 percent of their resources just maintaining the existing infrastructure. The advent of cloud computing promises to break this paradigm. The evolution to cloud computing and ITaaS can guide significant improvements in efficiency and agility, ultimately freeing IT resources from the burden of maintenance to focus more on delivering innovation. 

Most organizations make the decision to use a private cloud when they hit a crossroads triggered by early success with virtualization. They have reaped the cost savings in power, cooling, facilities, and licensing through virtualizing some portion of their servers. They have also improved their responsiveness to user requests. At this point, the organization asks for even greater cost savings and the expectations for fast turnaround increase.