Solution Provider Says
it’s Time to Turn IT’s Schedule Upside Down, Offers CIOs Free eBook
to Help
Farmington Hills, MI, April 10,
2012 – Information is the cornerstone for all businesses,
but data centers have become crowded and inefficient. More
servers means more switches, cabinets and cables as well. IT
leaders contained server sprawl and costs through virtualization
and a converged infrastructure. Then, they turned to cloud
computing to increase agility and do more with less. But none
of this has fundamentally changed the way IT pros work -
yet. The question is, how can CIOs move their data center
forward, keeping up with
the future; what’s the next step? Logicalis, an
international IT solutions and managed services provider (http://www.us.logicalis.com/),
has identified five strategic IT moves that will help CIOs do just
that.
“We’ve all heard the claim that IT pros
spend 80 percent of their time on maintenance and 20 percent on
strategic IT objectives, but it’s time to start turning those
numbers upside down,” says Brandon Harris, vice president, HP
solutions for Logicalis. “The technology, the solutions, the
capabilities exist today to take advantage of what’s already in
place, make changes where they’re needed, and create an IT
environment that mirrors what was once held up as a future
ideal.” Harris says it’s important to note that creating the
data center of tomorrow today doesn’t mean throwing out what’s
already in place and starting from scratch. To find out more,
Harris suggests CIOs read a Logicalis eBook, “Elements
of Design: How the Data Center of Today Can Be the Data Center for
Tomorrow.”
Five Keys to Creating the Data Center
of Tomorrow
1. Build Tomorrow’s Network Today: A converged
network infrastructure is the key to creating an integrated
environment, pooling resources and managing servers, storage
and network technologies through a common, industry-standard
platform. The key is to refresh legacy systems without
starting from scratch to create the kind of next-generation
enterprise network required to support tomorrow’s advanced business
computing requirements today.
2. Manage “Big Data” Storage: When it comes to
data-intensive SAP, Oracle and other ERP operations, one of an IT
pro’s toughest decisions is how to store that data so that it can
be mined quickly without putting undue strain on the rest of the
network. But how? Data storage can be centralized into
a single multi-tenant, high-performance and high-availability
system, allocating resources up or down to meet ERP demands based
on the business’ actual – rather than perceived – needs.
3. Select a Private Cloud Portfolio: Private
clouds offer the elasticity to respond to changing business needs
quickly, cost effectively and in a way that can simplify IT
management – in short, a simpler way to deliver the consumption of
IT as a service inside an organization. But before those
advantages can be realized, the right framework has to be put in
place – the right servers, storage, networking and software all
working in tandem to be able to provide fully automated or
scheduled provisioning, security assurances even in complex
regulatory environments, and to use rapid self-provisioning
features to provide true capacity on demand.
4. Consider High-Performance Computing: Bigger,
better, faster seems to always be the mantra for computing.
And it’s particularly true in research, finance, cloud and
manufacturing environments where demands for high-performance
computing (HPC) are the norm. The more computing power
available in one of these hyperscaled environments, the more
competitive the organization becomes. There are solutions
available today that have been designed with both compute density
and graphics processing unit (GPU) floating-point calculations
capabilities in mind to meet the needs of graphics-intensive and
other high-performance environments that include everything from
low-latency trading to engineering or cloud computing. The
key is to choose the correct servers, then combine them into a
single rack, sharing power supplies and fans, resulting in a
high-performance, cost-effective, small footprint solution for a
host of HPC needs.
5. Choose the Right Technology: With every new
Intel chip comes a proliferation of next-generation servers, always
faster and better performing that the one before. But no
matter how exciting the new technology sounds, it still comes down
to the human factor: There are still real people plugging servers
into racks and connecting cables to make the power of IT a
reality. IT pros today have to do more with less, making ease
of maintenance top of mind, so it’s important – and now possible
with new technology – to architect solutions that can eliminate the
mundane maintenance tasks that have taken as much as 80 percent of
IT pros’ time on a daily basis, leaving only 20 percent for
innovation, and flip those numbers upside down.
About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international IT solutions and
managed services provider with a breadth of knowledge and expertise
in communications and collaboration; data center and cloud
services; and managed services.
Logicalis Group employs over 2,500 people
worldwide, including highly trained service specialists who design,
specify, deploy and manage complex ICT infrastructures to meet the
needs of over 6,000 corporate and public sector customers. To
achieve this, Logicalis maintains strong partnerships with
technology leaders such as Cisco, HP, IBM and Microsoft.
The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of
over $1 billion, from operations in the UK, US, Germany, South
America and Asia Pacific, and is fast establishing itself as one of
the leading IT and Communications solution integrators,
specializing in the areas of advanced technologies and
services.
The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec
Limited, listed on the Johannesburg and London AIM Stock Exchanges,
with revenues of approximately $5 billion.
For more information, visit http://www.us.logicalis.com/.