Exploit New Data Center Architectures to Reduce Infrastructure Footprint and Costs
Future-proof your data center investments. Prepare to exploit tomorrow’s disruptive infrastructure changes today.
- The current convergence reference architecture is a combination of consolidated network storage (SAN/NAS), one wire network fabric (e.g. 10 Gig Ethernet), consolidated servers (likely blades) based on industry standard x86 processors, and server virtualization software.
- The current convergence reference architecture has led to greater utilization of processing and storage resources (with vendors making a lot of money in the process). But this architecture will not scale for big data, mobility, and cloud computing.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Change is being forced from two directions:
- Demands created by new kinds of applications: hyperscale web, mobile, analytics, social, and e-commerce applications.
- Opportunities created by evolving infrastructure technologies: microservers and systems-on-chips, solid state storage (SSD) and server-side flash, in-memory processing, and software-defined networking (SDN).
- Enterprises looking to provision infrastructure at scale for big data, cloud SaaS, and mobile need to develop a vision of converged infrastructure for their infrastructure roadmaps that goes beyond the current convergence reference architecture.
- Info-Tech recommends an annual review of disruptive technologies feeding into look-ahead monitoring and planning for adoption and exploitation.
Impact and Result
- Organizations have realized benefits in availability, management agility, and server capex savings through convergence and virtualization. This effort should continue to be a theme of your infrastructure roadmap for the future.
Workshop: Exploit New Data Center Architectures to Reduce Infrastructure Footprint and Costs
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Change Is Coming – Get Ready to Exploit It
The Purpose
Visualize a five-year timeline for plans around core data center technologies: servers, storage, and networking.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Exposes risks, gaps, and opportunities.
- Helps share knowledge among team members across technology domain boundaries.
Activities
Outputs
Populate the roadmap with current state and established milestone information
- Infrastructure roadmap update/overview
Define the roadmap’s time frame; review asset lifecycles
Identify gaps, risks, and challenges on the roadmap
- Risks and opportunities analysis
Identify opportunities on the roadmap
Module 2: Assess Disruptive Technologies
The Purpose
Understand disruptions affecting each layer of the hardware stack.
Key Benefits Achieved
Avoid the risks and exploit the benefits of disruptive technologies sooner by deciding when to adopt, pilot, or test.
Activities
Outputs
Use Info-Tech’s technology monitor to assess readiness and value of disruptive technologies: SDN, ARM-based processors, SoC architectures, SSDs, In-memory computing
- SWOT analyses of disruptive technologies
- Technology monitor analysis
Module 3: Develop Action Plans
The Purpose
Develop a comprehensive implementation strategy.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Get to action sooner by clarifying requirements, responsibilities, and milestones.
- Manage stakeholders by communicating the benefits, costs, and risks of disruptive technologies.
Activities
Outputs
Position disruptive technology actions on the roadmap
Validate the business rationale for disruptive technologies
Develop action plans and milestones
- Emerging Technology Plans
Consider alternative technologies
Module 4: Communicate and Execute the Roadmap
The Purpose
Compile the New Technology Exploitation Plan.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Get to action sooner by clarifying requirements, responsibilities, and milestones.
- Manage stakeholders by communicating the benefits, costs, and risks of disruptive technologies.
Activities
Outputs
Validate and compile outputs from previous activities
- New Technology Exploitation Plan
Module 5: Wrap Up
The Purpose
Compile a standard operating procedure document (SOP).
Key Benefits Achieved
- Proactively identify and exploit future disruptive technologies.
- Continuously improve your organization’s ability to exploit disruptive technology.
Activities
Outputs
Define responsibilities, milestones, and indicators for progress and success
- Infrastructure Roadmapping SOP
Establish or update your annual roadmapping calendar
Establish a process for making changes to the roadmap
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 1-phase advisory process. You'll receive 4 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
- Call 1: Evaluate your future data center needs
Visualize your core infrastructure roadmap to identify key requirements, gaps, opportunities, and barriers as you investigate the value and readiness of disruptive technologies for your organization.
- Call 2: Assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of current and future technology
Assess the value and readiness of disruptive data center technologies such as ARM, system-on-a-chip microservers, server-side flash, in-memory computing, and software defined networking.
- Call 3: Conduct a data center roadmap workshop
Identify opportunities to exploit emerging data center technologies, gain a better understanding of how these technologies might affect your data center roadmap in coming years, and create a working roadmap to help manage change.
- Call 4: Update your data center roadmap
Review your Infrastructure Roadmap, assess its success, and identify opportunities for improvements and remedial actions.
Contributors
- London Health Sciences Centre
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