As cloud computing integrates even further into IT operations, 2017 will see more organisations focusing on improving underlying critical infrastructure, as businesses look to manage new data volumes.
This is according to Giordano Albertazzi, president, Europe, Middle East and Africa for data centre infrastructure company, Vertiv. Discussing data centre trends for 2017, Albertazzi explains this will be the year that IT professionals will invest in future-proofing their data centre facilities to ensure they remain nimble and flexible in the years to come.
"In 2016, global macro trends significantly impacted the industry, with new cloud innovations and social responsibility taking the spotlight. However in 2017 data centre design and deployment will become more integrated, infrastructure will race to keep up with connectivity at the edge, and security responsibilities in organisations will extend to data centre management," he notes.
While data breaches continue to garner the majority of security-related headlines, Albertazzi points out that security has become a data centre availability issue as well. "As more devices get connected to enable simpler management and eventual automation, threat vectors also increase. Data centre professionals are adding security to their growing list of priorities and beginning to seek solutions that help them identify vulnerabilities and improve response to attacks."
Speaking of the design and deployment of data centres becoming more integrated in 2017, Albertazzi says: "Technology integration has been increasing in the data centre space for the last several years, as operators seek modular, integrated solutions that can be deployed quickly, scaled easily and operated efficiently. Now, this same philosophy is being applied to data centre development."
A report from international consultancy BroadGroup reveals the transition to digitising African economies is encouraging the development of carrier-neutral data centre facilities in the continent. "Africa's demand for data centres is largely being driven by the surge in the use of data services, businesses looking to host their fast-growing digital information locally, governments moving towards e-governance, and the roll-out of fibre infrastructure across the continent," notes the report.
Michele McCann, business development manager at Teraco,says SA has seen growth in data centres, with most businesses looking to co-locate because of cloud more than anything.
"Key driving factors for growth in local data centre usage is the number of organisations coming online. This drives a need to review their legacy infrastructure and start consolidating into co-location centres, which are highly connected by multiple carriers/service providers and are completely neutral," she explains.
In the last five years, due to massive global content providers investing in Africa, McCann notes this has created leapfrogged technology: "This has resulted in a significant lack of resources and little understanding of the market and how to benefit from existing investment. It has become apparent that cloud is no longer the answer to all strategies. We need to start reviewing our full infrastructure and working together with global content players like a Microsoft, Google and Amazon, as they are no longer a pipe dream for Africa , and are just a phone call away," she concludes.
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