Hybrid, Edge, Sustainable — What Your Data Center Will Look Like in the Future
Schneider Electric talks data center trends of the future, and the opportunity for partners.
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Schneider noted that data center architecture is becoming increasingly hybrid.
“We all understand the impact of the cloud,” Rob McKernan, SVP, ITD Europe and global IT channels, told partners. “Cloud growth has been 20%-plus here in Europe. Today, there is a clear hybrid data center architecture being used by most companies, large and small.
“Applications like CRM that may be run on the cloud also have local applications that are critical to the day-to-day operation of business. There is clearly a need for customers to have a cloud and on premises, regional, as well as the local edge data center strategy.”
As with the rest of the IT industry, sustainability is becoming a frontrunner in datacenter trends.
“This is relatively new – maybe the last year or two. It’s centered here in Europe, and we’re going to be the leaders have this,” said McKernan.
Kevin Brown is SVP, EcoStruxure Solutions and CMO of Secure Power Division at Schneider Electric.
“Sustainability as an overall topic is now being driven by shareholders,” Brown said. “It’s being written by customers. It’s being driven by government regulations; it’s all three of those, depending on where you are in the world. Regardless of the regulations, there’s this very compelling thing that’s happening. Just these general market forces are driving a level of conversation on this that is quite great to see.”
McKernan said over the past 12 months, he has seen “a tremendous opportunity for retrofitting and rejuvenating these data centers. And many partners have worked together on this exact scenario. We’re seeing this happen in many different segments. We’re seeing it in finance, we’re seeing an automotive we’re seeing in transportation we’re seeing in CPG (consumer packaged goods). Most segments are seeing this transition.”
Separately, Schneider said the education sector is going through a tremendous transformation because of COVID-19.
“We’re seeing many opportunities for campus refresh,” said McKernan. “Whether it’s setting up remote learning for 20,000 students at a university in the UK, or for the upgrade of the infrastructure of 600 education facilities in the Nordics. These solutions are improving the efficiency and reducing the maintenance of the remote edge.”
One of the biggest data center trends is edge computing.
Gartner estimates that by 2025, 75% of enterprise-generated data will be created and processed outside a traditional, centralized data center or cloud. This puts more focus on ensuring a safe, reliable, effective solution at edge data centers, says Schneider.
Brown said the view of the edge “is very broad,” referring to what used to be server rooms and wiring closets.
“I am as dependent on that wiring closet that’s inside my house as I am as the most critical data centers. It’s going to be as important for us as an industry to deal with these small-closet edge environments as well.”
With the growth in edge comes local edge data centers.
“Local edge data centers are taking on many shapes, sizes and forms,” said McKernan. “In every industry, it’s allowing customers to do their business more efficiently and more effectively, while safeguarding the data that’s being processed and transmitted at that site.
“The main challenge however, for edge data centers, is the growth of data. How do we protect that data being that it’s remote, geographically distributed and with little to no on site IT support? The key to addressing the deployment of edge data centers will be remote monitoring and management.”
Schneider is helping partners fulfil that demand for remote monitoring and management. The vendor has launched a new program to enable partners build a Managed Power Services practice.
“We’re building a suite of services because many IT channel partners are in a position [to] start managing this equipment for their customers. It’s an opportunity for our channel partners to play a more significant role,” said Brown.
“This has been, candidly, a three-year investment that we’ve been making to get to where we are — where we have the training programmes. We have the tools available for the partners. We have the software. We have the services in place to really allow them to tap into a new business opportunity.
“There’s no question this trend is coming, and enterprise CIOs will be looking for help. Those partners who can capitalise on the tools and programmes that we’re putting in place, it could work out quite well for them.”
Schneider is helping partners fulfil that demand for remote monitoring and management. The vendor has launched a new program to enable partners build a Managed Power Services practice.
“We’re building a suite of services because many IT channel partners are in a position [to] start managing this equipment for their customers. It’s an opportunity for our channel partners to play a more significant role,” said Brown.
“This has been, candidly, a three-year investment that we’ve been making to get to where we are — where we have the training programmes. We have the tools available for the partners. We have the software. We have the services in place to really allow them to tap into a new business opportunity.
“There’s no question this trend is coming, and enterprise CIOs will be looking for help. Those partners who can capitalise on the tools and programmes that we’re putting in place, it could work out quite well for them.”
This week’s Schneider Electric European IT Partner Summit provided a glimpse into the data center trends of today, and the future.
Schneider Electric’s Rob McKernan
Rob McKernan is SVP, ITD Europe and global IT channels at Schneider Electric. He says COVID-19 has been a clear accelerator of digital transformation. He told partners that the resulting explosion of data means “data centers are the heart of the digital world.”
Sustainability and efficiency were high on the agenda. McKernan urged partners to “take advantage of all the great opportunities we have. Edge, the retrofitting of the regional, the cloud and colo, let’s take advantage of that revenue.”
The slideshow above offers trends that Schneider says we will see in the data center in 2021 and beyond.
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