CIOs To Focus On Data Centre Strategy

Managing the performance of data centres has been poised as a serious pain point for the CIOs. IBM India has introduced various services dedicated to the data centre keeping the CIO pain points in mind. Sanjeev Gupta, product manager, Site and Facilities Services, Global Technology Services, IBM India elaborates on the new initiatives.

Why will an organisation look for performance optimisation of its data centre?

Shrinking budgets and increasing outsourcing and energy costs and the dramatic changes in technology over the last five years, have conspired to leave data centre resources depleted, putting data centre managers under pressure to come up with innovative alternatives to traditional systems of management. Astronomical application fees, maintenance contracts, energy bills, hardware costs and staffing issues make it difficult to prove the business value of systems deployed because these expenses eat away significant portion of annual IT budget.

Hence, the right sizing, energy and system efficiencies are critical to data centre performance and intent of any optimisation program. Also, organisations with Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) as one of the key commitments to stakeholders are looking for IT to contribute to environment friendly facilities. IT industry is now expected to contribute to green issues like energy efficiency, low carbon emissions, reusing heat from data centres and using recyclable materials.

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What are the key issues before CIOs concerning data centre performance?

77% of AFCOM members expect to relocate or make major physical improvements to their data centres in the next ten years. Excessive heat and insufficient power will be one of the top three issues for enterprise CIOs over the next 6-12 months. Moreover, IDC 2006 study predicts that power and cooling spend will exceed server spend in the next two years. Handling inexpensive dense computing and increasing power costs are key concern areas for a CIO. CIOs will have to look into data centre strategy and planning which will make positive impact by reducing power costs, maximizing hardware utilisation rates, better leveraging IT resources and reclaiming real estate in the server room. More and more Indian organisations are looking up to vendors like us to assist in moving them from server room environment to data centre.

How have the various IBM offerings benefited the CIO community in addressing their data centre performance issues?

Services product portfolio aims to assist clients with evaluating, designing, implementing and managing their IT infrastructure and physical environments. In India, IBM Site and Facilities Services centre is helping customers to reduce their pain points in the data centre management area. It is responding to the increased demand for data capacity, enable continuous technology change and improve resiliency and security.

We at IBM also address regulatory mandates and privacy laws by building data centres and facilities that support growth and manage all aspects of facilities planning, design and construction to support business needs with limited downtime during site transition. IBM IT Facilities Consolidation and Relocation Services leverages IBM methodology and extensive, hands-on experience to help clients make optimal investments that deliver availability, scalability, recoverability and agility throughout their data centre transitions.

Could you throw light on IBM’s enterprise strategies to gain a foothold in the data centre management space?

The data centre market for India during the last four years has been a high growth market. IBM India has already executed data centre projects exceeding 2.5 lakhs square feet for over 55 clients in India. IBM research labs are supporting continuous improvement on IBM server and storage products on computing power/kW performance as well as energy management technology.

On the other hand, IBM Global Technology Services is approaching market with various data centre service products and offerings. Site and Facilities Services product portfolio helps our clients to evaluate, design, implement and manage their IT infrastructure and physical environments. Services products are designed to deliver best design practice though various assessment services to target the enterprise sector.