Explaining latest datacentre developments
Francois Zimmerman looks at some innovations that can help transform the datacentre
The role of the enterprise datacentre and the technology within it is changing. Server virtualisation has fundamentally altered the way companies approach their datacentres and their expectations of how they will support the rest of the business.
Virtualisation has also paved the way for cloud services and new ways that organisations can use and deliver services and store information. Meanwhile, other constituent technologies, such as storage, are changing too.
IT departments spend a lot of their budget on infrastructure maintenance as opposed to investment.
To sell advanced infrastructure components, channel partners need to be able to explain how they can reduce operational costs. In addition, resellers need to maintain a broader understanding of the changing role of storage technology in the datacentre, and how IT managers see its potential to support and improve their operations.
Storage virtualisation may be the next step in making the datacentre more flexible and sustainable. Now that server virtualisation has become common, interest is turning to how storage virtualisation might offer the next leap forward for efficiency and performance.
By freeing up data so that it is available as and when it is needed, storage virtualisation improves the environment within which virtual servers operate and helps tap the hidden resource lying fallow in a multi-vendor environment. The availability of data no longer limits application performance.
Storage is now beginning to be regarded as an ‘enabling' technology within the enterprise as opposed to a mere vessel in which information resides. The arrival of innovations such as storage virtualisation and dynamic tiering which help businesses make the best use of their data are re-focusing attention on storage investments.
Dynamic tiering enables volumes of data to be moved between storage media automatically, according to how frequently it is required. If a file is regularly accessed by business-critical applications it can be moved automatically to tier zero of the storage array, which typically uses faster but more expensive technology, such as solid state drives, to serve up data faster.
Conversely, archive data is not accessed as much and can be moved to a cheaper storage tier, such as traditional spinning-disc hard drives, freeing up capacity for more business-critical data. The benefits of this more responsive, intelligent approach to storage include data centre-wide performance improvements and cost savings achieved by allocating data to the right storage medium, reducing unnecessary spending on more expensive solutions.
Automating this process also reduces the need for manual intervention, helping lower management costs.
Dynamic or thin provisioning helps counter the expansion of data volumes can save more money still.
Applications tend to reserve more storage space than they actually require. Dynamic provisioning provides this space on a virtual basis, reserving a limited amount of data on the physical medium and only allocating more space when it is actually required. This compounds the advantages offered by storage virtualisation, dynamic tiering and automation by reducing the need for additional storage capacity.
All these developments offer benefits that fall outside traditional perceptions of storage technology capabilities.
Francois Zimmerman is UK CTO for Hitachi Data Systems (HDS)