There have been endless conversations about the increasing need to modernize Data Center infrastructure so that the technology park can support business growth.

The agendas range from expanding to the perimeter to diversifying server allocation models, such as Colocation, for the constitution of a hybrid architecture, to the latent demand for energy efficiency, prioritizing sustainability improvement.

The truth is that traditional Data Centers need help to keep up with the rapidly changing digital world.

Constantly evolving business requirements require immediate transformations: as long as new application structures must be adopted, IT processes and standards must be updated. Also, new technologies must be integrated, while the technology team needs to update their skill set to keep up with this step.

Although IT infrastructure can be considered interchangeable, data is not. Therefore, they need special care where they are most vulnerable, at the point where they are stored. This makes storage a crucial Data Center function, especially when it comes to upgrading.

In this scenario, the Data Center infrastructure must also be modernized. Do you want to know what your company should do to keep up with this movement? Read below:

Challenges of traditional storage infrastructures

The pandemic has triggered a seismic shift in what businesses and their end users expect from Data Centers. With the acceleration of digital evolution, the growing use of digital applications and systems, and the increase in data traffic, technology managers have little choice but to adapt their technological infrastructures to meet these new demands.

For example, starting in 2022, more services are expected to be used and shaped by employees who fulfil their journeys in a hybrid work model and want to carry out activities on their own terms and deadlines.

All this will further fuel the growth momentum of automation and outsourcing solutions, especially in Data Center structures. In this scenario, Gartner predicts that by 2025, 60% of organizations will use infrastructure automation tools.

For this reason, companies that still maintain a Data Center architecture in the traditional model or that prioritize it over more modern options such as Colocation and cloud computing face essential challenges such as:

• Complexity in managing silo storage infrastructure
• Compatibility issues between different hardware
• Difficulty guaranteeing operational continuity
• Frictions to ensure quick access to data

Specialization is essential for the modernization of Data Center infrastructure

According to a study published by IDC in 2021, the amount of data created, captured, copied and consumed worldwide will increase by more than 152% in the next two years. This means that data creation and replication will grow faster than the installed storage capacity.

For this reason, as the IT sector advances, the modernization of Data Center infrastructure is indisputable. Additionally, hiring specialized partners such as ODATA is essential for the process to be carried out correctly because they can ensure that files, systems and data are stored, processed and shared accurately.

In today’s technology scenario, high-performance applications, especially mission-critical systems, require highly agile and flexible storage infrastructure to meet their changing needs. Therefore, it is crucial that the Data Center is flexible and scalable, also able to meet the growth of data traffic and secure to protect it and ensure continuous operations.

In fact, this trend was found in a global survey by Lenovo, which analized the evolution of the CIO function. The report indicates that technology providers have played an invaluable role in the success of their companies.

The study states that technology managers will rely on their vendors to help them solve a multitude of problems in the next five years, including increasing organizational agility (60%), securing their companies’ systems and operations (52 %), simplification of the configuration, implementation and maintenance of the technology (50%) and for cost optimization (43%).

“Eight in ten CIOs agree that their technology providers are “so effectively integrated that they increase their overall productivity“.

Lenovo Tech Today

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Hybrid architecture is a trend towards modernizing Data Center infrastructure

Therefore, enterprises will strategically migrate their workloads as they prioritize modernizing their Data Center infrastructure. However, as they progress on their hybrid journeys, they will focus on determining which workloads go where.

At the beginning of their digitalization journeys, organizations often migrated simple workloads to the cloud and kept critical applications and systems in-house. Most technology administrators now feel more confident assigning more complex and mission-critical workloads to remote structures.

Therefore, in the coming months, you will need to take inventory of your IT environments to select which workloads and applications are best suited for off-site environments, such as Colocation and the cloud, and which should remain on-premises.

ALSO REED: Why Colocation is critical to the future of hybrid cloud

Conclusion

Modernizing Data Center infrastructure may seem scary initially, but it doesn’t have to be. As in any change process, fear and uncertainty are expected.

Almost all storage infrastructure upgrade projects involve the migration of systems and data. This often includes dealing with downtime during switching, network upgrades, application integration and resolving incompatibility between devices from different vendors.

It is common to encounter painful data migrations involving complex and laborious procedures, having to work outside office hours to perform the migration, risk of data loss, and uncertainty of the outcome. Also, if there is any loss or interruption during the process, this will further increase business continuity issues.

However, as we have seen, hiring a specialized supplier is one of the crucial factors to guarantee the company’s success. When a modernization initiative is planned in advance and executed with the help of experts and the right tools, the results are rewarding.

Do you want to know more about the benefits of modernizing Data Center infrastructure?