FEATURE: DATA CENTERS
THIS MEANS INCREASED STAFFING AND
ENHANCED MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS TO
PROACTIVELY ANTICIPATE AND DIAGNOSE
INFRASTRUCTURE AND NETWORK
ISSUES TO AVOID DAMAGING DOWNTIME.
Despite the disruption we have seen the past
few months, the demand for connectivity
has not slowed down. In fact, it is only
accelerating further, as more employees
continue to work from home and businesses
focus on cloud migration as a part of their
backup plans in case of another wave of
shutdowns. No matter what the future
may hold, data center providers who wish
to retain customers must be dedicated
to supporting businesses through these
momentous shifts.
Only a few years ago, we were referring
to capacity requirements for customers
in kilowatts. These days we are seeing
customer data demand exceeding the
20-megawatt range as large businesses
demand faster and more complex cloud and
IoT services. The current demand levels we
are seeing are only set to grow bigger with
analyst firm Gartner predicting that there
will be as many as 5.8 billion enterprise and
automotive endpoints by the end of 2020.
This means hyperscale facilities need to
be able to rapidly increase capacity for
customers, whilst also ensuring they are
operating at peak efficiency at all times.
Operators who fail to incorporate scalability
into their product roadmaps risk falling
behind and losing enterprise customers to
data center providers that are better suited
to their needs.
Ensuring continuity in the face
of disruption
As we think about where the hyperscale data
center industry is headed, it is important
to consider the impact COVID-19 has had.
This not only requires increased scalability
and physical capacity, but also means
operators must have the correct
management and security protocols in
place to ensure facilities can cope with
the increased load. A data center is only
as effective as its operator, so when we
take into account the sheer physical and
virtual size of a hyperscale facility catering
for multiple 20-megawatt customers,
staffing and management expertise is
crucial for ensuring smooth operations.
This means increased staffing and
enhanced management systems to
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