Today sees the official kick-off for Data Center World in Las Vegas, which I’m attending as part of our ongoing World Of Servers coverage. One theme that I suspect is going to recur a lot? The need to balance the requirements of IT pros who focus on the actual equipment that runs within data centres and those who are concentrating on the apps that get deployed within them.
Server picture from Shutterstock
The two roles aren’t mutually exclusive, of course. However, in an era where many businesses are using a mixture of private and public cloud, there will be facilities managers with relatively little idea of the loads running within their centres, and IT pros cheerfully deploying new system images with only the haziest idea of what is happening in the actual physical centres where those hyper-virtualised servers reside.
Both sides can benefit from knowing a little more about the issues involved. A lot of our recent World of Servers coverage has concentrated on the software side; while I still expect that to pop up as an issue, a lot of what I’m hearing in the next few days is going to look at the physical facilities. Stay tuned for coverage throughout the week, and let me know if there are particular data centre issues you want to see investigated.
Lifehacker’s World Of Servers sees me travelling to conferences around Australia and around the globe in search of fresh insights into how server and infrastructure deployment is changing in the cloud era. This week, I’m in Las Vegas for Data Center World, looking at how the role of the data centre is changing and evolving.
Comments
One response to “Tech Versus Facilities: The Data Centre Battle”
Uhhhhhh.. If that’s the impression you’re getting while, one assumes being paid to be there by Microsoft (given your comprehensive advertising agreement), then it seems like they are failing you hard..
If this were ever true; do not hesitate to fire everybody you can within shouting distance, but the truth is it just isn’t and I have no idea where you’re coming from.
I have to agree. A lot of work goes into managing data centres, and a lot of things have to be taken into consideration. Power capacity and capability, physical space, cooling systems, security, costs to keep everything running etc..
If this was never considered then a lot of hardware would breakdown, software won’t be running and a lot of money would be lost, a lot of money.