hybrid data centres
Hybrid Theory
In a hybrid generation, Jackson Lee, VP of corporate development at Colt,
discusses the importance of having a solid hybrid data centre strategy.
T
his year, global cloud
computing revenue in all its
guises will grow 18 per cent
to $247 billion. The number
of connected ‘things’ is
also forecast to grow significantly.
Gartner predicts that by the end of
2017, around 8.4 billion devices will
be in use worldwide.
The ripple effects of these
market forces will be felt by data
centre providers in several ways.
The mainstream larger cloud service
providers will continue to build more
compute capacity, networking and
storage. This will be in the form of
hyperscale server farms, designed
to accommodate growing data
demands and workloads.
To appreciate the scale of
transactions today, consider that
as I write this, Twitter is handling
over 500 million tweets a day.
Meanwhile, payment network
provider Visa is capable of
processing more than 24,000
transaction per second.
30 | August 2017
We’re also seeing hyperscale
demand expand into new areas,
as cheaper compute power
and sensors drive adoption of
digital technologies in emerging
markets. In industries such as
manufacturing, machine-to-
machine interactions directed by
the Internet of Things (IoT) are
creating new hyperscale segments.
A good example is engineering
giant General Electric (GE). A pair
of its jet engines on a Boeing 787
Dreamliner generate a terabyte of
information per day.
Creating a
competitive edge
On the opposite side of the same
coin is the evolution of edge
computing and micro-data centres.
When applications and data
are moved from centralised
points to the outer layers of
traditional internet hubs, the
distance between users and
that data inevitably narrows.
It makes delivering the right
information at the right time to
the user or the device quicker
and more efficient. The increase
in interconnectivity between
machines, applications and other
IoT-based devices using cloud
providers is directly tied to this
trend. As virtual reality (VR), the
connected home and driverless
cars emerge as mainstream
products and services, a latency-
centred product that sits closer to
the user is key.
Today, almost every company
and user requires near-instant
access to data in order to be
successful. This might explain
why edge computing has been
publicised as the next multibillion-
dollar tech market. Organisations
across the board are increasingly
looking to double-down on
customer experience through the
delivery of services, content and
data in real-time.