INTELLIGENT DATA CENTRES
with an increased expectation on
availability. Digital transformation
also requires a change in the way
the IT department, and the wider
business, is structured. This is
critical, as the rules don’t change
with digital transformation or
new characteristics of modern
applications and infrastructure;
instead, the delivery and
implementation do. The argument
could be made that there are
even more rules now due to the
heightened expectations on critical
services. Businesses must strengthen
controls and deliver complete
visibility in a new way to meet these
needs, opening up the opportunity
for innovation in the datacentre.
While digital transformation
comes with its challenges, businesses
should remember that leading
this transformation shouldn’t fall
to any one individual within the
organisation; it should become
a conversation between those
providing IT services and those who
consume it. IT can no longer operate
as a silo; instead it should operate
as an internal service. Internal IT
groups providing critical applications
to a business unit should have a
discussion on how an application is
implemented, as well as considering
what could happen in the event that
something doesn’t go according to
plan. In preparation, businesses
should agree to a 15-minute recovery
time and point objective for their
critical applications. But even
planned SLAs for recovery time
objectives can falter with businesses
setting these at 1.6 hours, when in
reality, recoveries have taken five
hours. This can have a significant
impact on the availability decisions
that must be made to meet the needs of the
Always-On Enterprise.
Neglecting digital transformation can
lead to loss of business, loss of revenue
and, possibly most damaging, the loss
of business reputation, with 73 per cent
of businesses feeling that application
downtime or data loss will negatively
impact customer confidence and brand
integrity. As such, many organisations will
benefit from a strategic approach to digital
transformation, and the key is to spend
time gathering information, priorities
and capabilities of all stakeholders before
making any decisions. The back-end IT
infrastructure also needs to change to
embrace digital transformation.
This digital transformation, and the
ability to meet the needs of the Always-
On Enterprise, can only be met when the
modern datacentre has the capabilities to
meet the demand. Is the datacentre highly
virtualised? Does the datacentre have
investments in modern storage systems?
Is the datacentre capable of extending
functionality to cloud and service
providers? These needs can only be
met if the modern datacentre has these
essential characteristics.
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