Information Access Throughout the Entire Enterprise Requires Agile Infrastructure

Large volumes of data have resulted in the need for data management, which consequently demands data centers and energy. Renewable Energy World has reported on the environmental stewardship trend present in this industry in "Big Data Goes Green."

Large-scale data servers enable the cloud revolution and efficiency in data storage. This in turn has a positive effect on the budgets of IT departments. The US government saw a huge surge in the number of data centers it operated between 1998 and 2010; it grew from 432 facilities to more than 2000. 

According to the article referenced above:

As a result, there is a growing move to make data centres more efficient. In this respect the cloud has certain advantages over on-site servers as these must be equipped for peak data usage — heavy hits on a retail website during a new product launch, for example. The rest of the time on that site, web traffic plateaus and the built-in capacity of the servers goes to waste. Open data centres, on the other hand, can redistribute that excess capacity to other clients, using already highly efficient servers.

In regards to data centers, the only issue to face now is the energy source. As for enterprise data management, more emphasis should be placed on agile infrastructure for company-wide access to information.

Megan Feil, July 12, 2012