The beginning of 2016 was a promising period for data centers, filled with new drivers such as the power of Big Data and new capabilities for analysis. What were the major trends in the data center industry during 2016? We try to identify and dive a bit deeper into top data center issues and the technologies that have had the most significant impact on the sector in 2016.

1. HYPERCONVERGENCE
THE EDGE DATA CENTER
Author: Malgorzata Zabieglinska, ICT Product Manager Comarch
www.ict.comarch.com
services@comarch.com
FROM AUTOMATION SYSTEM TO HYPERCONVERGENCE:
THE TOP DATA CENTER TRENDS IN REVIEW 2016
The beginning of 2016 was a promising period for data centers, filled with new drivers such as the power of Big Data and
new capabilities for analysis. What were the major trends in the data center industry during 2016? We try to identify and dive
a bit deeper into top data center issues and the technologies that have had the most significant impact on the sector in 2016.
From a niche market to one of the
hottest trends in IT, hyperconverged
infrastructure has been evolving quickly
since 2011. According to Gartner, the
market for hyperconverged integrated
systems will grow by 79 percent in 2016
and will be worth $5 billion by 2019.1
Virtualization is becoming a driving force
for hyperconvergence development. In
terms of efficiency, data center providers
have started to identify the value of
merging IT system components into one
box, or system, managed through a
software layer. Hyperconvergence allows
the elimination of the divide between
virtual and physical infrastructures with all
barriers between servers, storage and
networking resources. This elimination
promises faster deployment, simplified
operations and a scalable building-block
approach that allows IT to expand by
adding units and which also lowers the
total cost of ownership. But, perhaps more
importantly, hyperconvergence provides
the flexibility and agility within data
centers that businesses require from IT. 2
It seems likely the next year will belong to
hyperconverged trends.
Nobody likes it when online movies
are constantly buffering and heavily
pixelated. As we use data, we need to deal
with increased traffic and reduce latency.
The Internet of Things (IoT) extension and
the large expansion of data require faster
processing and better security. This is the
reason why edge networks or edge data
centers have gained more and more
attention in the last year. Edge data centers
allow the Internet's "edge" to be moved
closer to where the users are. The number
of edge data centers built nearer to the
consumers they serve is expanding. New
data centers can be deployed as micro data
centers and, if necessary, can be upgraded
to full-blown facilities. Edge data center
trends help your business not only to
improve speed and performance, but also
raise the quality of services. In a world
where many data consumers complain
about load times, providing better data
center services is not just an option, but a
duty. The requirement of keeping data as
close to the end user as possible has
become the most important factor in data
center service planning.
The amount of data stored in data
centers is rapidly growing and managing
the IT infrastructure —everything from
powering, cooling, to security — is a big
task. The data center industry is vastly
different than it was just a few years ago.
When automation entered the data center
market, it was, at best, a curiosity. In 2016,
DCIM and automation systems have
become another trend of data center
operations and will continue to slowly and
steadily grow in the next years. A DCIM
system gives you an in-depth view of
what’s happening in your environment
and allows you to plan, manage and
optimize the physical elements and
processes that exist in a data center.
Therefore, improvement and automation
of data center management will become
the standard for reducing workloads,
minimizing human error, achieving the
highest levels of performance and
increasing responsiveness to equipment
failures. Data centers in the coming years
will become increasingly automated and
agile and this will significantly increase
interest in DCIM solution.
The Internet of Things generates billions
of data points that need to be stored,
processed and analyzed in order tomake
critical decisions or perform actions. The
IoT revolution isn’t just going to change
our applications or endpoint devices. It is
going to considerably change how data
centers operate on a day-to-day basis.
Gartner predicts that by 2020 there will be
26 billion IoT devices connected to the
Internet, which has significant
implications on data center scale,
communication and functionality, as well
as storage capacity.3
Changes in data flows
and automated responses based on data
analysis dramatically change the way
next-generation data centers are designed,
deployed, secured and managed at almost
every level. Data center managers need to
deploy more forward-looking capacity
management to be able to proactively meet
the business priorities associated with IoT.
In addition, they need to learn how to
manage multi-site data center
infrastructure as a homogeneous IT
environment, but still be able to monitor
and control individual locations. Next year
will still belong to IoT.
There are a number of rising trends –
IoT, DCIM, hyperconvergence, edge data
centers, to name a few – that will continue
to have an impact on the IT environment
together with the data center industry
throughout 2017. It is highly probable that
the trends of today will become the
standards of tomorrow. So keep your eyes
wide open, track market changes and
analyze all trends carefully. Then choose
the right trends to implement successful
organizational changes.
DCIM AND AUTOMATION
SYSTEMS ARE NO LONGER
CURIOSITIES
THE IMPACT OF IOT
ON DATA CENTERS
1 Source: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3308017
2 Source: http://www.networkcomputing.com/storage/10-hyperconvergence-trendsetters/1523423309
3 Source: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2636073