Pressure is rising for data center managers

By R. Edwin Pearce (epearce@egisticsinc.com)

Just when data center and IT managers assumed things couldn’t get any worse, along comes a report from Gartner predicting that the critical issues facing data centers – namely, technology, space and energy challenges – will worsen in 2010. Coupled with the tremendous cost pressures brought on by the economic downturn, the Gartner report provides a heightened sense of urgency for data center and IT managers looking for pragmatic ways in which to deal with their operations issues. In its report, Gartner provides several tips for helping reduce data center costs:

• Eliminate those systems that are underutilized or old
• Consolidate multiple sites
• Better manage energy and facilities costs
• Better manage people costs
• Delay the procurement of new assets

To be sure, these are all sound strategies. But savvy data center managers already have implemented (or at least considered) these strategies in response to the economic downturn. In other words, many data centers may have already squeezed as much savings as possible from their infrastructure.

However, the following challenges still remain:

• Finding ways to implement a variable expense model to take advantage of reductions or slowdowns
• Improving security and regulatory compliance
• Staffing to support multiple hardware/software environments
• Reducing excess capacity while maintaining the ability to grow
• Managing the increasing need for backups and redundancy

None of this is new, of course. These are the normal and continuing requirements for doing business, perhaps "heightened," as Gartner says, by the subdued economy. 

How are you responding to your own data center information management challenges? If you had your way, what would you have your company do differently than they are doing today?