Data centers : House Your Data

author-image
DQC Bureau
New Update

According to a report from IDC India, the overall India data center services
market crossed the $1 billion mark in 2007 and was expected to grow at a CAGR of
18 percent over the next two years to touch $1.52 billion by end 2009.

Advertisment

“Today everything is connected with network and the information flows across
the network of computers within an organization. Data center is a critical IT
infras­tructure which provides direction to entire IT network, process critical
applications, stores huge amount of data, manages transactions; 24x7 non stop,”
defined Sandeep Nair, MD, Enterprise Solution, Emerson Network Power.

Factors that are fueling the demand for data centers are the outsourcing
business opportu­nities, investments done by multinational companies, technology
upgra­da­tions and expansion of the existing companies. Of the total India data
center services market in 2007, third party data centers constituted nearly 20
percent in terms of built-up space and this ratio is expected to increase to 27
percent by 2009 end.

Opportunities for SPs

Data center is creating promising business opportu­nities for SPs. Many
small and medium business enterprises are opting for their own data centers and
this is an opportunity for SPs to install and implement data center solutions.
Besides, data centers are also opening up business opportunities for the SPs to
get into consultancies for the end customers.

Advertisment

Sanjay Bakshi, CEO of Delhi-based QuantM Net technologies shared that in 60
to 70 percent of the projects they are doing, customers are demanding for one
stop solutions that are easy to manage and cost efficient.

Sharad Sanghi, MD of Mumbai-based Netmagic Solutions opined that every
company has data center requirements, whether it is through in-house data
centers or outsourced ones. Companies that need high availability or 24-hour
services are more likely to outsource their data-center services. This gives
companies the advantage of concentrating on their core competency.”

Prateek Garg of Noida-based Progressive Infotech commented that energy is
becoming an issue and simultaneously the concept of data center consolidation
and green technology are also gaining ground in the market. “The fundamental
challenge is to offer energy efficient solutions at low-cost to customers.
Customers are demanding for adaptability and scalability of the solution with
protection but at a limited price tag,” he said.

Advertisment

Emerging trends

Though the concept behind virtualization has been around for some time, it
is increasingly gaining ground as a market opportunity for SPs and SIs. Sanghi
opined that as opposed to traditionally running a data center with many
standalone computers that perform dedicated functions for individual
applications, virtuali­zation technology allows applications and servers to work
in a non-dedicated manner, interacting as needed to get the job done.

Virtualization and consolidation go hand in hand and this can help in
maximizing the return of investments.

“In some critical areas like banks, downtime cannot be tolerated and it needs
optimum service. In such case, managed services are becoming popular. Sun
Microsystems is geared up to manage such services where the customer has the
choice to manage the data center on his own or let us manage it,” said
Sreevalsan Ponnachat, Director-Services, Sun Microsystems.

Advertisment

The concept of data centers on rent is gaining ground in the market and is
largely availed by customers who want to have the solution of a data center but
cannot afford to build their own. SPs offer them all the services of a data
center including its management.

The concept of data center in a box is becoming popular with the growth of
high density blade server. Explaining the concept of data center in a box, Nair
of Emerson clarified, “The idea is to reduce the number of data centers or
server rooms to limited high density racks which can house very high density
blade servers and UPS along with battery bank. The rack which house these
servers and power equipments also cool it. Emerson has a unique solution of
Knurr Cooltherm Racks which can house blade servers with upto 35 kW load as well
as rack mount Liebert GXT RT UPS and battery bank.”

Challenges

According to IDC predictions, factors like high energy consumption and
limited space availability will continue to drive technical enhance­ments
upgrading the data center.

Advertisment

Though there are promising market opportunities, infrastructure and
consistent supply of power poses as a big challenge for SPs. Infrastructure and
the quality of power needs to be handled in order to provide a smooth data
center solution. Also, large and small customers of data center are demanding of
a solution that reflect the green standards therefore data center that would be
coming up in the years ahead will have to address the requirement of power
demanded by the infrastructure.

“The major challenges faced by vendors are coping up with rapidly changing
technology trends. The physical infrastructure is designed by keeping operation
for eight to 10 years whereas technology forces it to change now every three to
four years. Assessing demand and future requirement and providing flexible power
and cooling based on that demand is huge challenge. Also awareness on most
optimum architecture is a big challenge as there are various concepts available
in market with various configuration. There is no full proof norm or guidelines
in data center business which makes it more challenging for solution providers
and customers,” remarked Sanghi.

The challenge of cooling the data centers is one of the problems that
enterprise in India face along with those at the global level. Besides, data
loss and disaster solution are also challenges that companies face.

Advertisment

Amrita Tejasvi

amritat@cybermedia.co.in