FEATURE: DATA CENTRES
AS THE WORLD
SHIFTS AWAY FROM
THE TRADITIONAL
BRICK-AND-MORTAL
IT STRUCTURE, WE
SEE AN INCREASINGLY
UPTAKE OF MICRO DATA
CENTRES, WHICH ARE
STANDALONE, SMALLER
AND CONTAINERISED
MODULAR DATA CENTRE
much popularity across high-risk zones
or in temporary locations. Micro data
centres can reduce the physical footprint
and energy consumed by a traditional
model.
It can provide businesses a customized
experience based on their application,
speed and storage needs. A Datacenter
Dynamics study points out to the fact that
the global micro data centre market is
expected to grow from $1.7 billion in 2015
to $6.3 billion by 2020, at an estimated
CAGR of 29.8% from 2015 to 2020.
Edge Computing, which refers to the
pushing of applications and data away
from centralised points to a virtualised
source, enhances the function of micro
data centres. This solution will reduce
latency and transmission costs, and
potential points of failure.
A report by research firm
MarketsandMarkets indicates that the
growth in the “edge” of the network can
be attributed to the internet of Things
(IoT) and will cause an uptake of micro
data centres, building the sector a $6.3
billion by 2020.
In 2015, Schneider Electric unveiled a
new micro data centre portfolio for edge
computing applications. Completely
engineered to order, it includes the
physical enclosure, UPS, PDU, cooling,
software, environmental monitoring
and security all tested, assembled and
packaged.
34
INTELLIGENTCIO
ZIAD YOUSSEF
Vice President IT Business,
UAE & Gulf countries,
Schneider Electric.
Through this offering, Schneider
Electric is addressing latency,
bandwidth and processing speed
challenges customers are facing with
the growth of connected devices and
data application.
Software –Defined Networking
(SDN)
Software-defined networking is
a technology design which can
deliver automated provisioning,
network virtualisation, and network
programmability to data centres and
enterprise networks. This trend will
continue to see popularity in the coming
years. A Research and Markets study
claims that the SDN will only gain
mainstream popularity by 2019 or 2020,
by which time it will globally be valued at
around $11.5 billion.
SDN is helping cloud service providers
host millions of virtual networks under a
common umbrella. A highly virtualised
tool, SDN helps IT operators by giving
them visibility and connectivity from
a centralised management tool.
By changing physical networks into
software, enterprises can leverage
the SDN to reduce their capital and
operating expenditures. SDN also helps
to reduce business downtime, while
providing holistic network traffic control.
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