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4 ways the Internet of Things is transforming datacenters

The Internet of Things (IoT) is predicted to encompass 50 billion units by 2020, generating more than $1.9trillion over the next six years alone. To put that into context, estimates suggest there are only two billion Windows PCs in the world right now. From wearables to smart fridges, the IoT is expected to take off in a big way.

IoT presents an unparalleled opportunity for both businesses and consumers by generating real-time information that can improve usability and productivity. However, it also creates new challenges for datacenter managers and CIOs to navigate, including balancing the need for real-time analytics against security and capacity.

Are you IoT ready? Here are four ways it is already shaking up the industry:

Capacity
The more devices connected, the more consumers using applications, and the more devices learn and adapt to the user, the more data will be generated. That presents a headache for DCMs when anticipating storage management and capacity on two fronts: consumer-driven personal data, and enterprise-generated Big Data. As always, DCMs will have to juggle cost-effectiveness, efficiency and addressing storage capacity – both now and in the future.

Network technology
Current WAN links were set up to provide enough bandwidth to handle human interactions with devices. IoT is supplying large amounts of smaller sensor data to datacenters – a huge change to the inbound bandwidth data requirements.

Security
As more and more of the world becomes connected, the risks associated with downtime can only grow. As recent datacenter disasters have shown, physical and online security are constantly battling to stay ahead.

Availability and processing power
The real value of IoT is in making sense of the huge swathes of data generated. This Big Data requires powerful systems, with the space, cooling, consistent power and connectivity. Systems will also need to be dynamic enough to avoid latency, turning insight around in as close to real-time as possible. This creates the problem of fast and secure access to data partners and the digital supply chain, which some estimates have suggested may result in squeezed cloud resources near major cities, for example, where datacenter space is already inhibited.

It’s clear that IoT looks set to create an economic boom in the datacenter industry, forever changing the shape of datacenters. DCMs and CIOs must keep pace, evolving their decision-making to keep the optimum balance. That’s where Simulcation Datacenter comes in.

We’ve developed a virtual datacenter where you and your staff can model your decisions using leading architecture, and see their wider effects. Designed to help DCMs to keep up with their professional development goals, it’s been created in partnership with IBM. Preregister now to be one of the first to experience it when we go live.

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