Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why having fun deserves to be taken seriously

Gaming is often blamed as a source of distraction, putting our children (and us) off doing something more productive or educational. But, according to numerous studies and experts in the emerging field of ‘edutainment’, what actually makes games enjoyable is the built-in learning process . The theory is that when we are actively engaging with a game, our minds are grappling with its parameters – and that this is true of everything from Angry Birds , through World of Warcraft and FAA-approved flight simulators. You don’t have to look far to see this principle in action. I was helping my son – then eight years old – with his homework one day. The weather was glorious and he was struggling to focus on his work, protesting that he wanted to go and play outside instead. And that was it: the gap between learning and play; the divide between what seems unengaging and laborious and what’s fun and engaging. That really started us on our journey to creating simulations that aid pro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Simulcation Datacenter launching to selected IBM employees and Business Partners

I’m very proud to announce that Simulcation Datacenter will launch this Wednesday May 17 th at an IBM TSS education event in Radolfzell, Germany. It marks the culmination of all our efforts as a team, and I couldn’t be more excited to see the first users create their own virtual datacenters. It’s been a long road that’s brought together an incredibly diverse team, in close collaboration with our partners IBM. The first users will be a small group of IBM employees and Business Partners who will experience a sneak peek at our technology before we go on to roll it out to more Business Partners and – later this year – the general public. It’s all part of our ambition to transform professional education for datacenter managers and IT staff, allowing them to safely model their complex purchasing decisions to find the right mix of hardware, software and services, whilst also having fun. Learning doesn’t have to be laborious, and technology has advanced to the point where we’re a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Gamification in 2017 – so what now?

Coined first in 2002 and then popularized in 2010, ‘gamification’ has been steadily on the rise ever since. Used to define the way developers were incorporating social and reward techniques from gaming into other types of software, it caught the eye of venture capitalists the world over and was reportedly mentioned in half of presentations by software application companies seeking funding. So, nearly a decade on, where are we now? Where has gamification taken us, and where will it go next? A short past One of the organizers of the first conference on gamification, Gabe Zichermann , predicted: ‘in a gamified future, I don’t think many companies, including the government, will be able to avoid becoming part of this trend. I think consumers will increasingly expect and demand that experiences become more fun and engaging. We can never ever go backward. People’s expectations have been reset. This will be the new normal.’ Gamification as a conscious technique has b...
Post a Comment
Read more