Tips to Adopt Effective Data Center Modernization Strategy
For enterprises trying to handle and organize data to know how it affects business outcomes, it has become significant to modernize the data centers in the digital age. There is a growing need for data modernization to drive digital transformation to boost overall business loyalty and revenue.
Modern data center solutions enable businesses to better organize and interpret information which further helps them anticipate changes in the business environment and make strategic decisions. However, it is not that easy to create an effective data center modernization strategy. There are plenty of factors influencing the decision to adopt a transformational data architecture/strategy.
This article outlines the key factors influencing and tips to create a data center modernization strategy.
Factors Influencing Data Modernization Strategy
The following are some aspects that usually affect the business data modernization strategy:
#1. Costs
Every organization wants to save on costs, specifically during unpredictable times. Modernizing data centers leads to effective big data management which further results in cost savings. Businesses can consolidate underutilized assets, improve cooling, utilize high-density points of delivery (PODs), expand UPS infrastructure, and also follow preventive maintenance practices within limited budgets. Moreover, converged technologies improve the efficiency of the data center which further reduces major operational costs.
#2. Storage space and unstructured data
The digitization of data has become important due to the rise of unstructured data. Unstructured data not only bring storage challenges but also challenges in processing different types of data. An IT organization needs a more agile, scalable, and responsive data center than before so that it can address the exponential growth of data in the digital world.
The flexibility of adding more storage space to your system will bring more added value to handling diverse workloads. It will also ensure that your infrastructure can endure additional data requirements in the future.
#3. Security and reliability
Almost every organization is preferring modernized data centers to provide additional cloud security to tackle the risks of downtime resulting from aging infrastructure. Modern data centers include cloud solutions that act as a backup for data that is lost due to a damaged or compromised system.
In addition to this, modernized data centers ensure improved reliability and connectivity for the growth of the organization. With modern data centers’ in-built security system, you can protect your business data, applications, and infrastructure to meet compliance requirements.
How to Create an Effective Data Center Modernization Strategy?
Here are some tips to help you create an effective data modernization strategy:
#1. Identify your business needs
Many businesses focus their entire attention on infrastructure thinking that effective migration of the traditional environment to a software-defined model can solve it all. This mindset is responsible for migrating business applications to the public clouds without proper optimization. Therefore, an organization should first identify its business requirements before going for infrastructure options. The infrastructure choices you make can affect every aspect of a modern business.
From supply chain management to individual workflows, data capture, asset management, and constantly changing customer behaviors determine everything. Decide what your enterprise wants to achieve and how advanced technology can help you compete in the market. Also, if you are observing the workflows of similar companies then make sure to undertake valid comparisons.
#2. Establish an application-centric mindset
After identifying how your business strategies should drive your data center solutions, next, it’s important to identify applications important for the success of employees and the organization as a whole. Take a look at the current applications that your business is using and profile the applications that you might need to achieve desired business goals. Additionally, consider listing transformative applications that will drive your current business and also set the pace for the future.
You should also plot the applications you will be building presently and the ones you will be building in the future. With all this information, make sure to define the business requirements for each application to further dictate application requirements. For instance, what level of security will it need, will you need to scale it rapidly, is it efficient enough to generate a large amount of data, what is the most cost-effective solution, and so on?
Having a clear picture will help you design an infrastructure solution for supporting the needs of current and future applications.
#3. Build the framework as per business requirement
Now that you have identified your business requirements and are also ready with a plan for applications, determine which one is to modernize, maintain, or reject. It’s time to match these applications to the right infrastructures. Although it seems simple, it is a complicated process.
Businesses are in a crucial state of transformation and there will be a fundamental change in the way applications will be written, whether for cloud or hybrid models. Additionally, the apps that your customers use to deal with your business will also be evolving.
Make sure to design the data center infrastructure while keeping your applications in mind. However, you need to consider both current and future transformative application landscapes which are oftentimes associated with conflicting interests with a business. So, prioritize everything to ensure applications are delivering a higher value to the customers.
Another consideration for optimum infrastructure design- building a flexible infrastructure that can be grown and changed with the advancement of new technology. This will help your business in taking advantage of tomorrow’s innovation.
Final Thoughts
Businesses need to adopt a modernized data center infrastructure to remain competitive and secure. However, in reality, achieving a smart and effective IT transformation is not that easy in this today’s dynamic and challenging digital age. This is the reason why it’s important to work with an experienced consulting partner who can help you navigate a myriad of alternatives and also guide you on where and how to best invest for success.
Citrus Consulting can help in centralizing organization infrastructure, data, operations, and management. Our consultative approach can assist in defining sound business technology to cater to business outcomes. Our cybersecurity services have been evangelizing the voice of digital transformation for a long time. The company is a reputed and experienced Dubai-based IT consulting company empowering its clients by implementing a scalable and cost-effective, modern data center infrastructure.
For more information, contact Citrus Consulting at (+971) 04 516 1500 or email info@citrusconsulting.com.
