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66 E L EC TR I C AL CONNEC T I ON
AU T UMN 20 1 7
THE EMERGENCE OF
DATA CONVERGENCE
O
ver the past five years there
has been a major shift in how
companies use data centres.
Not too long ago data racks used to be
setup in a silo-like fashion in offices
around Australia. Each server rack or
sections of racks were designated to
a particular aspect of the businesses
storage needs. This often resulted in
poor hardware use, rising operational
costs and a reduction in productivity
and flexibility driving IT managers to
seek more efficient solutions.
Another trend across residential,
commercial, industrial and
manufacturing industries is
challenging the centralised data centre
model as we know it.
The rise of IoT connected devices
and with it, a rise in edge computing.
This is where information processing
responsibility is taken away from
the core of a network, the servers
and to the edge of a network being
computers, BYODs and other devices.
Consumers are demanding
information instantaneously with
reliability, lower latency and with low
operating costs.
Vertiv managing director Robert
Linsdell says there is a need for
converged data centre infrastructure
that provides scalable, agile and efficient
support to networks amid the rise of IoT
devices and edge computing architecture.
Micro servers can provide a good
option to keep operational costs
low and solutions in the space are
becoming increasingly converged to
be optimised for environments where
many IoT devices are interacting
within it.
Converged designs not only store data
but compute and network it in a self-
provisioning pool of shared resources.
These solutions combine thermal
management, power protection
and security in a row or rack-based
enclosure which can be easily scaled.
Remote management also enables IT
managers to oversee core and edge
infrastructure for optimal efficiency.
Such solutions are designed
to reduce the manual labour and
technical skills needed to operate
and set-up the systems. They can be
pre-configured so they can be up and
running in hours instead of weeks.
These micro servers can be wheeled-
in, incorporated into an office fit-out,
plugged into a 20A circuit without
affecting the structural layout of
the office environment.
This is a far cry from the planning
needed to set up a traditional silo
line-up of server racks in a noisy
designated computer room with
cooling systems.
Over the last five years Robert has
seen a “quite dramatic” transition from
companies having these dedicated
computer rooms to only keeping a
few racks on premises placed in the
general work area.
“Companies are choosing to store
the bulk of their data in collocation
sites and on the cloud, leaving only a
small amount of data needing to be
IT IS PREDICTED BY 2020
THERE WILL BE 4.5 BILLION
INTERNET-CONNECTED DEVICES
IN THE WORLD. SO HOW IS
THIS GOING TO AFFECT THE
DATA CENTRE LANDSCAPE?
JOE
YOUNG
REPORTS.
DATA