CIOs are getting out of the Data Center business

More than three years ago, a proclamation was made (by myself, Mark Thiele and Jan Wiersma) that the data center was dead. Ironically, all three of us come from an IT background of running data centers within IT organizations.

At the time, it was an event in London, England where the attendees were utterly dumbfounded by such a statement. Keep in mind that this event was also a data center specific event. To many this statement was an act of heresy.

But the statement had truth and the start of a movement already at foot. Ironically, companies in leading roles were already starting down this path. It was just going to take some time before the concept became common thinking. Even today, it still is not common thinking. But the movement is starting to gain momentum. Across the spectrum of industries from healthcare to financial services, CIO’s and their contemporaries are generally making a move away from data centers. Specifically, moving away from managing their own, dedicated corporate data centers.

Enterprise data center assets

And by data center, we are talking about the physical critical facility and equipment that is the data center. We are not talking about the servers, storage or network equipment within the data center facility. These data center assets (the facility) are moving into a new phase of maturity. While still needed, companies are realizing that they no longer need to manage their own critical facilities in order to provide the level of service required.

Moving along the spectrum

As companies look at alternatives to operating their own data centers, there are a number of options available today. For many years, colocation, or the renting of data center space, was the only viable option for most. Today, the options for colocation vary widely as do alternatives in the form of cloud computing. Companies are moving along a spectrum from traditional corporate data centers to public cloud infrastructure.

It is important to note that companies will not move entire data centers (en masse) from one mode to another. The specific applications, or workloads, will spread across the spectrum with some number leveraging most if not all of the modes. Over time, the distribution of workloads shifts toward the right and away from corporate data centers.

In addition, even those moving across the spectrum may find that they are not able to completely reduce their corporate data center footprint to zero for some time. There may be a number of reasons for this, but none should preclude an effort to reduce the corporate data center footprint.

Additional cloud models

For clarity sake, Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) are intentionally omitted. Yet, both ultimately play a role in the complexity of planning a holistic cloud strategy. As with any strategy discussion, one needs to consider many factors beyond simply the technology, or in this case facility, when making critical decisions.

Starting with colocation

Last year, I wrote a blog titled “Time to get on the colocation train before it is too late.” The premise was foretelling the impending move from corporate data centers to colocation facilities. While colocation facilities are seeing an uptick in interest, the momentum is only now starting to build.

For many IT organizations, the first step along the spectrum is in moving from their corporate data center to colocation. Moving infrastructure services from one data center to another is not a trivial step, but a very important one. Moving a data center will test an IT organization in many ways that highlight opportunities for improvement in their quest to ultimately leverage cloud computing. One of those is in their ability to fully operate ‘lights out’ or without the ability to physically enter the data center. The reason is that unlike the corporate data center that was down the hall, a colocation facility may physically be 1,000 miles away or more!

Where to go from here

Plan, plan, and plan. Moving a data center can take months to years even with aggressive planning. Start by thinking about what is strategic, differentiating and supports the corporate strategy. Consider the options that exist in both the colocation and cloud marketplace. You might be surprised how far the colocation marketplace has evolved in just the past few years! And that is just the start.

The opportunities for CIO’s and their IT organization are plentiful today. Getting out of the data center business is just one of the first moves that more and more CIO’s are starting to take. Move where it makes sense and seize the opportunity. For those already down this path, the results can be quite liberating!