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I do believe that we will see more and more companies go without their own physical data center footprints and will rely on a more fluid, "cloud" infrastructure
by jaydub 17y ago
I do believe that we will see more and more companies go without their own physical data center footprints and will rely on a more fluid, "cloud" infrastructure.
The initial costs associated with building a data center seem enormous. The maintenance costs also must be staggering. Does anyone know what percent of DC construction/maintenance is spent on redundancies? (e.g. backup generators, UPS, multiple carrier services, etc).
Abstracting away the physical infrastructure for a 'logical' infrastructure (if you will), seems very attractive to me. Particularly if I can have an on-line balance between compute cost and benefit.
One major concern with this approach is security, both physical and otherwise...
- arethuza 17y agoI think that is a false dichotomy - it's not a case of either you use the cloud or you build a data center. There are a lot of options where your kit is in someone elses data center - from part of a rack, through to cages with a few racks right up to pretty big rooms. You pay your money, get your own private space in a DC, they provide the power, cooling and physical security and you supply the kit and buy connectivity from one of the ISPs/telcos that infest these places.
- jaydub 17y agoSorry for not making it more clear, but I did not mean to suggest that is merely a binary option. Yes, firms can co-locate their equipment in other firms DCs but its not a silver bullet either. You still run up heavy costs associated with renting the physical space, and hardware maintenance. If we're talking about a company of significant size that is going to be part of a paradigmatic shift -- the cost/benefit of co-locating doesn't scale well (and that's why you'll see many sizable non pure tech companies that own and operate their own DCs)