Leveraging the Sourcing Edge

How the information age drives the CIO agenda

The "Digital Age" is alive and well and has driven the need for always on technology to support it. The requirement for users to have immediate access to information such as bank balances, electronic medical records, global positioning systems in cars, radio-frequency identification at the retail store and search engines has placed a demand on CIO's, IT managers and the data center to meet and exceed the requirements. In addition, the need for speed and access demands that aligning IT with the business continues to be an increasingly important factor in supporting the growth of today's businesses.

These are major factors and areas of concern that the CIO's are dealing with in managing their organizations. As the costs to run the data center continues to rise and the focus on the impact of CO2 emissions to the environment being addressed by the EPA in a report to congress, what will be the CIO's plan of action? How innovative is the IT organization in the ability to provide the leadership to address these issues and support the business?

The importance to business of the technology involved in the items listed above requires that they be hosted in highly reliable data centers with sufficient capacity to meet peak and growing loads. Many of these applications require not just business processing, which drives computing demand, but also require large amounts of data storage, which drives the demand for some type of storage. As an example ask yourself the question, how many end users love to save every email since their employment at the company?

As a result of these demands, IT costs continue to grow, new data centers are being built or expanded, utilization of numerous servers is way too low, power and space require­ments are way too high. A recent EPA study identifies that actions are required to address the issue and are working on regulations. Several key trends toward more efficient microprocessors, servers, storage devices, and site infrastructure systems could have a significant impact on the future energy use attributable to the nation's servers and data centers.

After reviewing all the facts and in my conversations with IT managers and manufacturers, I found that many IT managers are doing the typical initiatives such as server consolidation, virtualization and de-duplication but is that enough and are they effective in managing all areas of growth? This blog asks the question, "what else needs to be done and who are the front runners and thought leaders implementing innovative ideas to address the growth in areas such as energy consumption"? As an example there are many companies talking about being green but not as a high priority with clearly defined metrics to reduce their carbon footprint. I believe that IT managers need to be early adopters not only in the area of technology but also in energy saving initiatives.

There is tons of research available on the topic of the potential problems of escalating costs in operating the data center and the impact they have on the environment. My first question is, "Why IT and Facility managers avoiding all the signs that dealing with these issues may not be their core competency"? My next question is, "Why do IT managers want to be in the data center business versus outsourcing and concentrating on aligning with the business"? There are outsourcing and colocation organizations that are experts in meeting the growth of the digital age in an efficient manner.