SNAP SHOT: DATA CENTER TRANSFORMATION
Achieving Data Center Transformation
Overcoming Hefty Challenges to Meet Mission Priorities |
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The ongoing economic crisis, two wars and the impact of the current presidential transition will complicate ongoing federal agency IT efforts to consolidate, modernize and transform data center operations in the coming year.
Industry observers expect the decisions federal IT executives make in the next year will effect projects and long-standing operations. However, the changes made will also likely make federal data centers more capable, effective and efficient.
For federal IT organizations today, the ultimate goal remains to provide unified, real-time access to information, as well as visibility agency-wide into data residing on disparate systems, while reducing learning curves and creating a collaborative environment for faster, better decision-making. However, the diversity of challenges federal agencies now face will make these ongoing priorities difficult, at best. They will face a host of pressures related to tightened budgets, space constraints, asset utilization, continuity of operations, resource availability and the increasing frequency of change. The ongoing economic crisis, for example, will also likely test the ability of many agencies to adapt to the priorities of the new presidential administration, as well as constituent demands for more and better services. Success will likely hinge on how well each agency can bridge the gap between desktop computing, web-based collaboration and enterprise-level applications, according to federal tech industry veteran, Jorge Fuster, founder and principal of VirtualFedTeam, a new federal IT staffing resources organization.
Strategic Components
In the effort to simplify operations, conserve resources, streamline systems management, evolve legacy systems to leverage new technologies, manage applications – all while achieving agency mission goals, most government IT organizations are putting increased emphasis on data center strategic planning, which includes:
- modernizing IT infrastructure to support government requirements;
- securing information and assets;
- integrating large and complex agency systems;
- overcoming organizational and cultural barrie
The good news, according to federal market research firm INPUT, is that despite the economic downturn, government IT spending is expected to increase by about four percent per year during the next five years. While lower than the 1998 to 2003 growth rate of 11.9 percent, that figure could expand as the next administration begins to implement new priorities.
To deliver the services needed by personnel, partners and constituents, federal agency leaders must continue to:
- evaluate technologies and services that can help them achieve compliance with environmental and government regulations;
- improve security;
- automate operational and end-to-end processes;
- increase operational intelligence;
- manage risks;
- reduce cost, downtime and service interruptions;and
- strengthen constituent trust
Why Transform?
Nowadays, the devices installed in most federal data centers include large racks of servers, including X86, blade servers and mainframe systems, differing storage devices and advanced network technologies such as high-density, next-generation Ethernet switches, application delivery controllers and WAN acceleration. Federal applications use these resources to deliver services to meet agency requirements. A fast, secure and reliable data center network is the critical backbone for IT operations. To improve availability and performance, agencies are investing in virtualized networks, servers and storage, highly available disaster recovery, ubiquitous connectivity and security tools to help meet federal regulations such as FISMA and others.
In the computer industry, the pendulum has swung toward a general preference for software that's centrally located, as opposed to programs that run on a user's personal machine. The combination of high-speed networks, sophisticated processors and fast, inexpensive servers and disk storage is helping to drive computing into data centers. “The economic crisis only adds fuel to this fire,” said Fuster.
The current climate is also driving the advent of ‘cloud computing,’ made possible by the proliferation of high-speed Internet connections, cheap, powerful chips and disk drives, and the development of data centers that house hundreds or thousands of computers to quickly serve sophisticated software to legions of users. “None of this would have been possible just a few short years ago,” Fuster explained.
Cloud computing applies compute power, measured in the tens of trillions of computations per second, to problems such as delivering personalized medical information, or powering immersive simulations, in a way users can tap via the Web. By networking large groups of servers, often using low-cost PC technology, cloud computing incorporates specialized connections to spread data processing chores across many systems.
Moving forward, the goal for federal agencies will be to create an advanced data center network architecture that consolidates and simplifies the management and administration of government network infrastructures to deliver services to users via each agency’s distributed network environment. An open systems approach is crucial, as is a more efficient, secure and cost-effective network infrastructure. This is why virtualizing network infrastructure components and functions, such as security, load balancing and applications acceleration, is increasingly being used to optimize network performance and increase efficiency across government networks.
Resource Crisis Ahead?
In federal IT environments today, many data centers are approaching the limits of their management, infrastructure, energy, cooling and space resources. Based on research from AFCOM, here are several signals of an impending resource crisis:
- By 2010, more than half of all data centers will have to relocate or outsource some applications;
- By 2015, the talent pool of qualified senior level technical and management data center professionals will shrink by 45 percent;
Over the next five years, power failures and limits on power availability will halt data center operations in more than 90 percent of organizations.
In government IT organizations, these issues have serious implications, jeopardizing each agency’s ability to meet new demands and creating a barrier to new and better constituent services. And those challenges can also dampen agency efforts to meet increasing expectations for “always on” support for government services, whether intended for constituents, employees or partners. The impact of data center downtime and the increasing speed and unpredictability of change has put a premium on application availability and data center flexibility.1
Federal IT managers should have a continuous program in place to understand where today’s applications meet their needs, and where they fall short. The cost savings from any deleted applications can be used to fund further transformation efforts. “The goal is to deliver agile processes that provide for positive outcomes and support rapid change,” Fuster explained.
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Tips For Federal IT Leaders
According to Fuster, now is a good time to:
--Approach each project as if it previously didn’t exist. Ask what it does, why it’s needed, and how many people are needed to run it. Then ask if the job can be done with less.
--From a freshly re-drawn inventory, make a list of what still matters most, and rank that list. Not everything may survive in the coming year;
--Protect personnel. Reassure career professionals who make the greatest contribution to help retain valuable skills;
--Find ways to leverage automation in repetitive processes, operations and applications. |
1Source: AFCOM, Data Center Institute, www.afcom.com