By 2011, more than 70 percent of US enterprise data centers will face tangible disruptions related to energy consumption, floor space, and/or costs, according to Gartner, Inc. In fact, during the next five years, most US enterprise data centers will spend as much on energy (power and cooling) as they will on hardware infrastructure.

“CIOs of large US organizations must prepare for a period of rapid changes in their data centers,” said Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner. “This disruption will be accompanied by a significant increase in capital and operational expenditures. Failure to respond quickly and appropriately to the changing market conditions and technologies will result in needlessly high energy bills, expensive service contracts and delays in implementing new technologies.”

Gartner estimates that more than 70 percent of the world’s Global 1000 organizations will have to modify their data center facilities significantly during the next five years. The United States has the biggest concentration of large (greater than 50,000 square feet) data centers, the majority of which were built more than seven years ago.

“These legacy data centers typically were built to a design specification of about 100 to 150 watts per square foot. Current design needs are about 300 to 400 watts per square foot, and by 2011, this could rise to more than 600 watts per square foot,” Mr. Kumar said. “The implication is that most current data centers will be unable to host the next generation of high-density equipment, so CIOs will have to refurbish their established sites, build new ones or look for alternatives, such as using a hosting provider.”

During the next two or more years, three main issues will come together and cause the disruption:

* Legacy data centers won’t have sufficient power and cooling requirements for the next generation of high-density server and storage equipment.

* The volume growth of IT infrastructure will exceed the available data center floor space for most organizations.

* The need to manage upward-spiraling energy costs through optimization tools and modeling techniques.

Additional information is available in the Gartner report ‘US Data Centers: The Calm Before the Storm’.

•Date: 4th October 2007• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: IT continuity
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