Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson and a global leader in maximizing availability, capacity and efficiency of critical infrastructure, released a CIO Playbook focused on helping IT executive management choose data center growth strategies that best meet capacity and financial requirements. The new Playbook offers timely planning insight for the many enterprises aiming to soon build a new data center or lease space from a co-location / managed hosting facility. It also presents options for organizations looking for other ways to expand.
When you look at the market demands for mobile, digital video and other feature-rich, data-intensive IT applications, it’s not surprising that organizations are concerned about having enough compute capacity, space, power and cooling to support demand – they’re worried about availability,” said Peter Panfil, VP, global power, Emerson Network Power. “But they’re also pinched to keep costs down. The good news is that there are options for growth. You may not have to build a new data center at an average cost of $1,000-$1,500 per square foot. itvoice
The Playbook, “How Do You Plan to Grow?” begins by examining six growth strategies:
- Optimize existing infrastructure
- Retrofit existing infrastructure
- Outsource
- Deploy an integrated modular room(s)
- Get creative
- Build a new data center
For each option, the Playbook describes “how to do it” and “what you get” in terms of benefits. For example, an integrated, modular room is simply deployed outside the existing facility, or remotely, to handle overflow. What you get includes the most efficient technologies preconfigured and ready to go, and rapid deployment ability.
According to the Playbook, a thorough evaluation of existing critical infrastructure is required to determine which strategy to choose and to evaluate return on investment for the different options. It then discusses two effective methods for mining that information: a professional data center assessment and using data center infrastructure management (DCIM) technology.
The Playbook also notes that paths to growth can have advantages and disadvantages based on an organization’s needs. It then concludes by providing a decision checklist for CIOs and other IT leaders to use to ensure the growth strategy they select is effective.
“How Do You Plan to Grow?” is available at http://www.emersonnetworkpower.com/en-in/Solutions/CIO-Topics/Pages/default.aspx.
Panfil will host a Critical Advantage Webcast on the topic in October. For more information about the webcast, visit www.EmersonNetworkPower.com/webcasts. For more information about products and solutions from Emerson Network Power, visit Emerson Network Power.
