Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2019. Read them in this 11th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed by James Leach, Corporate Vice President, RagingWire Data Centers
A Global Data Center Platform
At the start of the New Year we all like to take out our
crystal ball and look into the future. RagingWire is in the middle of an
exciting area in tech - data centers - the home of the cloud, the internet, and
the next killer app. What does the crystal ball show us for data centers in
2019? We see data centers becoming a global data center platform enabling the
next generation of tech.
Lose
fat and build muscle
Since the early days of data centers, the design question
was how much "extra" you built into your data center so that you could be 100%
available. New data center designs will be more lean and muscular (powerful), delivering
just what your applications need. Applications are more resilient than ever
before. So you can lower the cost of your data center without reducing
application availability by losing the fat and building up muscle.
"Hedge"
data centers
How about a new data center architecture that combines
Hyperscale + Edge to create "hedge" data centers? In 2018, hyperscale cloud dominated
and edge computing emerged. In 2019, look for data center products that attempt
to seamlessly integrate hyperscale and edge to support AI, IoT, autonomous
vehicles, big data, etc.
Grow
up not out
The U.S. is embracing what the rest of the world has known
for years - multi-story data centers are fine. They extend the economies of
scale by getting more value out of a piece of property.
Go
global or go home
Working with global data center suppliers is becoming a "must
have." Look for a supplier with locations around the world PLUS global design
standards, global operating procedures, and a global business model that
includes contracts, pricing, and workload balancing.
Start
a 5G pilot project
Even if 5G is not as great as the hype, it's going to be good.
In 2019, find a latency sensitive application (IoT, video, automation, etc.),
and start a 5G pilot project.
Aquaman
gets cable
2018 saw a rush of new subsea cable landings mostly funded
by four of the big hyperscale cloud companies - Amazon, Facebook, Google, and
Microsoft. In 2019, look for new applications and services that leverage these
cables and the companies behind them.
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About the Author
James Leach, Corporate Vice President, RagingWire Data Centers
Mr. Leach has spent his career at the forefront of developing innovative Internet services for enterprises. He was part of the core team that introduced data center colocation, cloud computing solutions, virtual private networks (VPNs) and route optimization, application hosting, content delivery networks (CDNs), Internet registry and Domain Name System (DNS) services, and web performance monitoring and testing.
Mr. Leach spent the first 15 years of his career at IBM starting out as an engineer and then moving into sales, business development and marketing. For the last 15 years, he has been a top marketing executive at Savvis, Internap, Neustar, Harris Corporation, and currently RagingWire.
At RagingWire, Mr. Leach is the overall marketing leader driving the business for a data center portfolio of 2 million square feet across massive campuses in Ashburn, Virginia; Dallas, Texas; and Sacramento and Silicon Valley in Northern California. As part of NTT, RagingWire’s parent company and one of the largest and most financially strong information and communications technology solutions providers, Mr. Leach is part of the global marketing team responsible for 140 data center locations in 20 countries.