Data centers have become the most important part of the IT infrastructure. Large companies are working on their own data centers. Small and medium-sized companies are either using cloud services or colocation services for meeting their data needs. Businesses are generating and consuming more and more data each year. Thus, data centers are only going to become more important in the feature.
Data center consolidation is quickly becoming popular. It is highly effective if your company is located in multiple geographies. But, it is not much helpful for small organizations like startups. Hence, the benefits and decision of consolidation will vary from company to company. The main objection of consolidation is to improve the efficiency of data centers. They also help in improving the security of data centers. Businesses are trying to figure out their data consolidation needs. They are also trying to reduce their IT infrastructure and environment footprints. More and more companies are developing their own data center consolidation strategy. This will help them in expanding their business globally. There are many advantages of having a great consolidation strategy like cost reduction, improved security, and agility.
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Cost reductions
The main aim of data center consolidation is to reduce the costs of the data center. It is very expensive to run your own data center. If you are updating your old data center with modern equipment and cooling capabilities, then you need to invest a lot of money. The federal government has already said to remove redundant data centers. The government is currently planning to shut down more than 5,000 data centers this year. Data center consolidation strategy has already saved more than $3 billion in 4 years.
In a consolidated environment, you have a small application infrastructure and network. Thus, your enterprise needs very fewer resources like hardware and servers. If you are using fewer servers, then you also don’t need to buy software applications. The cloud-based SaaS options are also becoming popular. The consolidated data center consumes very little power. Thus, your electricity bill will automatically reduce. Companies are constructing hyper-scale data centers. These data centers are difficult to maintain. But, these hyper-scale data centers are eco-friendly and efficient.
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Improved Security
Data center consolidation will also help you in improving your data security. If you have fewer servers, then you can easily monitor them. This will also help you in reducing the number of endpoints and access points in your business network. Most of the service outages happen due to human errors. If fewer people can access your company network, then it will decrease the risk of any outage. If your data centers are spread in different areas, the chance of disasters like an earthquake will automatically decrease. You can always get your data from some data centers.
Most of the data centers that come under data center consolidation are old with outdated equipment and security. Thus, more and more hackers are targeting these old data centers. Consolidation will help you in removing them. Thus, your overall network will become more secure. If you have fewer data centers, then you can easily ensure that they are following the security compliances and protocols.
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Increased Control
Data center consolidation will help you in optimizing your operations. You can control the flow of data in your network. It will also help you in managing your server load. If your IT infrastructure is simple, then your IT department can easily manage it. Your IT department needs to check fewer data centers. The dataflow pattern will also become easy to follow. Thus, your IT department can deploy advanced management and protocols strategies.
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Improved Agility
Adaptability and speed are the two most important things for any business. If your applications and data are stored in multiple facilities, then your company productivity will automatically go down. Most of the old data centers have outdated IT infrastructure. Data center consolidation will improve the overall speed of your network. You can quickly make new decisions. It will also become for you to implement these solutions.
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Better Disaster Recovery
Disaster recovery is one of the most important things for any business. It becomes very difficult for your IT department to manage outage if you have multiple data centers scattered around multiple locations. Restoring all your servers can take a lot of time. This will also depend on the severity of the issue. The impact of the disaster on your business can be very serious. This can damage your company’s reputation. Data center consolidation will make all your IT resources centralized. Thus, your IT department can easily manage your resources. They can quickly respond to any serious issue.
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Compliance
There are many different security compliances that your company must follow. If you have multiple data centers, then it will become difficult for you to comply with advanced and standard compliances. You need multiple IT teams for handling multiple servers. Thus, it will become difficult to ensure that every server is following standard compliances. Data center consolidation will allow you to access all your IT resources from one center. Thus, you easily implement compliances and new processes.
Conclusion
Data center consolidation is going to be in trend for few more years. It will help you in reducing the costs of your data center. Data center consolidation will also help you in improving the efficiency of your company. Companies that don’t have their own data centers should also develop a data center consolidation strategy. This will help them in taking the benefits of the current consolidation trend. Data center consolidation will also help you in reducing the IT footprint of your company. Hence, you can compete with more companies in the future. If you want more information about data center consolidation, then you can contact experts working at Bleuwire.
Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™ services and solutions in how we can help your business.