Paradigm Shift

Datacenter is an advanced Information Processing Center which manages the
entire IT Infrastructure operation in any organization. "As organizations grow
and evolve, their requirements from the IT infrastructure also grow and become
complex. This results in increased focus on efficiency, optimization of
resources and data security. The datacenter market has undergone a paradigm
change from how it was perceived few years back. With the advent of
virtualization, datacenters are capable of using energy efficient, power saving
and cost effective mechanisms," said Sumit Mukhija, National Sales
Manager-Cisco, India & SAARC.

While talking about whether datacenters have gone through a metamorphosis in
the recent past, Akash Saxena, Country Manager-Infrastructure Services, IBM
(India & South Asia) explained that datacenters today are being measured by
clients as profit centers and no longer considered as cost centers. Most
organizations have adopted a chargeback mechanism to offer datacenters as a
service internally and are measuring RoI from infrastructure. Energy efficiency
of datacenters, on the other hand, has become a large focus area for clients due
to high density computing, rise in energy costs and high uptime requirements.

According to T Srinivasan, MD-VMware, India and SAARC, datacenters are
essentially a larger collection of higher-level subsystems, which contain the
same components that perform the exact same functions-only more frequently. "The
current theme's are around consolidation with virtualization as the underlying
solution besides energy efficiency and manageability coming into play," remarked
Prateek Garg of Noida-based Progressive Infotech.

There are broadly three methods of building a datacenter and it is usually
the size of the datacenter that dictates the best methodology for its design and
structure. The traditional methodology is to design (and build) a datacenter
from scratch. This is ideally suited for large datacenters that require custom
designing to ensure energy efficiency, since the largest chunk of running costs
of a datacenter is that of energy consumption. A newer approach to datacenter
design is that of using modular designs-the datacenter is built using 'DC
blocks' that can be added on to each other to grow the size of the data centre
over time. The latest approach is that of using pre-scoped and pre-fabricated
designs and components that can help reduce the design and build time
substantially. This method is best suited for setting up small datacenters.

Growth verticals Hosted datacenters are currently being consumed by mid to
large businesses. The verticals that are showing positive growth for datacenters
are telecom, e-governance, state data centers, hospitals and laboratories,
banking, SMEs and SMBs. "Basically every company has datacenter requirements,
whether it is through in-house datacenters or outsourced ones. Companies that
need high availability or 24-hour services are more likely to outsource their
datacenter services. This gives companies the greatest advantage of
concentrating on their core competency and leaving the rest to solution
providers," commented Sharad Sanghi, CEO and MD, Netmagic Solutions.

Opportunities for SPs

Datacenters are creating promising business opportunities for the solution
providers. Many small and medium business enterprises are opting to have their
own datacenter and this opens space for the solution providers to install and
implement. Besides, datacenter is also opening up opportunities for the solution
providers to get into consultancies for the end-customers. Companies that need
high availability or 24-hour services are more likely to outsource their
datacenter services.

"Opportunities for SPs in the datacenter segment is just enormous and
phenomenal. The simple logic behind this is that every office is going through a
huge consolidation," stated K V Jagannath from Hyderabad-based Choice solutions

Datacenter in a 'Box'

'Datacenter in a box' is a unique concept of compiling services, networks,
storage, management, security, scalability services, applications etc into a
single compartment which acts as a box. The concept of 'datacentre in a box' is
becoming popular with the growth of high density blade server. According to
Sameer Mathur of QuantumNet Technologies, it is a fairly new concept in the DC
business, recently being introduced by a leading OEM. This offers a packaged
solution, mainly comprising of the 'essentials of a datacenter', such as PAC,
UPS, access control, passive network, basic fire systems etc.

New Trends

Nowadays all companies are trying to consolidate their datacenter
facilities. "Cloud hosting models will be the next 'in' thing in the datacenter
segment because all the companies are not IT-based. By 2012-13 it will become a
reality," opined Jagannath.

Today's high-speed computing systems and high-density blade servers are using
more energy and generating more heat than ever before. Due to a lack of
understanding on the cooling requirements of these sensitive electronics,
end-users have traditionally been reluctant to invest in water-based cooling
solution due to their high upfront costs and risk. However, the unique
water-based cooling solution from Emerson has been designed to save huge energy
costs, without compromising datacenter protection.

Greening the Datacenter

Green IT is being embraced very positively by many businesses in India. With
the climatic conditions in India, companies mainly rely on air-conditioning to
keep datacenters at the right temperature. The more powerful the machine, the
more cool air is needed to keep it from overheating. With virtualization
dramatic server consolidation can take a big chunk out of power and cooling
budgets. "These next generation datacenters are designed to reduce power
consumption and consequently, cooling requirements," pointed Sanghi. But Prateek
Garg of Progressive Computers pointed out that significant energy efficiency
cannot be achieved without overhauling the existing infrastructure.

What's in store?

Gartner predicts that the total datacenter capacity in India will reach 5.1
million sq ft by 2012, with a CAGR of 31 percent. This is partly fueled by the
fact that India is expected to be the datacenter hub for near markets such as
Middle East and South East Asia. There are even instances of European customers
opting to host their datacenters in India. Industry reports predict that
revenues associated with the managed services market will grow from nearly $30
billion in 2008 to nearly $43 billion in 2013.

Scaling up

"Consumers and businesses today are demanding new services and more from
their network experiences. To meet these demands and to maintain a competitive
advantage service providers need to constantly offer new services, which pose
several challenges for them as traditional approaches do not quickly or
cost-effectively accommodate such growth profitably," said T Srinivasan, MD,
Vmware. "There are multiple vendors who are capable of delivering all the
required solutions, although the industry is still in its learning stage. But
lack of standard norms and project management functions need to be improved,"
pointed out Mathur.

Even Garg sounded quite confident. "Indian solution providers are scaling new
heights. The experience and learnings of the past few years are available to
deliver on the required areas."

Nandana Das

nandanad@cybermedia.co.in