CRN.com | Dec 7, 2010
Data Center Deluge
Pinning down the top 10 data center stories of 2010 is a difficult job because the trends and news that impacted data centers over the past 12 months or so stem from the impacts of a wide range of technologies.
To look at the “Year in Data Centers,” one has to look at the “Year in Cloud Computing,” the “Year in Virtualization,” the “Year in Storage,” the “Year in Servers,” and more.
CRN has done the looking, and come up with some of the most important stories which impacted data centers in 2010. And, as one might expect from as fast changing an environment as data centers, these stories will continue to have their impact in 2011 and beyond.
1. Server Virtualization’s Tipping Point
Server virtualization reached a tipping point in 2010. IDC was widely reported by media outlets such as internet.com to have said at the Interop conference in Las Vegas that virtual servers deployments in 2010 should outnumber those of physical servers.
Gartner said in September that over 80 percent of enterprises now have a virtualization program or project, and that 25 percent of all server workloads should be virtualized by year-end.
This is significant to the future of the data center, as virtual servers not only reduce the capital expense and operating expernse related to buying, powering, and cooling physical servers, they also serve as the base on which other virtualized services including cloud computing are built.
2. Rise Of The Virtual Machine
One nice thing about all those new virtual servers is that they can do almost everything a physical server can do, including be configured for use as an appliance.
Virtual appliances in 2010 started springing up almost everywhere, including from a wide range of storage, security, and application vendors. Most are rather small and inexpensive versions of the vendors’ hardware appliances.
But not all. Silver Peak, for instance, introduced a virtual WAN optimization appliance which lists for about $70,000. It can replace part of the company’s physical WAN appliances which cost $200,000 or more.