1) Virtualization simplifies complexity
In recent years, with the rise of cloud computing, virtualization technology has gradually matured. Server virtualization technology refers to the use of virtualization techniques to fully utilize the hardware performance of servers, ensuring that while enterprises invest in costs, they can improve operational efficiency, save energy, reduce economic costs, and reduce space waste. For example, four servers that were originally at 20% utilization can, through virtualization resource consolidation, concentrate business on a single server at 80% utilization, thereby improving resource utilization.
The latest Foresight survey report shows that improving business continuity and enabling disaster recovery are among the top motivations for consumers to adopt virtualization, and virtualization file and data backup, recovery, snapshot, copy, and archiving technologies already have a relatively well-established market.
2) Infrastructure: What is divided for a long time must eventually unite.
In recent years, converged infrastructure has become a new trend in data centers. Simply put, converged infrastructure integrates resources such as servers, storage, networking, and management software into a unified solution. Compared to traditional data center architectures, converged infrastructure breaks down the boundaries between storage, computing, and networking, simplifying the deployment, operation, and management of IT infrastructure. This shortens deployment time for users, improves resource utilization, and significantly reduces procurement costs for enterprises.
Currently, IBM, HP, Dell, Huawei, and Oracle have all launched their own distinctive converged infrastructure products. It is projected that by 2017, converged infrastructure will account for two-thirds of total global spending on servers, networks, architecture, and services, indicating a very promising market prospect. Furthermore, the underlying power supply and distribution equipment will also be further integrated with IT equipment in the future.
3) Green and energy-saving is an inevitable trend.
Rising energy costs and ever-increasing computing demands have brought data center energy consumption to the forefront of public attention. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s “Guiding Opinions on the Construction and Layout of Data Centers” emphasizes the promotion of green data centers and green power supplies, explicitly requiring that newly built large-scale cloud computing data centers achieve a power efficiency (PUE) value of below 1.5, and that existing data centers, through integration, renovation, and upgrades, should reduce their PUE value to below 2.0. On February 1, 2014, Shanghai took the lead in issuing the first mandatory local standard in China for data center energy consumption limits, officially sounding the clarion call for energy conservation in the data center field.
Overseas, companies such as Apple, Amazon, and Google have actively carried out “green” transformation of their data centers and launched many data centers with ultra-low PUE. These successful cases provide useful lessons for the construction of green data centers in China.