The demand being placed on networks around the world is growing as users want a wealth of fresh content at ever faster speeds. Data centres and networks need to be engineered to keep pace with the changes.
CommScope recently published an article exploring the evolution of connected, efficient data centres. We’ve highlighted the five key trends they anticipate will have a clear impact on how infrastructure is designed and used both today and into the future:
1. The Exploding Demand for Bandwidth
Global IP traffic is predicted to soar beyond the zettabyte (1,000 exabytes) threshold by the end of this year. It will triple again by 2020, with more traffic coming from handheld devices (including mobile phones and tablets) than other traditional sources (especially PCs).
Data centres need to be ready to embrace this major technological shift.
How many new users and devices will join the global internet community by 2020? Read our blog to find out!
2. The Transition to the Cloud
Cloud options that exist today include a number of public, private, and hybrid solutions.
Benefits of moving to the cloud include:
- Increased flexibility and mobility.
- Easier ongoing management.
- Lower hardware and infrastructure costs.
- Enhanced team collaboration.
- Streamlined control.
- Greater security (including disaster recovery).
As the choices available for users continue to grow, so too will the number of people moving some (or even all) of their data centre components to the cloud. These changes will impact the requirements placed on data centres.
3. The Rise of the Internet of Things (IoT)
The IoT will be driven by connected devices – whether mobile phones, tablets, cars, lighting, or other kinds of new technology – pushing large volumes of data to data centres.
Smart cities, for example, require data to be stored, processed, and analyzed to make research-driven decisions that will positively impact how people, things, and technology interact.
4. The Move to Edge Computing
Edge computing (moving applications, services, and data away from core environments) will ultimately move content even closer to consumers.
This will help to:
- Improve the quality of service for end-users.
- Remove service bottlenecks.
- Boost security.
- Extend scalability.
It’s crucial for data centres to be prepared to distribute content around the globe, closer to where consumers will be able to access it.
5. The Advent of New Technologies
Alongside consumer demand, technology will continue to have major effects on how data centres are engineered and managed.
Key emerging technologies today include:
- Network Functions Virtualization (NFV): NFV is a new approach, replacing traditional network components with their virtual software counterparts. This lets service providers scale based on demand, boost deployment speeds, and standardize the hardware they use across numerous projects.
- Software Defined Network (SDN): SDN impacts network architectures. It introduces centralized networking and agile rerouting to optimize capacity at all times.
- Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI): HCI combines storage and compute tiers to produce tinier pieces, stitching them together using software to create a larger resource pool. This boosts agility, fault tolerance, machine-to-machine support, and more.
- Spine Leaf Architecture Design: Spine leaf designs employ Ethernet fabric networks to extend the traditional hierarchy of data centres, which helps to minimize latency.
These are just some of the changes appearing on the horizon. There will be more to come as demands on data centres increase, which is why service providers need to ensure they have the right future-ready tools and knowledge at hand.
The digital transformation is here. Are you ready to make the most of it? At Activo, we work with trusted service providers like CommScope to provide secure, scalable, and high-quality solutions. Contact us today to learn more about our services!
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