A better data center uses resources more effectively and provides a higher return on investment for your organization. That can lead to a more efficient system, potentially providing higher processing speed and improvements in service delivery. It can also make for a more dependable system overall and reduce costs. To further improve your data center beyond measures you may already have taken, here are five suggestions:
1. Implement More Green Strategies
Reducing energy in data centers is essential. While a main concern for many companies with high energy consumption is the high electricity bills that result, the environmental impact is also troubling. Reducing energy use can lower greenhouse gas emissions, making it an important measure in combating climate change and step forward in sustainability efforts.
Lowering energy usage in your data center as part of a more eco-friendly business strategy can have far-reaching effects. The benefits can range from improving system reliability by reducing the number of demands on the electrical grid to saving money by using less electricity.
An effective strategy is to transition from traditional air cooling to rack-level direct to chip cooling. A direct liquid cooling solution reduces energy use by transferring heat away from electrical parts more efficiently than traditional approaches. It also lowers the need for fans and significantly reduces the chances of equipment overheating, which could lead to data center downtime.
2. Using AI Management Tools
A growing number of data centers are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help with managing workloads to provide better overall efficiency for systems. Along with improving resource management, AI is also useful from a security standpoint, finding unusual patterns in different areas, from data center network traffic to access logs. Incorporating AI in coordination with liquid cooling can also help improve energy use.
When implemented effectively, artificial intelligence algorithms can reduce downtime, improve data security, and provide more reliable performance. In its most basic sense, in data center management, the role of AI is to schedule and prioritize workloads based on what is required performance-wise and what resources are usable.
For AI to work well, implementing it involves using machine learning to train AI models on data from the past, which is typical of the data center’s activities. Also important is integrating it with other management tools properly and making the approach scalable. A scalable system can continue to work effectively as the business grows and puts increasingly more demands on it.
3. Do You Have High-Density Racks Yet?
Improving your data center’s efficiency is possible with high-density racks in servers. This hardware can be a good choice to improve computing power and storage if you have limited physical space. So, if you have not implemented this approach, it is something to consider if you do not want to do a physical expansion.
As demand increases, data centers with high-density racks can keep up by offering larger amounts of computer power per rack or per square foot. But while you are using space well with this approach, there are dangers of hot spots and hot air issues, making liquid cooling solutions an essential piece of the solution.
Over time, rack densities have become higher in many businesses. A major reason for this is the development of more powerful chips.
4. Add Cloud Computing Resources
A hybrid cloud approach may suit your data center. This method refers to using a combination of cloud computing with the physical data center. This trend is quickly gaining traction, with the potential for the cloud to soon be a necessity for many businesses.
While you might be tempted to move everything IT-related to the cloud, though, not everything may do well in the cloud computing environment. Hence, the hybrid approach, with physical space for the data center to enable you to keep control over the hardware and cloud services to scale certain resources. That allows you to potentially get the benefits of both.
During peak times of the year for your business, cloud services can be helpful in taking some of the demands off your data center to keep operations running smoothly with less chance of disruption. That enables you to have a bigger capacity. You can also tailor the approach how you want it, based on the demands unique to your organization, and the cloud allows for scaling up over time.
5. Consider Edge Computing
While you have likely heard of edge computing, you may not have implemented it yet. Edge computing refers to processing data closer to the network “edge” or where it is generated, such as local servers. The benefit is the reduced distance data travels to reach the data center, which can lower the delay while the system waits for data to transmit and increase response times.
If your company has experienced issues with processing, transmitting, and storing large amounts of data, edge computing might be something to consider. Plus, security has the potential to improve with a reduction in transmission volume.
Be aware, though, that edge data centers can become complicated if you have several systems in different physical locations. That leads to needing a managed IT team and more in-depth security measures.
Conclusion: Start Improving Your Data Center
There are always ways to optimize your data center beyond the current operation. So, keeping up to date on industry trends and strategies that your competitors are using is helpful. From edge computing to direct liquid cooling solutions, there are several options.
Which one is best for your business depends on many factors. Analyzing today’s operations and performance can help you decide what modifications are best for the future. After implementing the desired measures, continually monitor data center operations to determine if they are working well, particularly during busy times of the year. Doing so can help your data center be more green and efficient, save your business money, and improve both scalability and security.
Your data center is the heart of the organization, so putting the time and energy into improving it is integral. Supporting your IT operations better starts today.
