November 26, 2014 at 23:26Perspective Data Centers
Turning pages on the Internet, you can often find news that somewhere in the world another data center is being built. According to a recent report by IDC (International Data Corporation - a company that analyzes the market for IT, telecommunications and consumer technology), at the moment, data centers occupy an area of more than 146 million square meters (i.e. 146 square kilometers, which is approximately equal to a tenth of St. -Peterburg or almost the entire principality of Liechtenstein). Undoubtedly, we are seeing the growth of data centers around the world, but this will not always be the case.
According to the forecasts announced in the IDC report, the number of data centers will continue to grow until it reaches a maximum of 8.6 million by 2017, after which their decline will begin. As data centers become a strategically important addition to lower costs, rather than an office support asset, more and more companies will strive to transfer data management to service providers, abandoning their own server and maintenance personnel.
The first from the front line will be the data centers of the lowest rank, private server rooms and data centers in hangars, which are especially common in the USA. At the same time, service providers will continue their race to improve, remodel and acquire new data centers to meet growing capacity needs.
The report from IDC does not say at all that the need for data center capacities and areas will decrease or disappear, and DCs will no longer grow. The opposite is true: they will develop and grow further, but not in the way we are used to seeing today. Development and growth will take place around mega data centers.
It is not very clear what IDC invests in the concept of “mega data centers”, but AFCOM (a subsidiary of Data Center Knowledge) believes that it is a data center with an area of at least 20,900 m2, which allows place more than 9000 racks.
In the graph below, you can see that by 2014-2015, more and more users are migrating from a classic (dedicated) server to VDS or the cloud, as this allows for more flexible scalability and saves users money by paying exactly as much resources as the project needs.
The graph shows that VDS is in greatest demand, but the clouds do not graze the rear at all.
The graph shows us that the total volume of traffic around the world per year is about 3.7 ZB (10 ^ 21) and will increase to 4.8 ZB in 2015. The clouds account for 1.1 ZB, and by 2015 will reach 1.8 ZB.
Looking at these simple graphs, we can conclude that the cloud segment will continue to grow and strengthen its position, but it will not be able to eradicate the traditional (dedicated) server.
According to IDC, the total data center area worldwide will grow to 180 million square meters by 2018. And these will not be traditional data centers, where you can choose your own hosting, VDS, cloud or a dedicated server. Most likely, the choice will be reduced to a virtual machine and the cloud.
According to the forecasts announced in the IDC report, the number of data centers will continue to grow until it reaches a maximum of 8.6 million by 2017, after which their decline will begin. As data centers become a strategically important addition to lower costs, rather than an office support asset, more and more companies will strive to transfer data management to service providers, abandoning their own server and maintenance personnel.
The first from the front line will be the data centers of the lowest rank, private server rooms and data centers in hangars, which are especially common in the USA. At the same time, service providers will continue their race to improve, remodel and acquire new data centers to meet growing capacity needs.
The report from IDC does not say at all that the need for data center capacities and areas will decrease or disappear, and DCs will no longer grow. The opposite is true: they will develop and grow further, but not in the way we are used to seeing today. Development and growth will take place around mega data centers.
It is not very clear what IDC invests in the concept of “mega data centers”, but AFCOM (a subsidiary of Data Center Knowledge) believes that it is a data center with an area of at least 20,900 m2, which allows place more than 9000 racks.
In the graph below, you can see that by 2014-2015, more and more users are migrating from a classic (dedicated) server to VDS or the cloud, as this allows for more flexible scalability and saves users money by paying exactly as much resources as the project needs.
The graph shows that VDS is in greatest demand, but the clouds do not graze the rear at all.
The graph shows us that the total volume of traffic around the world per year is about 3.7 ZB (10 ^ 21) and will increase to 4.8 ZB in 2015. The clouds account for 1.1 ZB, and by 2015 will reach 1.8 ZB.
Looking at these simple graphs, we can conclude that the cloud segment will continue to grow and strengthen its position, but it will not be able to eradicate the traditional (dedicated) server.
According to IDC, the total data center area worldwide will grow to 180 million square meters by 2018. And these will not be traditional data centers, where you can choose your own hosting, VDS, cloud or a dedicated server. Most likely, the choice will be reduced to a virtual machine and the cloud.