SwitchScribe – I admit I pick and choose the things I agree with from Gartner. However, this year I definitely agreed with their statement “Supply rather than ownership should drive strategy in the Data Center”
Supply
Data Center capacity, even in the most modular of designs takes months to bring on line if you’re building your own. In most cases you’re looking at a year or longer from project definition to opening a building. In the parlance of modern IT six months is not agile let alone a year. Data Center capacity needs to be considered in the whole; how much do I need to own vs how much should I contract or lease from suppliers? There are several realities here ; 1) there is no longer a need to “own” a physical data center facility and 2) we must view data center capacity through the same lens that we view manufacturing and business process improvement.
Assumptions about the need to own:
We’re special and have needs that can’t be addressed in either the cloud or a colocation facility.
We can do it more cost effectively than a colocation supplier
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