Perspectives on Cloud, Data Center Migration & Networks

This week's Industry Perspectives represented an intersection of top-of-mind topics for data center professionals and executives. Three columns considered different aspects of the cloud, including building a model for Return on Investment, planning for cloud downtime, and making the cloud more resilient. The other columns this week gave excellent advice on planning and executing a data center relocation and aspects of your network to consider during peak usage, such as during the NCAA games. If you missed any, here they are in a neat package. Enjoy!

March Madness: Lessons for Networks: According to a Harris Interactive poll, 64 percent of Americans watch online video while at work. As employees flocked to watch March Madness, network administrators are focusing on new ways to withstand the increase in demand and keep business applications responsive. writes David White of Ipanema Technologies.

Five Essential Keys to Success When Relocating a Data Center: A data center relocation (DCR) is not just about moving servers and plugging them in at their new locale. In reality, DCR can be one of a company's most complex and challenging endeavors, writes Bruce Cardos of Datalink.

Microsoft’s Journey: Solving Cloud Reliability With Software: Cloud service providers need to move beyond traditional reliance on complex hardware redundancy schemes and instead focus on developing more intelligent software that can monitor, anticipate, and efficiently manage the failure of physical infrastructures, writes David Gautier of Microsoft. When service availability is engineered in more resilient software, there is greater opportunity to materially rethink how the physical data center is engineered.

Downtime & Cloud: What’s The Role of the Cloud in RTO and RPO Planning? Spanning from basic file backup to a total restore, the lower costs and higher resiliency of cloud infrastructure have re-framed disaster recovery discussions by providing greater options, writes Cortney Thompson of Green House Data.

Building A Cloud-Savvy Model for TCO and ROI: You might be surprised to learn that many large organizations commit to cloud computing without really knowing their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and projected Return on Investment (ROI), writes Ravi Rajagopal of CA Technologies. It’s not that they’re irresponsible and ignoring this requirement. It’s that the tools most IT teams use to evaluate TCO and ROI are inadequate for application to the cloud.

Industry Perspectives is a content channel at Data Center Knowledge highlighting thought leadership in the data center arena. See our guidelines and submission process for information on participating. View previously published Industry Perspectives in our Knowledge Library.