If you work in IT, you probably remember the first time you walked into a real data center—not just a server closet, but an actual room with a raised floor. data centerwhere the door swings open with a rush of cold air and noise, and you're faced with rows and rows of racks, monolithic and gray, filled with servers with screaming cooling fans and lights flashing like crazy. A data center is a place where cool thing these are pizza boxes, blade servers, NAS and SAN. Some of its inhabitants are more exotic. Big iron in all its massive forms, from the Z Series to the Superdome and all points in between.
For decades, data centers have been the heart of many businesses—fortified secret rooms that house vast amounts of capital, actively converting electricity into revenue. And sometimes they're also a place where IT can hide – it's sort of a running joke that whenever a user you don't want to see is wandering around the IT room, the best way to avoid contact is to simply walk into the data center and wait for them to leave. (But, uh, I've never done that. I promise.)
But over the past few years, there has been a huge shift in the relationship between companies and their data, and where that data is stored. Of course, it's always convenient to have your own servers and storage, but why invest all that capital if you don't have to? Why not just go to the cloud buffet and pay for what you want to eat and nothing else?
Some companies will always have some reason to have data centers – the cloud, as attractive as it is, can't do everything. (At least for now.) But the list of objections to taking your computing needs off-premises is quickly shrinking, and we're going to talk a little about what comes next.
The event has ended! Thanks to everyone who asked questions.
