DCD Big Discussion Guide

The Business of Data Centers
BIG
DISCUSSIONS
FOR
2016 Be at the table
not on the menu

A
s the Internet of Things, Smart
Cities, Big Data and Cloud drive
more and more data processing
requirements it is predicted that by 2020
there will 50 Zettabytes of data generated by
more than 25 billion connected devices. By
2040 it has been calculated that to process
the world’s data requirements using today’s
infrastructure would consume all the energy
in the world. So we’re going to have to
innovate ourselves out of this one together.
From software-defined architectures to
hyper-convergence, open-source, web
scale and disaggregation, models to deal
with the challenge are proliferating. On-
premise data centers, hybrid and private
cloud deployments are becoming more
complex and as the two worlds of physical
infrastructure and logical architecture collide
a more holistic approach to the full data
center eco-system is required. With scale
comes not only more complexity but
also risk.
GET INVOLVED!

To help kick-start the process of change we
have published this guide of what we think
will be the big discussions in 2016.
These discussions will be lived out at
DatacenterDynamics conferences around
the world. Keynotes from leading industry
figures, panels discussions and rountables
will all add fuel to the fire and we will be
reporting on how the conversation develops
though the magazine.
It’s never been easier to join this discussion
because, if you haven’t heard already we have
moved to a free-to-attend model for qualified
end-users at all our events (see calendar
on back cover). Your industry needs you tp
particpate and to share; be at the table not on
the menu.
BRUCE TAYLOR
5 SERVERS & STORAGE
7 CORE >EDGE
9 COLO + CLOUD
11 DESIGN & BUILD
13 POWER & COOLING
15 SOFTWARE DEFINED
17 OPEN SOURCE
19 SECURITY + RISK
Your guide to the BIG discussions
that will happen at DCD events
around the world this year

SERVERS
& STORAGE
This track is focused on hardware and
understanding the impact of compute, network
and storage transformation on IT capacity
requirements, data center design and architecture.
Bare-me
full-func
What’s ri
To meet the relentless
demand of the zettabyte-era
drives innovative IT systems
architectures that can achieve
>2X performance and power-
efficiency improvement. Where
do you start? Where are others
on this journey?
Extreme performance at the
chip level (think a rack-on-
chip), extreme density at the
rack level, and extreme PUE at
the infrastructure level, are all
within sight. When does your
organization begin planning for
this? Who’s climbing in this thin
air now?
Matching the right processor
architecture and server
platform for the data center,
today, likely looks much more
like a commodity selection
– priced accordingly. What
are today’s best practices for
server selection for the critical
environment in which they will
be installed, with an eye on
what matches up best with both
‘North of the rack’ and ‘South of
the rack’ infrastructure?
The speed and capacity of
flash storage are now clear,
so where does flash sit in your
storage architecture plans? While
certainly some flash vendors are
holding out all-flash arrays as the
right technology, many storage
professionals prefer hybrid
architectures which blend disk
arrays with flash SSD. And then
along comes rack-scale flash,
which blurs the lines between
memory and storage. Is this
the right answer for true high-
performance hyper-convergence
and SDI?
5 datacenterdynamics.com | Big Discussions for 2016

6
Low-power,
high-performance
servers: How’s it
Goin’?
4
Silicon Photonics:
How soon will it
be server-ready?
1
Processor and server performance may be
key to determining a holistic data center
ecosystem design. Do you now plan with
this in mind?
5
Virtualization
and containers:
It’s not either-or
but both- and…
What do you need to begin?
8
SSD/Flash storage. Will you ease
into it with a hybrid solution?
Are you ready for Flash-based
S(torage)-a-a-S for backup? DR?
2
New architectures
for massive storage
gains in the data
center. Are you
planning for what’s next?
10
Bitcoin
mining is
pushing
the limits
for what’s possible in
rack density. What can
be learned for both the
production data center
and hyperscalers?
3
Bare-metal vs. full-
function servers: What’s
right for your business?
9
In the zettabyte era, data
lakes will become the norm.
How do you analyse how
you best meet your big
data/analytics need with cloud-
based data lake services?
7
Finally, 2016 may
be the year ARM
hyperscale servers
are ready to seriously
challenge X86 in the data
center. Should you be paying
attention to ARM? Why?
etal vs.
ction servers
ight for business

CORE
> EDGE
This track is focused on the internal and
external data center transit layer from core
to edge and the rapidly developing data
center interconnect [DCI] eco-system.
At the turn of the Century,
the core backbone dominated
the network conversation.
Today and for the near future,
it’s the network edge that’s
become the belle of the
digital transformation ball.
Why? What are the drivers?
What does this portend for
your business, and how are
you adapting?
Content delivery,
interactivity (gaming), IoT,
mobility, social media, Big
data/analytics – all of these
are at the network edge.
Does each require different
networking architectures, gear
and management software?
Enterprise network designers
face a myriad of challenges
in the zettabyte era. How do
leaders in the heterogenous
digital enterprise universe
stay atop the demands? Are
disaggregated data center
infrastructures the answer to
the zettabyte/IoT era?
Hyperscale like the
big boys — AWS, Google,
Microsoft, Facebook, eBay.
These players — with fast
growth rates, real-time access
requirements and
zero tolerance for failure -
are constantly innovating
through the traditional
network architecture
barriers. In the process,
they’re driving up
performance and beating
down costs.
Today’s digital enterprise
has a lot to learn from
these leaders about what
to expect in the near
future, even if not a
Web-scale player.
The edge is the
belle of the digital
transormation
ball

1
5G wireless communications
will give vastly, globally
distributed smart devices
access to unlimited
computing capability. How will your
company use IEEE 802.11ac wireless
technology that brings the leading
edge of the cloud to your business?
5
Data lakes and
sandboxes –
lying in mega
data center
storage – demand high
optimization of both
the network core and
distribution layers to
provide necessary big
data analytics agility.
How can you ensure the
speed you need?
2
How are the
telco providers
now delivering
advanced business
services to the enterprise?
4
When designing
storage-area network
SAN fabric, it’s important
to consider “mesh” and
“core-edge” topologies. Learn the
pros and cons of both topologies
for designing SAN fabrics and
which is best suited to your
business needs.
3
DCI and internet
exchange are now
primary value drivers
for digital enterprise
transformation. Is your network
strategy expansive enough
to take advantage of the new
opportunities?
6
Learn how SDN,
NFV, Cloud and
Open Source are
generating a perfect
storm of networking value
creation: Massively improve
network performance, cut
costs, drive new innovation.
How is your company
navigating these waters?
7
As the demand for
network speed and
bandwidth capacity
rises, network
cabling is the quite literal
spinal column of data center
network infrastructure.
8
As the LAN
technology of choice,
how is Ethernet
evolving to keep up
with new network demands?
9
Dark Fiber: What you
should know about
inter data center
connectivity.
Big Discussions for 2016 | datacenterdynamics.com 8

1
When choosing the
Iaas/PaaS provider,
what’s your criteria for
whether they’re the
right fit for your workloads?
2
Automating hybrid and
multi-cloud workload
performance analytics
and orchestration, how
far can you go? What’s missing?
6
The enterprise IT
relationship with
its MSP may be
the single most
important relationship it
has – how are you doing
with yours?
4
It’s now an app- and
workload-centric world.
Has your enterprise
IT recognized and
reconciled with that yet?
8
Use licenses
and SLAs for
the cloud. Fun,
huh? Do you
know how you’re doing
on performance to your
agreements?
5
Can we please just make the IT
services sourcing RFP go away
now? Who needs it anymore?
How do we get real automation
and transparency into the colo services
acquisition process?
3
IaaS/PaaS
fundamentally
changes the rol
of enterprise IT
leaders. What are they n
and what should they be
7
Colo selection
as a time-to-
market, agility,
cost-reduction
and risk avoidance strategy.
What’s most important to
you beyond simply getting
more capacity?
It’s now an app-and
workload-centric world

COLO
+ CLOUD
This track is focused on sourcing, integration
and management of DCaaS, IaaS & PaaS, and
telecom, understanding complex capacity
issues and data center outsourcing options.
The forecasted data tsunami is
bearing down. In many cases, it’s
already here. How can CIOs, IT units
and data center organizations best
prepare to thrive — not just survive?
Purpose-built colocation data
centers give prospective IT capacity
and services planners interesting
options beyond ‘build-your-own’;
competitive selection, time-
to-market, agility, operational
efficiency, etc… What are the
downsides? How good is
your enterprise at sourcing,
selecting and procuring colo
services? How do you select
the right analytics-based
trusted sourcing advisor?
Increasingly colocation
providers are adopting
Tier III (N+1) availability
as standard as a matter
of competitive advantage.
Uptime Institute’s Tier
Classification always was intended
to be matched with the “business
need” for availability. Likely, some
workloads will require Tier III, but
are you over-subscribed, paying too
much, if the bulk of the workloads
you manage don’t really require that
level of availability guarantee? Will
availability requirements ultimately
be a software-defined workload
allocation and automation matter?
High-Availability-as-a-Service
(HAaaS), perhaps?
Debate Over: Hybrid cloud
wins. Actually, a multicloud IaaS/
PaaS is the winner. Deploying
multiple cloud infrastructure and
platforms offers the enterprise
greater flexibility and choice. But
multi-cloud orchestration and
management is too often a point
of pain for IT. Because this is
the future for many if not most
enterprise IT, what are the hurdles
and how can management leap
over the multi-cloud workload
management hurdles? How will
vendor neutral cloud exchanges
accelerate the move towards a
multi-cloud set-up?
les
now
e?

DESIGN
& BUILD
This track is focused on what’s new in
data center design, value engineering and
construction methodologies within the
emerging data center segments.
Holistic, full-stack ecosystem, ‘mud-to-
cloud’, purpose-built data center design
and development. Is it feasible? Effective?
Possible? Desirable? At what scale? Who’s
doing it? What are they learning?
If you think data centers are mundane
design-build problems, we survey some
of the world’s most innovative sites and
developments and talk with the architects,
engineers and construction pros that pull
off these miracles of ‘thinking differently.’
Mega-scale data centers will continue
to proliferate to provide a variety of legacy
applications, colo, IaaS, PaaS and SaaS.
The advantages will be ones of scale, cost,
power and network/interconnect capacity.
There are companies leading this charge.
What are their unique challenges in siting
and developing?

1
Designing the full
“Mud-to-Cloud”
ecosystem data center.
Who’s doing it now?
9
As availability and
resiliency become
increasingly
virtual, what’s a
likely future on data center
development economics?
7
How bold can the design/engineer be in
exploring new, leading-edge? How far
can they go in advising their clients?
11
Design on a cost-
per-mW basis for low
maintenance, lights-
out operations, and
<1.2PUE. What’s the conversation
quality that design engineers have
with CXOs during planning?
2
Futurist views
of data center
demand and
growth trends.
Where do we think we
will be in 2016?
10Re-thinking data
center primary and
alternate power
sources. Can you
see proper roles
for wind, solar, fuel
cell, natural gas?
12
A Gartner-style “bimodal strategy”
will look different from enterprise to
enterprise, depending on where they
are in digital transformation, but every
business should have some form of it. How formally
is (or should) your organization be taking this on?
3
What are the challenges
of financing, siting and
developing the mega-
scale data center in the
new world? 4
Right-sizing and specializing for the
network edge data center: It’s a different
animal. What will it look like
5
Modular, POD and SCIF –
small, quick, agile, robust.
What’s the demand side?
6
Financing your new data
center build. Do you know all
the available options?
8
We’re in the era of the
zettabyte: How do designers
plan for the demand of the
coming decade?
Bimodal strategy
will look different
in each enterprise

5
The b
of zom
server
the pr
What are the
7Traine
certifi
and s
corpo
What
8
Legacy
critical
environment
retrofit and
upgrade: When does
it make sense?
Global warming
now moves
center stage
POWER
COOLING
This track is focused on engineering,
operations and facilities management and
optimizing the performance, efficiency and
resilience of the critical environment.
6
Analytics, predictives, modelling
and simulations for power and
thermal management are now
in common use. Are you using
them? Are they operationally effective?

1
From 5kW to
50kW in the rack
by 2020? Your
densities may vary,
but they are going up.
What’s your plan?
2
Achieving maximal
infrastructure performance,
effectiveness and efficiency,
Do you now dashboard your
operations with these in mind?
3
To get to the true
SDDC takes making
DCIM, ITIL and
ITSM. Is this on
your radar?
4
Energy alternatives
in the data center
and campus, do
you see a role for
smart microgrids?
black eye
mbie
rs: What’s
rogress?
solutions?
7
Human error
still rules as
the #1 cause
of downtime.
ed, tested,
fied management
staff should be
orate policy.
t’s your case?
Global warming now moves
center stage, and boards and
executive teams will be on
record with eco-sustainability
targets and statements.
Government agencies will,
again, become visible on the
topic of IT and data centers.
With both power density and
consumption growing, wha t
should be your company’s best
IT and data center operational
management response to calls
for effectiveness, efficiency,
carbon reduction, and power
alternatives?
For legacy data center
owners, intelligently ‘sweating
the assets’ can mean dropping
hundreds of thousands to the
bottom line by buying back
capacity headroom, extending
the life of the facility, and giving
management greater time to
make the right but complex
future IT services choices. Are
you doing everything you can to
monitor, measure and manage
for maximal efficiency? Are you
now deploying DCIM tools to
help automate this?
Ok, what gives? Everyone
knows as a matter of physics
that liquid-based electronics
cooling systems are far more
effective than alternative
methods. Is liquid cooling
finally ready to break out
for implementation at the
enterprise level? Will digital
enterprise data center owner
and internet-facing hyperscale
facilities begin implementing
liquid cooling other than for
small, specialized systems, such
as HPC?

1
DCIM is the evolutionary key
to the true SDDC. How are
you coming on your DCIM
adoption? If not, why not?
2
Hyper-convergence and software
storage, are enterprise users getti
economic ‘bang-for-the-buck’ be
3
If SDI is the full integration of SDN
SDC(ompute) and SDS, how mat
your organization in each of thes
Is it an area of continuous improv
4
Predictive analytics is integral to S
control (SDIC) and key to data-dr
automation. How far along in pre
modelling of data center workloa
behaviour is your organization?
The intelligence will
lie in the underlying
performance data
SOFTWARE
DEFINED
This tra
true so
driven a
the stac
SDDC (or
simply me
the conve
rack’ and ‘
will escape
from prop
abstracted
delivered ‘
a long voy
and naviga
foggy and
Where’s yo
voyage?
If the so
autonomo
the goal, t
will lie in th
performan
driven. The
data cente
that lacks
analyse, pr
automate

e defined
ing the
enefit?
N with
ture is
se areas?
vement?
SDI
riven
edictive
ad
5
The goal of the SDDC
is full data center
automation. So, what’s
the reality?
7
Data lake storage
requirements, at least for
the near future, will force
highly resilient software-
driven data center automation.
What does your enterprise now
project for its big data needs?
8
In a future where ‘the
network is the data center’,
SDN and NFV performance
are important keys to
business agility and scalability.
How future-proof is your network
architecture?
ack is focused on the journey towards the
oftware defined data center that is data-
and requires automation at every layer of
ck.
SDE – for everything)
eans that no layer of
erged ‘North of the
‘South of the rack’
e being set free
prietary hardware,
d, virtualized and
‘as-a-service’. This is
yage; it requires charts
ation instruments. It’s
d stormy out there.
our ship on the
oftware defined,
ous data center is
then the intelligence
he underlying
nce data – i.e. data-
ere’s no layer of the
er infrastructure cake
the ability to gather,
redict, simulate and
(to the level desired)
6
Robotics are now a part of
every industry. Can you see
robotics having a key role in
data center automation?
workload management. So, is
full-stack, software-defined,
autonomous workload
management the future?
A new ‘North-of-the-rack’
stack may be materializing
right before our eyes, although
with some components more
advanced than others. In this
scheme that’s playing out on
the data center floors of some
innovative open-source leaders
right now, this architecture
tightly integrates hyper-
convergence technology with
flash storage, SDN, containers,
and OpenStack architectures.
Does this represent a leap
toward the highly efficient,
high-performance open-
source, software-defined, data-
driven data center. Is this just a
pipe dream?
Big Discussions for 2016 | datacenterdynavmics.com 16

OPEN
SOURCE
This track is focused on the open-source and
data-driven data center movement and the
transition from proprietary to non-proprietary
software and hardware models.
Is the true next-gen data center a big
white box? Should MEP infrastructure
be standardized, commoditized as
the IT side is quickly becoming?
Should that be a goal of the open
data center movement?
It’s possible to prove that the most
cost-effective answer to data center
capacity is to in fact grow your own
rather than source or cloud-ize. It
takes a long-term commitment to
IT as a core value of your enterprise.
And it takes assuming that systems
architecture will radically change.
Time to open up, decentralize,
disaggregate? Ready?
Open-source, bare-metal, DevOps,
Docker containers – all dramatically
alter the enterprise data center
landscape. OpenStack and Open
Comp
data ce
alter vi
on-pre
move
basica
as disr
you ne
open j
“Open” can
drive costs
down and out

1
The business
case for the
open-sourcing is
compelling. Do
case studies support this?
Where are you on the
journey now?
2
Standardization and
commoditization, are
you ready for your
servers to be cattle not
pets? The future belongs to the
industrial data center.
3
Open-sourcing the physical
(MEP) infrastructure: Is this
the last frontier? Possible?
Desirable? What can and
cannot/should not be standardized?
4
Five open
communities
worthy of your
participation.
How do you choose
the right one to fit your
technology business need?
5
“Open” can drive costs down and out of
the data center structure. But if you’re
not committed to it, it’s complicated…
7
Baking your own
Rasberry Pi will
utterly transform
your previous
relationship with the server
world. But are you ready?
8
IT is the business
driver of digital
enterprise
transformation.
Open source now demands
a seat at the table. How do
you accelerate this in your
organization?
9
How can the intersection
of DevOps, microservices,
containers and storage
transform data center
network architectures as we move into
the open, software-defined era?
6
Do you see
DevOps as a nerdy
monster in the
basement, or a
requirement of your digital
enterprise strategy? How
do you create the DevOps-
friendly IT and data center
environment? What do
they want?
pute Project combined as a
enter strategy may profoundly
iews of what should remain
em or in colo, and what should
to cloud. If everything else IT is
ally evolutionary, this may qualify
ruptively revolutionary. What do
eed to understand to begin the
journey?

This track is focused on assessing risk
and managing the security of ever-more
distributed mission critical infrastructure
and ICT systems.
Cyber-threats
are on the rise
Cyber-threat, -crime and -terrorism
are on the rise. No single aspect of
data center and cloud infrastructure
is more mission critical than the
ever-growing risk to data, network
and physical facilities. How are the
best and brightest meeting the
challenge? What lies ahead?
Today’s business risk planning
requires not just high availability
and resiliency
in the data center, but
also automated disaster
recovery, failover, backup
and mirroring. N+1,
maybe even 2N may now be
fully virtual and autonomous.
How close are we?
Wait! The IoT is exploding,
but have you thought about the
inherent security risks in this huge
influx of data on the networks from
connected devices? While there’s
enormous benefit and opportunity
in IoT applications, the whole point
is to generate huge amounts of
data; how aware are you of possible
IoT borne breach risk? What are the
best practices for securing IoT
devices and networks from
hacks – whether criminal
or malicious in intent?
SECURITY
+ RISK

1
Does your enterprise now
have an effective cyber
security risk assessment,
benchmarking and score-
carding program?
5
The new mega data centers
of the primary cloud services
providers are likely the best in
the business on security. What
can you learn from them for your
data center? Isn’t this one of the best
reasons to move to a true modern
cloud services provider?
2
Cloud isn’t
inherently insecure
(any more than
anything else on
the network), BUT because
cloud offerings make it
easier for business lines
to circumvent corporate
security protocols, gaps
can occur. What are best
practices that make it
possible for you to have it
both ways?
4
Securing physical facilities is
really a part of data center
design, however, both new
risk challenges. Technology
updates, as well as policies and
practices, require constant CSO
vigilance. What can and should you
now be doing? Or at least considering?
3
The workforce is becoming increasingly mobile
for all the right reasons, but securely delivering
applications and exchanging data is a constant
CISO challenge. What are the policies, practices
and technologies to best manage mobile risk?
6
Data center resiliency,
has it now moved
to being software-
defined? Delivered
as a cloud service?
7
The cyber security
crime and terrorism
threat is very real,
and very much
in the wheelhouse of the
security agencies. Do
you have a good
working relationship
with the authorities?
8
North-South-East-
West – network
security is becoming
evermore complex
as the number of end-
points grows exponentially.
What can be automated
and when can you not trust
automation?

CONFERENCES
CEBIT
HANOVER
Mar 14 – Mar 18 2016
INDONESIA
JAKARTA
Apr 7 2016
ESPAÑA
MADRID
Apr 7 2016
ENTERPRISE
NEW YORK
Apr 19 – Apr 20 2016
MIDDLE EAST AFRICA
DUBAI
Apr 25 2016
COLOMBIA
BOGOTÁ
Jun 2 2016
AUSTRALIA
MELBOURNE
Jun 21 2016
WEBSCALE
SAN JOSE
Jul 19 – Jul 20 2016
INDIA
BANGALORE
Jul 20 - Jul 21 2016
SE ASIA
SINGAPORE
Sep 14 – Sep 15 2016
COLO + CLOUD
DALLAS
Sep 27 2016
MÉXICO
MEXICO CITY
Sep 27 – Sep 28 2016
PERÚ
LIMA
Oct 19 2016
CANADA
TORONTO
Oct 24 2016
ZETTASTRUCTURE
LONDON
Nov 1 - Nov 2 2016
BRASIL
SÃO PAULO
Nov 8 – Nov 9 2016
HONG KONG
HONG KONG
Nov 9 2016
CHILE
SANTIAGO
Nov 17 2016
TURKEY
ISTANBUL
Dec 6 2016
SUBSCRIPTIONS
eNEWSLETTERS | MAGAZINE | RESEARCH
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