APAC Data Faces Transforming Network Infrastructure

For many data centers, one of the biggest projects these days has been transforming network infrastructure in a bid to better accommodate the growing need for and use of data in most any operation. A new report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) suggests that this move will keep right on going for some time, especially in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

The new report notes that, by just 2018, 35 percent of firms operating in “data-intensive industries” will be shaking up the data center. More specifically, such organizations will be putting formal data center planning to work, as well as new sourcing and governance operations, to fundamentally change the way the data center works. With several new technologies reaching the mature market stage, that will mean some significant changes to follow as APAC firms step into these markets as well.

One such major push is expected to hit 25 percent of organization data centers by just 2019, as these data centers will be able to support “next-gen contextual workloads,” including such things as augmented reality and machine learning, systems that have demonstrated a lot of capability in the past and could do even more with further development. Moreover, IDC expects that data use patterns will likewise change, and 45 percent of information and communications technology (ICT) spending will focus on hosted cloud, public cloud data centers, and colocation systems.  Both hyperscale and rack-level hyperconverged bundles will be nearly a third—30 percent—of deployments in server, network and storage deployments, meaning changes in both cooling and power systems.

IDC senior research analyst for data center operations Cynthia Ho commented “As organizations digitally transform, their underlying cloud and datacenter infrastructure must mature at the same rate and in parallel. If it doesn't, line-of-business and the IT department will be out of alignment. This will create tensions between the two areas and the larger the gap, the greater the tension. Apart from the shackling of the business, this will also contribute to the proliferation of shadow IT.”

That's a lot of change, but what it adds up to is a complete picture of a transforming network infrastructure. It must; not only will there be changes in new deployments, underscoring a complete infrastructure change, but also new tasks for the data center to perform that will require new tools and, again, complete transformation. 

It's a new day in network infrastructure, and with changing needs must come changing systems. This also means a lot of opportunity for the astute early-movers to see needs in this changing market and fill same accordingly. Those who don't see these opportunities coming may find themselves on the bad end of a transformed market.

Edited by Maurice Nagle