by Shane Henson — October 21, 2013—Senior information technology (IT) managers can gain insider knowledge and best practices on data center growth strategies that best meet capacity and financial requirements through a playbook released by Emerson Network Power, a global leader in maximizing the availability, capacity, and efficiency of critical infrastructure.
Playbook for Change: How Do You Plan to Grow?, offers timely planning insight for the many enterprises aiming to build a new data center or lease space from a co-location managed hosting facility. It also presents options for organizations looking for other ways to expand.
The playbook begins by examining six growth strategies:
- Optimize existing infrastructure
- Retrofit existing infrastructure
- Outsource
- Deploy an integrated modular room(s)
- Get creative
- Build a new data center
For each option, the playbook describes “how to do it” and “what you get” in terms of benefits. For example, an integrated, modular room is simply deployed outside the existing facility, or remotely, to handle overflow. “What you get” includes the most efficient technologies preconfigured and ready to go, and rapid deployment ability.
According to the playbook, a thorough evaluation of existing critical infrastructure is required to determine which strategy to choose and to evaluate return on investment for the different options. It then discusses two effective methods for mining that information: a professional data center assessment and using data center infrastructure management technology.
The playbook also notes that paths to growth can have advantages and disadvantages based on an organization’s needs. It then concludes by providing a decision checklist for chief information officers and other IT leaders to use to ensure the growth strategy they select is effective.
