Growth of hybrid data centres and things you should know

The cloud has evolved and grown substantially over the last decade. If there is one certainty, it would be that cloud-powered services are here to stay.

Indeed, analyst firm Gartner has previously forecasted that the worldwide public cloud services market will grow to US$266.4 billion (S$370 billion) this year, a substantial increase from the US$227.8 billion in 2019.

With the public cloud in the mainstream, enterprises are confident of deploying core workloads on them. But a pure public cloud isn't necessarily the best option.

For instance, legacy non-cloud applications and niche on-premises requirements are still better run on-premises. For most enterprises out there, this means that they are often better served with a hybrid cloud deployment.

The hybrid data centre

It is hence unsurprising that organisations of all sizes now view hybrid cloud deployments as the new normal, with most enterprises either planning on rolling out a hybrid cloud strategy or already operating one.

Data from 451 Research confirms this – it was found that around half of IT workloads stayed on-premises in 2019, with the remaining hosted in the cloud. But how should organisations decide whether to go on-premises, or go cloud?

According to Steven Carlini of Schneider Electric, considerations that enterprises should take note of include application suitability, workload management, and the use of advanced software tools.

Specialised tools and techniques can simplify the task of managing hybrid environments, he noted, while legacy applications are typically unsuited to run off-premises.

Of course, workloads should be analysed on a case-by-case basis, and factors such as risk, cost and IT service performance used as guidelines to decide.

Ultimately, the onus is on enterprises to properly configure and protect their on-premises deployments. This ranges from the deployment of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units and other equipment to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the facility regardless of environmental variables.

Specifically, Schneider Electric offers UPS for light industrial application that comes with both dust filters and built-in protection against significant vibration with varying seismic certifications.

Running hybrid well

Thankfully, new Data Centre Management as a Service (DMaaS) architectures are available to help manage emerging hybrid data centre environments.

One example on this front would be Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure IT, which delivers visibility and scalability of management systems via an open, vendor-agnostic, IoT-enabled, and interoperable system architecture.

This Schneider Electric platform can bridge disparate data centres and IT systems to enable operators to scale their infrastructure securely and remotely.

Insights can also be harnessed from a proprietary data pool of anonymous global users, delivering real-time visibility and predictive analytics across the entire hybrid environment.

Another option would be a micro data centre deployment. This is a self-contained IT infrastructure that is enclosed in one or many hardened, conditioned, and secured cabinets.

Integrated systems including cooling, power distribution and network connectivity are built in, while integrated capabilities such as fire suppression, power conditioning and backup power in the form of UPS are also provided.

Learn more about how Schneider Electric data centre tools, architectures and products can help optimise hybrid data centre performance here.

Article by Chi Sen Gay, Head of Digital Services and Software, International Operations, Schneider Electric