Data Center on the Street of Dreams?

Posted on by gregl

Architectural rendering of proposed data center in Minnetonka.

Are data centers going to be popping up in disguise in upscale residential neighborhoods? That’s a possibility raised by a proposed facility in Minnetonka, Minnesota, according to Data Center Knowledge.

FiberPop, a startup intent on building a chain of “community-based data centers,” is planning a $30 million, 36,000-square-foot facility in an area zoned for luxury homes in the Minnesota city. The facility is designed to have mansion-style sloped rooflines, dormers, stone-facade walls and high-end landscaping. The actual data hall is on the lower level, along with 60 underground parking spaces while FiberPop offices are on the mansion’s main level.

“We wanted it to fit into the neighborhood,” says FiberPop president Jim Louks of his plan to integrate the data center into the residential area. “I don’t know if it’s a mansion. It’s a commercial building with an upscale look to it.”

Cloud Clearing on the Horizon?

Posted on by gregl

Like a scene in a movie, prepare for the clouds to part and the clarity of bright skies to come streaming through. That’s the optimistic outlook for 2012 from StorageIO founder and IT pundit Greg Schulz regarding the state of Cloud computing.

“Granted there will be plenty of more cloud FUD and hype, cloud washing and cleaning going around,” he writes in Data Center Journal. “However, 2012 and beyond will also find organizations realizing where and how to use different types of clouds — public, private, hybrid — to meet various needs, from SaaS and AaaS to PaaS to IaaS and other variations of XaaS.”

“Part of the clarification will be that there are many different types of cloud architectures, products, stacks, solutions, services and products to address various needs,” he continues. “Another part will be discussion of what needs to be added to clouds to make them more viable for both new as well as old or existing applications. This means organizations will determine what they need to do to move their existing applications to some form of a cloud model while understanding how clouds coexist and complement what they are currently doing.”

If you’re wrestling with how a Cloud solution to meet your application requirements, be sure to talk with us at EasyStreet!

Cloud May Ease CEO Technology Angst

Posted on by gregl

When 1,500 CEOs worldwide were asked in late 2010 about technology changes, 80 percent said their environments definitely would become much more complex, and over half admitted their companies were not prepared.

“Unfortunately, the information technology infrastructure at many large companies only makes this challenge more difficult, writes renowned technology observer Andrew McAfee in the Harvard Business Review. “Their technology environments actually impede their ability to sense change and respond quickly. While there is no simple fix for this problem, help is at hand in the form of cloud computing, a new suite of digital tools and approaches.

“Cloud computing is a sharp departure from the status quo,” McAfee goes on. “Today most companies own their software and hardware and keep them ‘on premise’ in data centers and other specialized facilities. With cloud computing, in contrast, companies lease their digital assets, and their employees don’t know the location of the computers, data centers, applications, and databases that they’re using. To advocates of cloud computing, that’s the whole point. Customers don’t have to concern themselves with details; they just rent what they need from the cloud.”

Colocation Eases Scalability Worries

Posted on by gregl

Pressures on data centers to quickly grow or shrink – depending on immediate demands on the enterprise from internal or external users – continues to make colocation an attractive option, especially in these days of cloud computing.

“Colocation offers scalability,” says Caroline Brelsford, head of national accounts with Houston-based CyrusOne. “If an enterprise grows quickly, the storage and power will be there. If it grows more slowly than anticipated, the enterprise hasn’t spent money on facilities that are underused. That means you’re not trying to build five or 10 years out without a crystal ball.”

(Good thing for EasyStreet customers – we offer both cloud AND colocation services. Or even an integration of the two.)

 

Cloud Myth # 3: Cloud computing is an all-or-nothing proposition

Posted on by Karen Karger

InfoWorld’s David Linthicum has it right — there are many Cloud myths that just won’t go away. His contends that, rather than taking an all-or-nothing approach to Cloud computing, you can instead “move to cloud-based systems, such as storage and compute services, as needed, both intersystem and intrasystem. Moreover, you can move in a fine-grained manner, shifting only certain system components, such as user interface processing or storage, and leaving the remainder on premises.”

We find many of our customers (old and new) are taking advantage of the integrated/hybrid IT solutions EasyStreet can design and build for them. These custom designs can combine a number of components, including Private Cloud, Multi-Tenant Cloud or colocation services, to create the best solution based on that particular customer’s needs. (Yes, the word “solution” is overused, but I can’t think of a better one to use in this case.) With our fast point-to-point or Internet connectivity options, some part of the infrastructure can even be kept on customer premises while the rest resides at EasyStreet. (This is the “fine-grained manner” David was writing about.)

Click here to read all four of David Linthicum’s Cloud computing myths.

Better yet, click here to request a quotation from EasyStreet to design a custom Cloud solution for your business.