The latest Next Generation Data Centre Index report has shown that across EMEA, organisations are increasingly bringing data services back in house, with a switch from investment in using third party and external vendors to developing more advanced capabilities themselves.
The Data Centre Index report is now in its third cycle, with Ireland being included for the first time in Cycle II. In this latest cycle, Ireland’s overall score has improved dramatically, with one of the highest rates of improvement across Europe. Ireland saw improvements in all the key measures of the report, flexibility, supportability and sustainability.
The research was carried out for Oracle by analyst house Quocirca and saw the overall index score for EMEA rise from 5.58 to 5.62 between Cycle II and III. Ireland’s score has gone from 4.79 to 5.59, overtaking the Middle East, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal "in terms of data centre sophistication", according to the report.
Sustainability and improved energy efficiency in data centre facilities were the biggest step changes for Ireland, says the report, which added that Irish organisations "recognise a need for continued investment in data centres".
Only 4% of respondents to the survey said that they saw no need for a new data centre in the foreseeable future, down from 18% in the previous cycle, while 24% explicitly stated a requirement for a new data centre within a year, up from 16% previously.
Some 40% of Irish respondents said they will need a new data centre within two years.
The main reasons for new data centre investments in Ireland is replacing ageing or underperforming existing technology, says the report, which were no longer up to the tasks required in a growing data economy. Elsewhere in EMEA, consolidation was the major motivator. As such Ireland has taken some major steps from a relatively low position last year to catch up nations in more of a ‘fine-tuning’ stage with their data centre infrastructure, states the report.
This ‘big data bounce’ is not only testimony to the increased value businesses see in their data, says the report, but also highlights the importance for businesses to be able to move data between public and private cloud as easily and quickly as possible.
Businesses are increasingly working online and with digital products, content, communications and transactions," said Luigi Freguia, senior vice president, Oracle Systems EMEA. "The data deluge which forced many to look outside their four walls for support last year is only going to continue. As such it makes sense that many organisations have used the intervening year to get their houses in order and bring their data closer to the organisation.
"It is also encouraging to see that organisations have future-proofed their data centre facilities, with improvements in server utilisation levels and greater use of virtualisation. However, by using software and hardware engineered to work together, and a focus on standards, organisations can build enough flexibility into their IT to enable future moves into private or public cloud if the need arises."
According to Clive Longbottom, analyst, Quocirca, the data shows organisations caught between two points.
"Cycle II was carried out just as organisations were looking at cloud computing with many projects being carried out using external facilities for development, test and piloting. Cycle III has been carried out at a time when cloud is becoming more mainstream, and many of the pilots are now becoming full run-time projects," said Longbottom.
"It seems that many of these have been brought back in house onto private cloud platforms – and that this, combined with the use of external facilities to deal with unexpected spikes in requirement that organisations struggled to provide internal IT resources for, has resulted in a rationalisation of facility usage."
For more on the data centre index, Ireland’s performance, see the February issue of ComputerScope available 8 February.
TechCentral Reporters
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers