Calm after the storm: How Legrand Data Centre Solutions is preparing enterprises for the future

Every enterprise is going digital today, and we are seeing a rise in digital first models. The cloud has naturally become the preferred option for most enterprises to consider a digital strategy. Every business model today depends on the cloud in some form or the other. Be it for collaboration or for scaling up the business digitally, the cloud plays a key role. Data centers are also evolving to be more efficient as they have to be always available in a digital world. Any downtime can impact the business in a big way.  

Speaking on the infrastructure related changes happening across the landscape, Anjani Kommisetti, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Raritan and Servertech (brands of Legrand) says, “There have been huge improvements in ensuring accessibility and availability. Enterprises are also making huge efforts for consolidating their apps. There has been lot of traffic generated. Backbone systems are getting ready. Lot of videoconferencing systems are now being used. There is lot of consolidation happening on the networking backbone.”

To improve core efficiencies, there is a huge movement towards consolidation. This is seen across the IT infrastructure ecosystem. Agrees Anil Chopra, VP, Research and Consulting, CyberMedia Research (CMR), “Organizations are also looking at consolidating their on-prem data centers. If there are multiple data centers, they are consolidating it to one data center. If someone has a single data center, they are looking to consolidate the hardware resources. Technologies like containers, virtualization, SDNs, are in play. They can offer cost efficiency and lower the power consumption. Consolidation also helps in managing security.” 

Another area is the movement from on-prem to colocated environment with the data center service provider. India's colocated data center market is projected to grow from current 375MW last year (2020) to 1,078MW by 2025. Consumption of data is driving the growth of data centers, leading to the increase in the power. Consolidation results in savings, in terms of power, cooling cost, etc. In a colocated environment you are sharing these with other tenants. Many data center service providers give you mirrored data centers. Consolidation is happening in a big way in the data center landscape.

AI to play a huge role in automation

Automation is also playing a vital role, and AI is increasingly making its presence felt in automating many processes of a data center. Says Sunil Rajguru, Editor, Dataquest, “We can create new designs with AI for the DC infrastructure for improving efficiency, performance and agility.”

AI can also play a significant role in automating many routine tasks. For example, an AI system built by MIT researchers showed that it could automatically schedule data-processing operations across thousands of servers. Compared to the best human written scheduling algorithms, the AI-designed algorithm system completed tasks about 20-30 % faster. 

On the role of AI, Anjani Kommisetti says the first step is to add the intelligence wherever you can. He gives the example of power usage in the DC. Says he, “Even 750 W of server in real-time would not cost 45% of power consumption at any time. So, the first step starts with monitoring. Then, there can be a possibility to optimize. You can set thresholds. You can also pinpoint when you have some intelligence. That's how AI can help you avoid any downtime.”

Proactive security

The pandemic has changed many aspects. The most prominent one is the way we work. This has created many security related challenges. Says Anil Chopra, “The pandemic has led to a hybrid work environment. Every home has now become a mini office. Vendors are also offering security. The challenge is to manage many security points. There needs to be consolidation of tools. Employees are able to login from anywhere using multiple devices. Hence, multiple identities also have to be managed. Identity protection has now become important. Moving forward, machines will also be connected to apps. The number of identities that will need to be protected is going to increase.”

The pandemic also saw a huge increase in videoconferencing. There was a sharp increase of cyberattacks on videoconferencing platforms. There is a need for doing continuous monitoring, testing, and validation. There is need to protect home Wi-Fi networks. Awareness of new types of attacks should also happen. People also need to be trained about security aspects. AI-based security has become essential today. You need AI to protect against security.

AI can complement current Security Incidents and Event Management (SIEM) systems by analysing incidents and inputs from multiple systems and devising an appropriate incident response system. Artificial intelligence-based systems can also assist in identifying malicious traffic from false positives, helping data center administrators handle cybersecurity crimes more efficiently.

The future

Since the pandemic, digital initiatives have accelerated. This has created a huge disruption in the way we operate.  Opines Anjani Kommisetti, “We have had two disruptive years, and seen consumer behavior change. We have seen businesses trying to adapt.  Consumers have been moving at the speed of technology, businesses have been moving at the speed of the consumers, and technology has been moving at the speed of business. New Internet users are coming in, as are new business apps. We now need to understand and observe consumer behaviour, and not only technology. BFSI and telecom are not the only focus areas now. Health-tech, edu-tech, fintech, etc., are also important. Data centers are also moving to semi-urban and rural areas. We are making our businesses, and technology, and data centers, agile. Businesses cannot survive without technology. We have seen enabling technologies to monitor patients. There are auto-monitoring health activities, and provide information to doctors. Education has changed a lot. Lot of technologies are getting adopted.”

Anjani Kommisetti believes that the future will be extremely different, as the focus of technology will change. Says he, “Over 2011-2020, most of the focus has been on social and online retail. From 2021-20xx, we will be living with gadgets, and also co-working with machines. Machines are going to be our colleagues in future. There is distributed IT environment, with the rise of hybrid cloud, and semi-urban, rural micro DCs, and containerized DCs.”

 How LDCS is preparing for the future

Legrand Data Centre Solutions is getting the infrastructure ready for tomorrow. Explains Anjani Kommisetti, “We are looking at kw/rack, with an impact on cooling technology. We are using environment-friendly and sustainable technologies. AI is being used in data centres to monitor at the granular levels. There is also greater focus on security, network scalability, and employee skill sets. This is going to be a never-ending story in the future. The load is also going to increase on networks.  If we look at the kW/rack requirement, the average rack density is increasing. 71% of the average rack density is in the 1-9kW range, and 20% is in the 10-29kW range. Only 9% is in the above 30kVA range. Few operators have any racks above 30kW. 1-10kW/rack is growing. In 10-29kW/rack, there will be changes in in-row and rear door heat exchange.” 

Looking at the trends in security at data centers, today, enterprises require access control, physical security, and surveillance. For data security, there are needs for caging, surveillance, and access control. For data racks, there are needs of surveillance, access control, asset tracking, and activity tracking. Rack security is a key trend. 

Data racks will need surveillance, access control, asset tracking, activity tracking, and secure remote access. IoT will have IP cameras, proximity sensors, smart locks, asset management tags, camera at rack, and out-of-band access. There are profound benefits. Some of these include: sense the presence of any authorized or unauthorized access. They can track asset movement, track activity at the rack, and reduce physical access to the IT infrastructure. Advanced alarming makes the security peripheral capable. You can improve staff productivity, stay informed on current order situation, remotely manage access and permissions, ensure compliance, and control user behavior. There is also the remote management for data centers, edge and remote site management. 

Anjani Kommisetti also highlights the importance of network scalability, which is important for data centers. Says he, “The growing demand on throughput is now pushing DCs from copper towards fiber. Trends in fiber connectivity are very interesting. LIU splicing or optical fiber interconnecting unit is the past. Cassettes are common today, which are simplified, pre-terminated, polarity matched, and lowest channel loss. Direct connect is future, as it replaces cassettes, is reliable, with universal polarity, unlimited scalability, and faster migrations.” 

* Note: This feature has been prepared from the insights shared in a recent session that Dataquest had organized called, “The Calm after the Storm” with Legrand Data Centre Solutions, India. The speakers were Anjani Kommisetti, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Raritan and Servertech, brands of Legrand, and Anil Chopra, VP, Research and Consulting, CyberMedia Research (CMR). Sunil Rajguru, Editor, Dataquest, was the moderator