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Top technological trends hitting the data center soon :
Every enterprise relies on new technologies that will make employees
more productive, improve the user experience, drive revenue growth and
enhance service reliability.
At Gartner's ITxpo 2014 in Florida, the research firm's vice president and fellow David W. Cearley outlined the top 10 emerging technology trends that promise the greatest enterprise impact over the next year and beyond.
Although most of these technologies are not new, they have finally reached an inflection point of computing power, content and connectivity. Each of these emerging computing areas will levy a demand on the enterprise's data center capacity and sophistication, so plan to support them today -- the health and growth of the business may depend on it.
When faced with demand for agility and a proliferation of devices and
services, IT organizations need a flexibility that precludes hard-wired
or hard-coded infrastructures, said Gartner's David W. Cearley.
It all started with software-defined servers, also known as server virtualization. Then came software-defined networking: decoupling the control plane from the network's data plane. And as new technologies mature, software-defined networks will expand to software-defined storage, data centers, architectures, infrastructures -- really, software-defined anything.
The goal of defining physical infrastructure with software abstraction is to allow computing to be assembled on demand from available components (like application programming interfaces) and resources. When software abstracts the physical infrastructure from control and management, it makes provisioning new resources, scaling up resources for new demand, and deconstructing out-of-use environments easy feats. This is the kind of infrastructure needed to underpin cloud/client applications, another emerging technology trend.
Data centers will need new systems capable of supporting software-defined activities, and must choose one or more software layers that define and manage the underlying hardware.
While the software-defined anything trend is coming on strong in 2015, standards are still evolving and few enterprises are truly ready to leave behind the governance and limitations of physical infrastructure.
An enterprise isn't the same as a large cloud service provider, but
increasingly, their data centers have to resemble one. Web-scale IT is
about automation, cloud scaling and cloud bursting, and fabric and
open-source hardware infrastructures. And it's about to enter your
enterprise data center.
As computing platforms proliferate -- especially among mobile devices -- application design moves firmly into the cloud, said Gartner's David W. Cearley. Applications must work on almost any client device, and it's common for applications to span multiple devices. For example, a user might start working on content with a smartphone, then move seamlessly to a desktop for its additional capabilities, then rely on the application for some level of interaction while the user connects to their car, and so on. This presents a significant development challenge for cloud-optimized or cloud-native applications.
Enterprises can't support cloud/client applications, software-defined everything and other emerging technology trends without a cloud-like backbone in the data center.
Start embracing Web-scale IT with these technologies and methodologies:
DevOps: DevOps is a mind-set and way of interacting between development and operations teams that supports continuous application development and improvement.
Web-oriented architectures for cloud-based computing models: Applications need to scale up and down flexibly and gracefully to adapt to changing business needs. This means building architectures that live on cloud resources or can "burst" from the data center's physical systems to a cloud provider to handle peaks in business.
New hardware infrastructures: Fabric-based computing interconnects processing, storage and other nodes via high-bandwidth network links for high performance. The Open Compute Project and other open source standards throw out the proprietary vendor product mind-set and embrace designed-for-purpose hardware.
At Gartner's ITxpo 2014 in Florida, the research firm's vice president and fellow David W. Cearley outlined the top 10 emerging technology trends that promise the greatest enterprise impact over the next year and beyond.
Although most of these technologies are not new, they have finally reached an inflection point of computing power, content and connectivity. Each of these emerging computing areas will levy a demand on the enterprise's data center capacity and sophistication, so plan to support them today -- the health and growth of the business may depend on it.
Software-defined anything and everything
It all started with software-defined servers, also known as server virtualization. Then came software-defined networking: decoupling the control plane from the network's data plane. And as new technologies mature, software-defined networks will expand to software-defined storage, data centers, architectures, infrastructures -- really, software-defined anything.
The goal of defining physical infrastructure with software abstraction is to allow computing to be assembled on demand from available components (like application programming interfaces) and resources. When software abstracts the physical infrastructure from control and management, it makes provisioning new resources, scaling up resources for new demand, and deconstructing out-of-use environments easy feats. This is the kind of infrastructure needed to underpin cloud/client applications, another emerging technology trend.
Data centers will need new systems capable of supporting software-defined activities, and must choose one or more software layers that define and manage the underlying hardware.
While the software-defined anything trend is coming on strong in 2015, standards are still evolving and few enterprises are truly ready to leave behind the governance and limitations of physical infrastructure.
Web-scale IT evolves data centers
As computing platforms proliferate -- especially among mobile devices -- application design moves firmly into the cloud, said Gartner's David W. Cearley. Applications must work on almost any client device, and it's common for applications to span multiple devices. For example, a user might start working on content with a smartphone, then move seamlessly to a desktop for its additional capabilities, then rely on the application for some level of interaction while the user connects to their car, and so on. This presents a significant development challenge for cloud-optimized or cloud-native applications.
Enterprises can't support cloud/client applications, software-defined everything and other emerging technology trends without a cloud-like backbone in the data center.
Start embracing Web-scale IT with these technologies and methodologies:
DevOps: DevOps is a mind-set and way of interacting between development and operations teams that supports continuous application development and improvement.
Web-oriented architectures for cloud-based computing models: Applications need to scale up and down flexibly and gracefully to adapt to changing business needs. This means building architectures that live on cloud resources or can "burst" from the data center's physical systems to a cloud provider to handle peaks in business.
New hardware infrastructures: Fabric-based computing interconnects processing, storage and other nodes via high-bandwidth network links for high performance. The Open Compute Project and other open source standards throw out the proprietary vendor product mind-set and embrace designed-for-purpose hardware.
Future apps need better security best practices
Security must become fundamental to future apps design, according to Gartner.
"All roads to the digital future lead through security," said David W. Cearley of Gartner, speaking at the research firm's ITxpo 2014 in Florida.
Next-generation applications must capitalize on analytical technologies, but future apps also need native protection. These apps will protect themselves by collecting activity data, analyzing it in real-time and immediately reacting to perceived security threats. Start developing application security best practices that are compatible with the flexible, agile enterprise apps needed for modern businesses.
You can't just lock everyone out and lock applications down on the most secure physical systems, with no outside access. To support secure applications, security teams will need to join development and operations staff in the DevOps paradigm, according to Gartner. With security teams' input, developers can build in resilience and intelligence to enterprise applications that also run well and scale with user demand.
"All roads to the digital future lead through security," said David W. Cearley of Gartner, speaking at the research firm's ITxpo 2014 in Florida.
Next-generation applications must capitalize on analytical technologies, but future apps also need native protection. These apps will protect themselves by collecting activity data, analyzing it in real-time and immediately reacting to perceived security threats. Start developing application security best practices that are compatible with the flexible, agile enterprise apps needed for modern businesses.
You can't just lock everyone out and lock applications down on the most secure physical systems, with no outside access. To support secure applications, security teams will need to join development and operations staff in the DevOps paradigm, according to Gartner. With security teams' input, developers can build in resilience and intelligence to enterprise applications that also run well and scale with user demand.
Support all the uses of big data
If your uses of big data don't include informing and directing
decisions about business opportunities, tactics and policies, you're
falling behind.
Modern computing systems let us process ever more complex algorithms, divining trends and patterns from burgeoning volumes of enterprise data. Business intelligence (BI) has come a long way from its early concepts, and still has a ways to go.
The shift in 2015 is not in the tools for BI (though they're always improving), but in the way they are used to provide answers from the big data that they collect, said David W. Cearley of Gartner.
What's new is the way that analytics is embedded in the business process. For example, recognition systems identify a shopper and provide that individual's purchase preferences and suggestions to salespeople, allowing them to assist customers more effectively. There are countless examples where uses of big data affect business outcomes.
"Analytics is big for us right now," said Jared Hamilton, associate vice president of enterprise applications at Nichols College.
The goal is to use data to ensure the best student recruiting and retention, and to engage students on their applications across a growing array of platforms, such as mobile devices, he said. This speaks to another of Gartner's emerging technology trends for 2015 and the future.
For IT, this nuanced use of information shapes the way that data is stored, secured and handled. Long-term data retention means more traditional magnetic storage -- all the raw data acquired from sensors, devices and files from other sources has to live somewhere. BI initiatives can bump up storage requirements a lot, depending on how much data you're analyzing.
To improve storage performance, data centers need some solid-state storage devices (SSDs). For the most demanding big data applications, expect to see SSDs in-memory (residing on modules alongside RAM DIMMs). When storage is directly available to the CPUs, it eliminates the disk interface bottleneck.
Gartner's David W. Cearley expects the emergence of autonomous
machines to accelerate in the next few years, combining context,
content, computing and connectivity to create systems that learn with a
human-like understanding.
Modern computing systems let us process ever more complex algorithms, divining trends and patterns from burgeoning volumes of enterprise data. Business intelligence (BI) has come a long way from its early concepts, and still has a ways to go.
The shift in 2015 is not in the tools for BI (though they're always improving), but in the way they are used to provide answers from the big data that they collect, said David W. Cearley of Gartner.
What's new is the way that analytics is embedded in the business process. For example, recognition systems identify a shopper and provide that individual's purchase preferences and suggestions to salespeople, allowing them to assist customers more effectively. There are countless examples where uses of big data affect business outcomes.
"Analytics is big for us right now," said Jared Hamilton, associate vice president of enterprise applications at Nichols College.
The goal is to use data to ensure the best student recruiting and retention, and to engage students on their applications across a growing array of platforms, such as mobile devices, he said. This speaks to another of Gartner's emerging technology trends for 2015 and the future.
For IT, this nuanced use of information shapes the way that data is stored, secured and handled. Long-term data retention means more traditional magnetic storage -- all the raw data acquired from sensors, devices and files from other sources has to live somewhere. BI initiatives can bump up storage requirements a lot, depending on how much data you're analyzing.
To improve storage performance, data centers need some solid-state storage devices (SSDs). For the most demanding big data applications, expect to see SSDs in-memory (residing on modules alongside RAM DIMMs). When storage is directly available to the CPUs, it eliminates the disk interface bottleneck.
Context tech brings understanding to information chaos
The notion of context tech uses analytics to gain an understanding of who, what, where, when and how.
With the prevalence of content, Internet connectivity and ubiquitous computing allow a new level of intelligence for context-aware systems, according to researchers at Gartner. For example, a typical network login might require a user name and password. That's information without context. With context from that user's calendar, the system knows location -- the user is supposed to be in Beijing, for example. To log into the network, the user enters their name and password, but they are attempting to access the network from Seattle. The login raises a security flag. Maybe the user's flight home was cancelled, which changes the context and allows a successful login. Or perhaps the user information was stolen, and a security breach fails thanks to context tech.
The growth of context-aware systems requires new application designs that are also fluid between computing platforms.
"The foundation [of these systems] is still social media and cloud computing, and the means to use these more quickly and effectively," said Jose Ramos Neto Lima, director of operations for Thomson Reuters.
The type of data or services delivered to a user might differ depending on whether they're in a car or using a smartphone or on their desktop. On the back end, data center systems must handle these multiple possible versions of data and services with an eye on security, stability and performance for every contextual offering.
With the prevalence of content, Internet connectivity and ubiquitous computing allow a new level of intelligence for context-aware systems, according to researchers at Gartner. For example, a typical network login might require a user name and password. That's information without context. With context from that user's calendar, the system knows location -- the user is supposed to be in Beijing, for example. To log into the network, the user enters their name and password, but they are attempting to access the network from Seattle. The login raises a security flag. Maybe the user's flight home was cancelled, which changes the context and allows a successful login. Or perhaps the user information was stolen, and a security breach fails thanks to context tech.
The growth of context-aware systems requires new application designs that are also fluid between computing platforms.
"The foundation [of these systems] is still social media and cloud computing, and the means to use these more quickly and effectively," said Jose Ramos Neto Lima, director of operations for Thomson Reuters.
The type of data or services delivered to a user might differ depending on whether they're in a car or using a smartphone or on their desktop. On the back end, data center systems must handle these multiple possible versions of data and services with an eye on security, stability and performance for every contextual offering.
Mobile and ubiquitous computing invades data centers
What does a post-mobile computing era mean for the data center that's been around for decades?
Computing has evolved from fixed to portable to mobile devices, and we're entering a "post-mobile" era where computing is pervasive across a growing array of devices, said David W. Cearley of Gartner. Everything from wearable systems to pocket computers to large whiteboard-style screens in offices and homes is connected and running applications and/or gathering data.
This kind of mobile and ubiquitous computing relies on an Internet of Things: a proliferation of sensors, displays, wireless communication and other diverse input like gestures. Pervasive computing will serve the future user experience with rich content and emotional impact from the interconnected applications that engage them.
Adding sensors, connectivity and computing to seemingly ordinary
products opens an array of new possibilities for businesses. For
example, a jet engine can be instrumented to transmit essential
functional data through the cloud to analytics, which make decisions
that improve operational efficiency and predict failures, reporting all
of this activity to newly created applications and user interfaces.
Gartner's David W. Cearley predicts 25 billion connected "things" by 2020, but adding these diverse instruments to enterprise products and processes will require new business models and payment mechanics, along with a new technology architecture that can support and manage countless ubiquitous devices.
The challenge for IT will be managing increasingly complex environments, putting more strategic effort into infrastructure planning and providing more responsive support. On the development side, IT will design new applications that can function across a variety of traditional and new computing devices.
Computing has evolved from fixed to portable to mobile devices, and we're entering a "post-mobile" era where computing is pervasive across a growing array of devices, said David W. Cearley of Gartner. Everything from wearable systems to pocket computers to large whiteboard-style screens in offices and homes is connected and running applications and/or gathering data.
This kind of mobile and ubiquitous computing relies on an Internet of Things: a proliferation of sensors, displays, wireless communication and other diverse input like gestures. Pervasive computing will serve the future user experience with rich content and emotional impact from the interconnected applications that engage them.
Gartner's David W. Cearley predicts 25 billion connected "things" by 2020, but adding these diverse instruments to enterprise products and processes will require new business models and payment mechanics, along with a new technology architecture that can support and manage countless ubiquitous devices.
The challenge for IT will be managing increasingly complex environments, putting more strategic effort into infrastructure planning and providing more responsive support. On the development side, IT will design new applications that can function across a variety of traditional and new computing devices.
Smart, autonomous machines emerge
Autonomous smart machines exist today. The mining trucks used by Rio
Tinto, a British-Australian multinational metal and mining corporation,
operate without a human driver. Cornell University developed an observant, predictive servant to help people. Microsoft's Cortana and Apple's Siri voice recognition applications act as personal assistants in our everyday lives.
"We weren't expecting the automation of robots and the link to a digital economy," said Jose Ramos Neto Lima, director of operations for Thomson Reuters. But these systems will proliferate and have a profound effect on the way users and employees interact and work.
"We weren't expecting the automation of robots and the link to a digital economy," said Jose Ramos Neto Lima, director of operations for Thomson Reuters. But these systems will proliferate and have a profound effect on the way users and employees interact and work.
The 3-D printing trend takes shape
3-D printing isn't new, but the generation of 3-D printers that support consumer and enterprise manufacturing tasks
on a nearly on-demand basis is new. 3-D printing has come into its own,
thanks to constant improvements to printing technology and a vast
expansion in the range of printable materials.
David W. Cearley of Gartner points to some uses of the 3-D printing trend: creating new aerospace components, repairing worn mechanical parts in the field without carrying spare parts, creating custom prosthetic devices (like hearing aids or artificial limbs) as needed, and myriad other practical tasks.
3-D bioprinting is also emerging, allowing a printer to print skin tissue, heart tissue, blood vessels and other basic tissues for surgery and transplantation
David W. Cearley of Gartner points to some uses of the 3-D printing trend: creating new aerospace components, repairing worn mechanical parts in the field without carrying spare parts, creating custom prosthetic devices (like hearing aids or artificial limbs) as needed, and myriad other practical tasks.
3-D bioprinting is also emerging, allowing a printer to print skin tissue, heart tissue, blood vessels and other basic tissues for surgery and transplantation
