IT Innovators: Is Your Data Center Efficient?

Is improving operational efficiency a key initiative for you this year? If you answered yes, then you are not alone; at least according to a survey of more than 500 technology professionals just released this week. The survey, 2015 State of Hyperconverged Infrastructure conducted by ActualTech Media, sought to determine top IT priorities and gauge overall understanding of the hyperconverged infrastructure market. What it found was that for 43 percent of respondents, the need to improve operational efficiency was by far their biggest concern. And among that slice of respondents, 37 percent of those that had already adopted hyperconvergence solutions, cited improved operations as a top benefit.

While the survey pointed to the fact that adoption of hyperconvergence is being driven by companies seeking to simplify IT and reduce spending, the desire for operational efficiency is certainly not limited to those considering a hyperconverged infrastructure for their data center. That was the message heard loud and clear at the annual Uptime Institute Symposium held this week in Santa Clara, California. This year’s theme was fittingly dubbed “Efficient IT: Innovation for Managing & Reducing Resource Consumption in the Data Center.”

Julian Kudritzki, Uptime Institute Chief Operating Officer, drove home this idea in her opening keynote, as she challenged IT executives to balance operational excellence today, while preparing for digital infrastructure transformation. And to aide in that effort, Kudritzki announced the public rollout of the Uptime Institute’s Efficient IT Stamp of Approval; the industry’s first holistic, third-party assessment for data center efficiency and sustainability. The program already has a number of early adopters.

The Efficient IT Stamp of Approval assesses IT efficiency by benchmarking an enterprise’s achievement in terms of planning, decision making, actions taken, and monitoring to improve asset utilization and extend lifecycle across compute, storage, and network systems, and the data center itself. The stamp is awarded in two levels: Approved (valid for two years), which signifies that a company has met the Uptime Institute’s protocols for industry excellence, and Activated (valid for one year), which acknowledges a company’s commitment to Uptime Institute’s Efficient IT principles, and use of the program to drive improvements.

As Kudritzki points out, “Efficient IT isn’t bought, it’s managed. The Efficient IT Stamp of Approval codifies the management processes and leadership behaviors that ensure sustained cost savings and resource agility.”

For more information regarding the Efficient IT stamp of approval or how efficient IT can better enable business through better use of resources go to https://uptimeinstitute.com/consulting-certification/efficient-it or check out “A Holistic Approach to Reducing Cost and Resource Consumption.”

This blog about storage and networking is sponsored by Microsoft.

Cheryl J. Ajluni is a freelance writer and editor based in California. She is the former Editor-in-Chief of Wireless Systems Design and served as the EDA/Advanced Technology editor for Electronic Design for over 10 years. She is also a published book author and patented engineer. Her work regularly appears in print and online publications. Contact her at [email protected] with your comments or story ideas.