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4. Inefficientchangemanagement
Poorchangemanagementprocesses
havecreatedmanyof theproblems
thatexist today. Toooften, thepeople
responsible fordeployingnew
equipmentdon’thavevisibility intoall
of thesystems impactedby thechange.
Onemayhaveaviewofavailable rack
spacebutnotpowerandcooling
capacity,whileanotherhasvisibility
into thevirtual layerbutnot the
physical. The result is thatchange
processes take too long,make
inefficientuseofhuman resourcesand
can introducevulnerabilities.
These factorsall contribute toan IT
infrastructure that is inefficient—in
termsofenergy, human resourcesand
capital—cannot respondquickly to
changeand isvulnerable todowntime.
Thoseconsequencesarebecoming
increasingly intolerable to
organizations looking touse
information technology tosupport
data-drivendecisionmaking, spur
innovationandattractandserve
customers. Solving them requires
themove towardaholistic
approach todatacenter
management that risesabove
organizational, system-level silos
whileoptimizing the interactionof
people, processand technology to
achieve trueoperational efficiency.
THEEVOLVINGDATACENTER
MANAGEMENTSKILLSET
Whenparticipants in thespring
2013DataCenterUsers’Group
(DCUG)surveywereaskedhow
theyexpected theskill setofdata
centermanagers tochange in thenext
fiveyears, exactly0%said therewould
benochange. Themajoritysaw
multiplechangeson thehorizon
(Figure2)
.
The twochanges identifiedmost
frequentlyby respondents fall under
thecategoryofmanagingmore
holistically. 75%believed theywill
needan increasedunderstandingof
the relationshipbetweenvarious
systems,while73% identified the
need foragreaterability tosee the
bigpicture.
The fact thatdatacentermanagers
don’thave thesecapabilities today
speaks to thecomplexityof thecurrent
environmentand the lackof
management tools thatcanprovide the
requiredvisibilityandcontrol.
Acquiring thesenew “skills”or
capabilities isessential toaddressing
thechallenges identifiedearlier in this
paper.Rather thanattempting to
optimize individual systems for
efficiencyandavailability, thedata
centerof the futurewill need tobe
managedasanecosystem inwhichall
of thecomponentsare related toand,
tovaryingdegrees, dependentonother
components.
Thenext twonewskill sets identifiedby
theDCUGsurvey—increased
collaboration (64%)and increaseddata
analysis (52%)—are related to theBig
Data trend.
InNovember, 2012, the
Harvard
Business
Reviewwrote thatdata-driven
decisionmaking “has thepotential to
revolutionizemanagement.”Thatcould
put ITsquarely in thecenterofa
management revolution. Supporting
that revolutionwithin thebusiness
requires thatdatacentermanagersbe
able toconsolidateandmine the
unprecedentedvolumeofdatacreated
bysocialmedia,
ecommerceandother
digital transactions
whilealsobecominga
resource for
executivesacross
thebusiness
seeking touse
thatdata. That
means
collaborating
withmarketing,
product
development,
human resources
andother
departments to
develop, execute
andsupportBig
Datastrategies.
Organizations that
successfullyaddress
thischallengewill
experiencesignificant
benefits. Through researchsupporting
itsBigData feature, the
Harvard
Business
Review found that “companies
in the top thirdof their industry in the
useofdata-drivendecisionmaking
were5%moreproductiveand6%more
profitable thancompetitors.”When IT
contributes to improvementsof that
natureandmagnitude, itbecomesa
strategicasset to thebusiness.
Closer tohome, thedatacenter
management teamwillbeexpected to
participate in this revolutionby
aggregatingandanalyzing ITdata
across theenterprise to identify
vulnerabilitiesandmakemore informed
decisionson ITspendand resource
allocation.Management systems
capableof transformingastreamof
real-timeoperatingdata into
meaningful informationwill finallyallow
management tosee relationships
betweensystemsandmanage them
holistically
(Figure3)
.
Figure2
Figure3
