7 Ways The Cloud Is Changing The Data Center

Data Centers Retool For The Cloud

The headlong migration of IT resources to hosted data centers in the cloud is leading to demand for increased throughput in data center networks.

Converged server and storage networking company Emulex surveyed more than 1,500 IT leaders in North America and Europe and found that the cloud, along with its accompanying technologies of virtualization, big data, and storage and data center convergence, have IT managers looking to build out more robust networks.

Continue on and check out the survey's results.

1. Cloud Benefits Are Undeniable

Cost savings are a driver of cloud adoption in IT managers' organizations, making it the No. 1 reason businesses are moving to the cloud, according to 45 percent of survey respondents.

Scalability and speed of deployment are a close second and third as cloud benefits, cited by 31 percent and 30 percent of respondents, respectively.

2. The Cloud Demands More Bandwidth

Data doesn't get to the cloud by itself. Fifty-three percent of those surveyed said the cloud is creating a need for more network bandwidth in their corporate data centers.

Forty percent of respondents also said that the bandwidth expansion required to support data migration to the cloud was 25 percent or more.

3. Virtual Machines Multiply

Network I/O is important in determining the number of virtual machines IT managers can run on a single server. Eighty-five percent of survey respondents said network I/O was a "significant" or "very significant" gating factor in limiting how many VMs they could run on a single physical server.

Seventy-two percent of respondents said it will make sense to run as many as 100 virtual servers on a single physical server in just two years, significantly impacting network design and deployment.

4. The Rise Of Big Data

More than one-third (37 percent) of those surveyed manage 1 petabyte or more of data, with 11 percent saying they manage more than 100 petabytes of data.

The big data apps -- named by 50 percent of respondents as containing at least 100 terabytes of data -- include business intelligence apps (24 percent), financial apps (18 percent), security apps (11 percent) and scientific apps (11 percent).

5. Big Data Will Need Big Bandwidth

During the next two years, big data will increase IT managers' need for network bandwidth in the data center by more than 50 percent, more than half (54 percent) of respondents said.

6. Big Data Leads To Big Storage

Big data apps have increased organizations' need for storage by at least 50 percent, according to 39 percent of survey respondents.

In addition, 20 percent of respondents said that during the next two years, big data apps will cause the amount of storage connected to data center networks to double.

7. Convergence Is Coming

Data and storage networks will inevitably converge into a consolidated network, 78 percent of survey respondents said.

Already, 64 percent of IT organizations have either moved to a converged network for data and storage, or have plans to do so. This convergence has had a "very significant" or "extremely significant" impact on the need for increased I/O, said 45 percent of the respondents.

More Cloud Coverage From CRN

The Latest Headlines In The Cloud:
Clarifying Cloud
RightScale Adds Security For Cloud Management
HP Internal Memo Outlines Cloud Group Reorganization