Data Centre Insight by cxoinsightme

A CXO INSIGHT MIDDLE EAST SUPPLEMENT

ISSUE O1 | JUNE 2021

TRANSFORMING THE

DATA CENTRE

No speed limits. No boundaries. In today’s data centers, speed is everything. Bandwidth demand is growing. Latency requirements are shrinking. To keep up, you need more fiber density, faster links, the ability to scale on demand, and an automated infrastructure management system to keep it all up and running. You need CommScope. The migration path to a high-speed data center can be hard to follow—unless you’re guided by a trusted expert who knows the way. CommScope’s unrivaled technical resources, deep data center experience and innovative infrastructure solutions are ready now to help you make the move to a high-speed future. Ask us about developing a sustainable migration strategy that will take your data center to where it needs to be tomorrow—fast.

EDITOR’S NOTE

Smartening up

he enterprise data centre is undergoing a fundamental

consensus in the industry is that on-prem data centres will

transformation. Technology trends such as the cloud, edge

continue to play a key role. However, the traditional data centres

computing, 5G are forcing a rethink in the way we design

are not designed with emerging technologies in mind, which is

and manage data centres. Perhaps, the most important trend

why data centre transformation should be a key priority for IT

that impacts DCs is the cloud, and the challenge before CIOs is to

leaders. In fact, true digital transformation starts with data centre

make sure that their private data centres and cloud environment

transformation. The journey to the digital business starts with data

grow and play well together. This is easier said than done as

center modernisation and transformation, and software-defined

there are many challenges involved in terms of management,

technologies will help you make your data centre more agile

data governance and security. Though some surveys indicate

and resilient. In this special supplement, we have featured best

that some enterprises are mulling the idea of shutting down

practices and tips from leading vendors to create an infrastructure

their data centres and migrate to the public cloud, the general

that can meet today’s business demands.

CONTENTS

Commscope

Lenovo

Equinix

Nutanix

Trident Technology Services

DATA CENTRE INSIGHT

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Lenovo ThinkAgile MX Series solutions are built on Microsoft Azure Stack HCI software, Windows Admin Center management, and native integration with Azure hybrid services which make it easy to extend applications to the cloud.

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Learn more: https://www.lenovo.com/ae/en/data-center/solutions/

CommScope a lot of tools at our disposal. The hard

Asking how 5G will affect life inside the

part is charting a course that leads from

data centre is analogous to asking how a

your existing state (often with a very large

city would stand up to a natural disaster.

installed base) to something that might be

The answer is, it depends—on the city

two steps ahead with different network

and the storm. Make no mistake, 5G will

topologies, connector types and cabling

most definitely alter how data centres are

modules, like 16f, etc.

designed and, in some cases, will change the role they play in the larger network.

Ehab Kanary CommScope Infrastructure EMEA, Emerging Markets Sales VP

What is key to achieving simple,

By some estimates, data centres will be

successful data centre transformation?

spending over half their operating budget

Good design is at the core of all high

to support 5G by 2025.

performing data centres. Exploding

The enhanced performance of 5G will

demand for bandwidth is pushing data

drive the deployment of billions of edge-

What are the technology trends

centre teams to rethink their network

based connected devices and create the

impacting physical layer of data centre

infrastructure as they look to increase

need for flexible user-centric networks. To

networks?

port count and fibre density, increase lane

deal with the crush of new data, networks

As 100 G hit the markets en masse last

capacities, reduce latency and prepare to

will rely heavily on virtualised architectures

year, larger hyperscale and cloud-based

migrate to higher speeds. Easier said than

like network slicing, and other cloud-based

data centres confronted their inevitable

done. Even as data centres transition their

technologies such as AI and machine-type

leap to 400G. With switches and servers

fabrics from 10 and 40GbE to 25, , 50 and

learning.

on schedule to require 400G and 800G

100GbE, standards have been developed

connections, the physical layer must

for 400G, and committees are forming

What kind of data centre architecture

also contribute higher performance to

in readiness for 800G+. Judging by the

design would you recommend to meet

continuously optimise network capacity.

Ethernet roadmap, the path forward is

the demands for more speed and low

The ability to evolve the physical layer

neither clear nor straight. Driven by the

latency?

infrastructure in the data centre is

emergence of many new technologies—

Flattened, fibre-dense, spine-leaf data

ultimately key to keeping pace with

including more efficient modulation,

centre architecture are designed for

demand for the low latency, high-

new transmission schemes and new

lower latency traffic. This topology

bandwidth, and reliable connectivity that

fibre types—data centre managers are

connects each leaf switch to every other

subscribers demand.

faced with more choices than ever.

leaf/spine switch. The path is selected

To enlarge their pipes, data centres

Furthermore, as network complexity

randomly so that in the event of failure,

are going beyond the traditional duplex

and fibre density increase, so do the

the performance is only slightly affected.

applications. Networks are deploying more

challenges of documenting and tracking

Adopting such an architecture also

4-pair, 8-pair and 16-pair configurations,

the connected environment. Migrating to

reduces the number of switches required,

depending on the applications they

faster speeds adds more components,

introducing a pattern that significantly

support. They are using both single-mode

cables and connections—all of which must

impacts the performance of virtualised

and multimode optics, duplex WDM

be monitored and managed.

server environments and allows data to take shortcuts from its point of origin to its

and parallel cabling combined to support various network topologies. The objective

How will 5G and high-speed networks

destination. Since the traffic crosses over

is to increase capacity and efficiency.

change the way we design and manage

the same number of devices to reach the

The optimal solution varies, but we have

data centres?

server, it maintains predictable latency. DATA CENTRE INSIGHT

Equinix digital edge, along with Software-as-a-

Kamel Al Tawil Managing Director, Equinix MENA

data storage and computation closer

a company needs to scale IT resources

to the devices where that data is being

and deliver applications and services

gathered, rather than relying on one central

to a distributed user base. Proximate

location that can often be hundreds, or

interconnection to rich cloud ecosystems

even thousands, of miles away. A huge

saves development and infrastructure

advantage of this is that data processing,

costs and improves product and service

especially real-time data processing, does

time to market. Direct and secure

not suffer from any latency problems.

interconnection that privately exchanges

What’s more, organisations can save

data traffic between businesses and

money by processing their data locally,

clouds increases operational and

rather than from a centralised or cloud-

application performance by optimising

based location, which in turn can help with

bandwidth and reducing latency.

latency problems.

At Equinix, we help digital leaders bring

Edge computing provides many benefits,

What are some of the top technology

together and interconnect their digital

such as ultra-fast processing, low latency,

trends impacting data centre

infrastructure by harnessing the best

cost-efficiency, scalability, versatility, data

infrastructure in 2021?

of these transformative technologies

security, application security and more.

Digital growth and acceleration are here

across every layer of the Platform Equinix

to stay, and with that realisation comes

stack—data centre, interconnection and

How can users bring more automation to

the need for digital leaders to embrace the

bare metal—and to do so sustainably.

data centres?

technologies and trends that will give their

This includes enabling the end-to-end

The massive growth in data and the speed

organisations a clear advantage.

orchestration of these capabilities at

at which businesses operate today mean

software speed, leveraging APIs, open-

that manual monitoring, troubleshooting,

across many industries as businesses are

source tools and cloud-native technologies

and remediation is too slow to be effective

embracing edge computing and hybrid

that equip our customers to stay ahead of

and can put businesses at risk. Ideally,

multi-cloud architectures. Increasingly,

tomorrow, today.

the data centre provider would have API

There is a seismic shift underway

access to the infrastructure, enabling it

businesses are moving computing from

Simply put, edge computing brings

Service (SaaS) applications, augment what

centralised data centres to a distributed

What will be the impact of edge

to inter-operate with public clouds so

infrastructure and toward the edge,

computing on data centres?

that customers could migrate data or

where data exchange and interconnection

Edge computing could have a

workloads from cloud to cloud. Data

between businesses and cloud services

transformational impact on global society

centre automation is predominantly

are growing at an exponential rate.

and business, enabling new technologies

delivered through software solutions that

and services across low-latency wireless

grant centralised access to all or most

How can enterprises in the region

connectivity. Some technologists believe

data centre resources. Traditionally, this

leverage colocation to connect to cloud

edge computing will unleash a new world

access enables the automation of storage,

ecosystems?

of powerful mobile devices unencumbered

servers, network, and other data centre

Cloud-based infrastructures and tools at

by limitations on compute power and data.

management tasks.

DATA CENTRE INSIGHT

Lenovo right platform, seamless integrate across

How can we bring more automation into

platforms and to reduce the complexity of

existing data centre?

managing a diverse environment.

Advancing automation in the data centre

Lenovo’s solutions have been designed

Dr. Christopher Cooper Director & General Manager, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group, Middle East and Africa.

ensuring full digitisation, and where needed

with features such as end-to-end data

process engineering. What most clients are

management that is architected and

finding is critical to achieve this is to select the

implemented for requirements from the

right applications and technology platforms

edge to core, to the cloud; encrypted

to deliver improved automation and part

data protection and protection of data at

of this requirement demands new levels

motion, at rest and in the cloud; integration

of simplicity, yet integration and change

with leading public cloud platforms and

management too, that have not been seen

enterprise applications and workloads;

before. It is also critical to build in the new

and intelligence and automation to ease

standards on data legislation and governance.

implementation, and support embedded

Dependent on the industry, some are

What are the trends impacting data

analytics for future-proofed data

referencing the importance of omni-

centre infrastructure in 2021?

management, delivering superior long-time

channel integration too with their partner

There are many trends impacting data

economic and operational value to the

networks. Good news is many are also

centre infrastructure, the most obvious

organisation.

recognising the role and function of artificial intelligence and machine learning too as

being that as volumes of data continue to go up, so will demand for data centres.

How do you help your customers extract

technologies they can bring to bear to

What is changing is how companies

maximum value from their data centres?

accelerate their process automations.

approach their data requirements and

To get the most value from the data centre,

the infrastructure to manage their data.

customers need to get the most return

How can enterprise develop an effective

Although cloud has changed the landscape,

from their data. Data centres can be

data centre transformation plan?

we are seeing that many organisations

tuned for energy efficiency and processor

As we know, few things in life are guaranteed,

have data management strategies that mix

performance; workloads can be optimised

but for sure one of those in this industry is

cloud and on premise computing in a hybrid

on the best platform; and management and

change. This is in part due to the adoption of

environment, and these requirements are

routine tasks can be automated to reduce

new and evolving technologies. To leverage

only going to get more diverse as we add

staffing costs; but really leveraging the value

this to the maximum, enterprise clients need

in things like edge computing. According

of data goes beyond physical considerations,

to be aware of the fundamental shifts in the

to the Gartner report “Your Data Center

and into the strategic use of data.

ecosystem, for example, the proliferation

May Not Be Dead, but It’s Morphing,” by

can be improved in many ways. Firstly, by

for these complex deployment scenarios,

Lenovo believes that organisations

of newly connected devices to the internet

2025, 85% of infrastructure strategies will

need to focus on empowering their

and the growing volumes of new enterprise

integrate on-premises, colocation, cloud

people to become ‘data centered’ – giving

data being generated and processed

and edge delivery options, compared with

employees the skills and tools to be able

outside of traditional data centres and cloud,

20% in 2020.

to use the company’s data, bring it to life

towards the edge. Additionally, the burden

This trends means that organisations

and give it purpose. Business leaders

data governance and legislation places on

are looking to data management strategies

need to empower employees so that

where data can and cannot be stored and

that focus on the demands of specific

data can guide their decisions and they

computed. This has been underpinned by

workloads, and on data infrastructure

need to create a data-led ecosystem that

the vast growth in the shift to cloud, but

that has the flexibility to scale to meet

encourages the use of data to gain insight

more importantly to a hybrid cloud model in

their needs, to move workloads to the

and competitive advantage.

general, satisfying the needs stated above.

DATA CENTRE INSIGHT

Nutanix • Self-service capable - Having development teams and lines of business

operating environment that melds private,

satisfy IT needs through self-service can

public and distributed clouds, providing

make them more productive, decrease

a single point of control for managing

time to market, and save IT further time.

infrastructure and applications in any cloud.

• Application and VM-centric - Data Aaron White Sr. Sales Director, METI at Nutanix

Nutanix Enterprise Cloud is a unified IT

It delivers a consistent, high-performance

operations such as snapshots, replication,

and seamless experience for both cloud

and cloning should operate at the same

operators and consumers of cloud-

level of granularity as your applications:

delivered services and applications.

VMs or containers. • Protection built in - Data protection

defined data centres?

What is key to achieving simple,

by your datacenter, not something

A next generation software-defined data

successful data centre transformation?

you have to layer on and manage

center (SDDC) is defined by the following

The foundation for data centre

separately. Distributed and edge

attributes:

transformation should be built by having

capable. Organizations increasingly need

Convergence: A SDDC should embody

the following ‘must-have’ elements:

infrastructure in secondary and edge

true convergence across different tiers of

• Software-defined - Dedicated silos of

locations, close to the point of business to

data center applications, consolidating the

collect and process data locally.

infrastructure in the process. Converging

infrastructure as well as servers, storage, and networking components that must

• Multicloud - Smart enterprises are

storage and compute onto the same rack

be physically configured are a thing of

combining on-premises operations with

or even the same chassis still leaves two

the past.

applications and services running at

distinct tiers requiring an intermediate

• Hyperconverged - Hyperconverged

multiple cloud providers. Your datacenter

network to move data continuously between

infrastructure (HCI) based on a web-

infrastructure should facilitate this hybrid

them. Storage controllers operating a single

scale architecture that combines servers,

operating model.

box are meaningless in a SDDC. They need to be aggregated over multiple nodes to

storage and networking is supplanting traditional datacenter infrastructure. The

Expectations for enterprise IT services in

enable management and resiliency as part

right HCI implementation can handle

the cloud era have been fundamentally

of a single global system.

any type of workload an organization is

reset. Development teams as well as

Elastic Consumption: The software-

required to support.

other internal and external consumers of

defined data center is a competitor’s version

IT services demand the same agility and

of private cloud. As such, it should mimic

scalability as public clouds.

the public cloud in terms of elastic resource

• Easy to manage - Management complexity is a major impediment to IT’s success. A single management

To build your next-generation

consumption. But separate storage and

interface should control everything

infrastructure, you must look beyond legacy

compute tiers require that either excess

from infrastructure through application

vendors and architectures to create data

capacity be purchased up-front, or that

deployment.

centers that rival the cloud.

forklift upgrades be incurred as demand

• Easy to automate - Automation is

What are the key attributes of software

and DR should be services provided

A growing number of enterprises have

increases.

the best way to ensure operational

discovered that an enterprise cloud that

Hybrid Agility: The three hybrid

consistency, free up staff time, and

offers the agility of public cloud without

components of a SDDC include flash + disk,

eliminate the costly errors that result from

sacrificing control over critical resources is

multiple hypervisors and private/public

manual configuration mistakes.

the answer.

cloud interoperability.

DATA CENTRE INSIGHT

CloudBox Technologies LLC Latifa Towers, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai - UAE. Tel : +971 4 344 5022 | Email : info@cbt.ae I Visit : www.cbt.ae

Trident Technology Services What is key to achieving simple, successful data centre transformation? Bassel: Data centre transformation’s ultimate aim is to improve capabilities, performance, and efficiency. The process may include passive/active software components, infrastructure upgrades, migration, and automated processes. Modernising existing data centres by leveraging cloud computing and virtualisation is absolutely vital because traditional data centres are not designed to deploy emerging technologies. To achieve a successful data centre transformation, scalable and futureproof designs and careful planning are key elements to understanding the

Bassel AlHalabi Founder & Managing Director at Trident Technology Services

Jeffery Paliga Director, Global Data Center Business Development at Panduit

performance requirements, potential challenges, and future needs while maintaining smooth and efficient

primary step in this direction would include

In today’s hybrid IT environment or

operations, especially with the continuous

deploying the Panduit SmartZone solution,

hybrid cloud model, many IT applications

dynamic technology evolution.

which enables a consolidated solution to

are likely running over spine-leaf fabric

address power and incorporate relevant

and, in many cases, inside a hyperscale or

environmental needs and challenges.

multi-tenant data centre facility. However,

Do you think cloud and edge computing are changing the way data centre

Is it important for enterprises to transition

various benefits making them a viable

Jeff: Naturally, edge data centres will have

from traditional multi-tier architecture to

solution. Topics such as being easier to

a presence in less traditional locations than

spine-leaf fabric architecture?

manage and better predictability are

in the past. Therefore, edge deployments

Jeff: Understanding the differences and

considered top advantages for three-tier

must consider a “self-sufficient” approach.

benefits between traditional three-tier

networks.

This includes converged or fully integrated

and spine-leaf architectures, and then

solutions, incorporating the IT gear,

deciding which is more appropriate is more

is ultimately implemented, Panduit

physical infrastructure, power, cooling,

important than perceiving the need to

suggests, as an initial step, to collectively

and security. Being flexible or scaling up

transition to something new.

assess both the logical and physical

existing deployments may also present

three-tier architectures continue to provide

infrastructure is designed and managed?

Indeed, spine-leaf topologies ‘flatten’

Regardless of which network architecture

infrastructure. The primary reason for this

a challenge as many of these systems

the network and provide better latency

approach is to fully consider what network

will be dispersed and contesting for space

and data flows between servers. This is

devices need to connect to all the relevant

and access. One way of addressing this

because spine-leaf deployments use the

nodes and what impact the topology will

would be to incorporate some type of

same number of hops on the network,

have on things such as performance,

intelligence or visibility into these remote

regardless of where network devices or

migration capabilities, port counts,

edge deployments. Having the ability to

nods reside relative to the overall network

cabling type, and cable routing. There is

remotely check the power status, cooling

design. A three-tier topology may require

a significant difference in the amount of

thresholds and ensuring the IT investment

multiple hops up and down the IT stacks to

cabling required when comparing two-tier

is locked and secured is hugely beneficial. A

perform the required tasks successfully.

and three-tier topologies and the amount

DATA CENTRE INSIGHT

Sales, Marketing, Technical and Channel representative of Panduit in Middle East & Africa | www.itrident.com For more information about Panduit FlexFusion, please contact us: info@itrident.com

as to say on-premises data centres will be close to non-existent. What are the top trends that will shape data centre cabling this year? Bob: Covid-19 for sure had a significant impact on technology, people, and the way business is done. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of many futuristic technology trends, particularly in artificial intelligence, machine learning, cybersecurity, IoT/IoB, public/distributed cloud. AI has emerged as a transformative Steve Morris Snr Product Manager - Global/EMEA, DC Solutions at Panduit

Bob Wagner Manager of Group Products for Connectivity and Pathways at Panduit

technology, and the new direction is to become more integrated through AI engineering strategy to facilitate integration, performance, and resiliency. As we advance, you can expect other key AI trends to

of data that traverses to and from each port

managers’ ability to optimise operations

emerge, including:

or network link. Without this logical and

and improve resilience by predicting

• Integrating production with machine

physical coordination, the performance

equipment wear and tear, regulating

and operational outputs may yield positive

temperatures, and predicting where human

or negative results. Panduit helps reduce

intervention may be required.

potential risks, working with our longstanding partner Cisco on creating and validating best practices for customers to

is not humanless. Humans are a primary contributor to

the concept of AI for kids had emerged. • Responsible AI and ethical AI mandate to mitigate dangers. • Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT)

migrate to higher network speeds over

outages and issues within a data centre. By

multiple technology refreshes or upgrades.

reducing the number of human interactions

Panduit perceives these top technology

and manual inputs, you automatically

trends are impacting data rates and density

reduce the risk of human error.

from a physical infrastructure point of

How can customers achieve more automation in their on-prem data

In terms of physical layer cabling

view. Most medium-sized data centres

centres?

infrastructure, investing in automated or

are transitioning from 10G or 40G to 100G.

Steve: The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated

semi-automated patch-cord management

This change means all but the shortest

the use of automated tools and systems

and labeling documentation system will

cabling will be fibre. 400G has also become

in DCs, notably where staff have been

help ensure switch ports stay fully utilised

a reality at the large data centre providers

restricted access to their office location

and promote more efficient moves, adds,

and this comes with entirely new optical

and rely on remote access to monitor and

and changes (MAC’s). For example, a

modules, higher-performing fibre cable,

address any issues that arise.

program could be used to issue a MAC

and potentially new interconnects. 400G

request to a technician automatically. Once

will rely more heavily on 12 fiber MPO

applications to cloud-based services,

the technician completes the request, the

connectors and higher fibre count fiber

where it can be handled remotely and

record systems are updated automatically,

cabling (as much as 864 fibres). It also

autonomously, accelerates on-prem DCs to

reducing the margin for human error and

increases the need for fibre cables, like

reach automation goals.

lowering time-on-site requirements.

Panduit’s SignatureCore, which offers a

Moving select workloads, tasks, and

It is important to remember human ‘less’

learning forming MLOps. • Making AI accessible to everyone where

Further, investing in DCIM software

A recent survey of 500 IT executives

longer reach than standard OM4 400G and

and hardware paves the way to on-prem

conducted by INAP found that 85% of IT

introduces the need for a new 16 fiber MPO

automation, particularly when combined

professionals anticipate their data centres

and smaller denser two fibre connectors

with emerging technologies such as AI and

will be close to full automation within the

like the CS product, which Panduit launched

machine learning. A case in point is the DC

next four years. Two-thirds even go as far

in November 2020.

DATA CENTRE INSIGHT

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