Cloud computing is the no. 1 priority for CIOs across Australia. Cloud services revenue will top $148 billion in 2014 and drive an exponential growth in data and data storage needs. A radical transformation of data centre strategy is required to help harness the cloud’s potential whilst optimising business efficiency. Metronode is here to enable the shift towards flexible, scalable data storage solutions that employ the latest green technology to address growing costs of traditional data storage.

What is cloud computing?

Put simply, the ‘cloud’ refers to the internet, to anything that is ‘out there’ rather than on an individual PC or server. There are many types of cloud computing but most are born out of a few key shared objectives:

• To outsource servers and applications, creating regular but predictable IT costs
• To allow data to be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection
• To make data systems more flexible and scalable
• To reduce under-utilisation, wasting both money and power
• To help create additional ‘data storage space’

Effectively, it’s a “new way of delivering computing resources, not a new technology” but many believe that cloud computing will radically transform the way that IT is consumed and managed. Metronode’s market leading data storage solutions can help your organisation achieve that transformation in a risk-free, managed way.

59% of CIOs ranked data growth as their leading infrastructure challenge, because of the direct link to costs. Australian businesses are at the head of the curve when it comes to emerging technologies and Metronode can help you gain maximum benefit from that early adoption by directly helping you to reduce energy consumption and costs.

What does the cloud mean for Australian Data Centres?

Cloud computing will continue to stimulate exponential data growth. Metronode’s fully and scalable modular designs have the flexibility to help your business navigate this unpredictable expansion in data storage requirements. Scientists at the University of Southern California calculated that between 1986 and 2007, 295 Exabytes of data were stored globally. One Exabyte equates to one billion gigabytes, in other words, a lot of data! The same researchers forecast that data creation will double every 18 months, resulting in a 40-fold increase in data during the next 10 years. Cloud computing will increase the emphasis on finding a data specialist focused on harnessing virtualisation whilst simultaneously pursuing new technology to reduce energy consumption and reduce the per-gigabyte footprint of data stored.

Metronode green technology is market leading, using free cooling to realise significant cost reduction. Cloud computing increases the value of working with a specialist data partner. As technological complexity grows, many more businesses will ask whether it makes sense to store and manage their own data.

Take the example of a major Australian Bank who made headlines when an air conditioning problem at their data centre caused widespread disruption to their ATM network for hours. It was a timely reminder for Australian businesses to review their data centre’s capability and re-assess redundancy and contingency planning. This, coupled with rising energy costs, increases the benefit of specialist advice and technology.

With the Australian Government set to impose a new carbon tax from 1 July 2012, power hungry data centres are likely to top the hit list of corporations looking to control or reduce costs. Metronode’s own systems are perfectly placed to assist such cost reduction by focusing on Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). Our new facilities in south eastern Australia can deliver a PUE of less than 1.2, delivering cost savings of up to $9 million over ten years. Data Centres will also play a pivotal role in improving cloud security, a key concern for many users, including the Australian Government who recently published a guidance paper for public service departments.

In essence, cloud computing might change the scope of data centres, it might refine the areas that data specialists focus on, but their core skills and expertise are likely to be more in demand than ever before.