Scaling Out Strategically
November 7, 2007

When we launched the Scale Out Advantage site about a year ago, our goal was to explore and discuss ways to make the data center more efficient. As our site's title expressed, our overarching philosophy was that flexible, adaptive industry-standard IT architecture offers the best path for enterprises to compete in today's constantly changing marketplace.

Over the past months, we have explored practices like consolidation and virtualization, which streamline management, save energy and improve utilization. We have examined. proactive and policy-based systems management that enables IT centers to avoid problems before they occur. And we've looked at evolving technologies, such as iSCSI storage, which enable enterprises to cost-effectively attain most of the advantages of expensive fibre channel storage.

We've also reviewed the hot topics of data protection and compliance-a big concern with today's exponentially growing volumes of data and complex regulatory requirements. And, responding to growing environmental concerns, we've focused the spotlight on multi-core computing and other ways to make the data center greener.

What I hope doesn't get lost as we discuss these various technologies and best practices is that all these solutions and approaches, while valuable individually, deliver the most value when applied strategically. As enterprises move to position their IT systems to meet future demands, they should look at their investment not as a cost, but as an opportunity to enhance their business performance and competitive advantage.

I just read a column by Tom Friedman in which he discusses Dell's plans to become carbon neutral by the end of next year. He sees this move as the start of "the next big global business transformation," one in which a company's move to energy efficiency in no longer an onerous new cost, "but can actually be a strategic move that makes money and gives them an edge on the competition."

In this same spirit, as you implement various components to achieve the scale out advantage, be sure to consider how your IT infrastructure supports your entire enterprise's business units. Focus not only on one issue, such as energy usage (important as that is), but also on how your systems can handle growing numbers of customers and data, expedite rolling out new products and services, intelligently use data to leverage new business and improve processes like inventory control.

Remember, your enterprise is like a living organism with multiple needs-the scale out advantage delivers on all fronts, but to take full advantage of it, you have to keep your eye on the big picture.

Previous Blog Posts
11.07.07 - Scaling Out Strategically
08.28.07 - How to Cut Costs and Save the World
07.17.07 - Planting the Seeds for Datacenter Greenery
06.26.07 - Scale Out Zen — Do More with Less
06.14.07 - iSCSI...About to Go Mainstream?
05.30.07 - Is Your Data Center in a State of Quiet Desperation?
05.17.07 - EPA Data Center Guidelines: IT Power Use Is in the Spotlight
05.09.07 - Virtualized Data Needs Protection, Too
04.19.07 - Disaster Recovery on the Back Burner? Careful, It May Catch on Fire
04.10.07 - Professional Help for the Data Center
03.27.07 - Survey Shows Virtualization Taking Off
03.14.07 - Tackling Data Protection Alphabet Soup
03.07.07 - The Cost of Not Protecting Data
02.28.07 - Going Green to Conserve Energy in the Data Center
01.30.07 - Global Warming in the Data Center
12.02.06 - Open Standards Is for Systems Management Too
11.22.06 - Virtually Ready for Primetime
11.14.06 - Technology No Substitute for Communication
10.16.06 - Running a Data Center? What's Your Problem?