Take the Uptime Institute’s Second Annual Data Center Survey.
The data from this survey will help your organization make effective data center decisions over the coming year, and will help you benchmark your organization against the broader industry trends.
All survey participants will receive an anonymous copy of the raw data, as well as the full report with analysis from Uptime Institute, and will be entered in a drawing for an Apple iPad or passes to the Uptime Institute Symposium 14-17 May 2012, in Santa Clara, CA.
Thank you to all the participants from last year who made the inaugural survey a huge success. We look forward to your participation.
Here are some of the results from Uptime Institute’s 2011 Data Center Survey:
Yevgeniy Sverdlik wrote an interesting article in Datacenter Dynamics about AT&T’s recently released 2010 Corporate Sustainability Report. Hats off to Sverdik for wading through the 80-page document to bring us the data center related content in the article: AT&T has set a goal to improve their energy efficiency by 17%, while compute-capacity requirements for its internal business grow 20% in 2011.
It’s worth noting that according to the 2011 Uptime Institute Inaugural Data Center Industry Survey, 45% of respondents said they were pursuing data center eefficency as a result of executive-level CSR requreiments.
Uptime Institute and others have noted an emerging trend of large organizations — in industries that have historically operated their own portfolio of data centers — that are now considering for the first time an outsourced facility to serve as their enterprise/primary data center.
According to the Uptime Institute’s Inaugural Data Center Survey results, around half of the respondents will turn to third party data center providers (Colocation or Cloud) to deal with data center growth in the next 12-18 months. For more results from the survey, attend Uptime Institute Symposium.
Recent data from Digital Realty Trust points to a similar trend.
While there is a potential boon for the data center outsourcing industry, third party providers will be challenged to meet this new market demand from sophisticated organizations that have previously been in the data center business themselves. The majority of domestic outsourced facilities that we have reviewed against the Uptime Tier criteria have been Tier II, and organizations need to do due diligence.
This trend has led to an increased demand for Tier Certification from third party data center providers.
From a recent interview with Network World:
James Niccolai, Network World: Why do organizations want to be [Tier] Certified?
Julian Kudritzki: There are three main circumstances. The team that’s responsible for the data center and has been entrusted with this massive amount of money wants to be able to say, “We reached our project goal and here’s someone who had no vested interest affirming that for us.”
The second main reason is colo providers who are in a highly competitive environment where everyone is claiming a lot of things. They can say, here’s an unbiased third party that says we’re capable of high availability. It can also shorten their contract cycles because they don’t have to redo the due diligence exercise each time, it’s been done in the form of our certification.
The third main reason is folks compelling their third-party providers to get certified. We’re seeing more and more of that, and quite a significant uptick in the last 18 to 24 months.
NW: Why do you think that is?
JK: As more and more critical computing goes to third parties, there’s more and more at risk, and there’s more need for an affirmation.
NW: So the tier system becomes more important for businesses as they put more workloads in third-party facilities?
JK: Agreed.
For more info on this topic, register now for Uptime Institute Symposium, and follow along at Twitter with hashtag #uisymp11.
Uptime Institute today published new research Developing a Digital Infrastructure Roadmap for Data Center Virtualization. This publication provides cost modeling for various approaches to server virtualization.
The modeling is based on the business requirements of an actual client and utilizes actual IT hardware profiles and typical growth scenarios. This publication provides meaningful analysis and commentary for any company considering virtualization as a means to manage their IT infrastructure and associated data center facility.
Download is free for members. Sign up today.
Uptime Institute is now regularly publishing online videos: profiling data center leaders, commenting on new tools and metrics and showcasing data center operational excellence in its Network membership. 
