Reliability prized over efficiency by data centre managers, Eaton finds

Reliability is prized over efficiency by data centre managers, a new survey conducted by Eaton has found. Setting out to provide an analysis of current data centre planning in Australia and New Zealand, Eaton’s survey found that two thirds of data centre managers see infrastructure reliability, rather than efficiency, as their top priority when it comes to planning and managing data centre infrastructure.

Only 11% of respondents viewed efficiency as a priority in their data centre infrastructure, while 6% said scalability was most important.

While sustainability is a current buzzword in many industries, Eaton’s survey found that fewer than half of all respondents monitor or track energy consumption and overall energy efficiency - and 22% claimed it was not important.

Rather than ignorance, however, this may be due to a lack of available services for monitoring energy use: 44% of respondents said they are struggling to find tailored industry solutions to adequately monitor their infrastructure. Additionally, 14% said they are confronted by the need to maintain mission-critical uptime.

Eaton says these figures may indicate new business opportunities for IT vendors and their channel partners able to effectively supply additional solutions and services in the area of infrastructure monitoring.

“Here at Eaton, we have noticed two key trends which have emerged in the data centre: the demand for IT higher availability and the increasing costs of powering it,” said Michael Mallia, Senior Power Quality Product Line Manager for Eaton APAC electrical sector.

“Data centre managers face growing pressure to manage and optimise their available power for growth while at the same time managing the increasing operating costs and maintaining reliability. An accurate view of the energy being consumed in the data centre can help to better understand and manage power usage.”

Eaton surveyed 96 end users and system integrators at VMware Solutions Symposium in July and August this year in Auckland, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide.