Appliances: Fulfillment of Data Center Simplicity?
I love my toaster. I plug it in, add bread, get toast. The simplicity and reliability of the toaster has made it a common kitchen appliance. I don't normally gush over toasters. However, I often find analogies between my personal and work worlds.
I've been thinking about the influx of data center appliances, and, over my morning toast, I realized that kitchens are like data centers. In both, a solid technology infrastructure is built with as few moving parts as possible -- and, therefore, fewer points of failure.
Operational efficiency drives lower operational costs, and cost is helping to drive the appliance decision for the data center. Some non-inclusive examples of appliances in the messaging, collaboration and new media spaces:
- Email security Ironport
- Instant Messaging security FaceTime
- Messaging server and security Mirapoint
- Search Google
- Wiki MindTouch
The trend toward deployment and management simplification means that more enterprises will be leveraging appliances.
I think I'll make another piece of toast.