Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: The network is the data center

Most IT professionals will remember Nicholas Carr for his argument that IT Doesn't Matter. I find his blog an interesting read most days. Today's reference really caught my attention. Like most global CIO's I know, I'm a firm believer in reducing the number of data centers we operate out of in order to take advantage of economies of scale and reduce the overall complexity. As you can see in the snippet below though, Sun's Brian Cinque articulates a goal of......zero data centers by 2015! Yikes! Now there's a BHAG!

I think the underlying assumption has validity. I don't want to run data centers and networks just like I don't want to generate my own electricity. I want what I can do with their output. I'm planning to get my company's data center footprint down to 2 or 3 in the next couple of years. Zero data centers, now that's a better number. Architecting for that kind of future will give us much more flexibility I think regardless of whether we get to zero or not. It'll make disaster recovery, technology upgrades and cost variability much more achievable and realistic.

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: The network is the data center: "
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The network is the data center
JANUARY 11, 2008
In an ironic twist, some of today's leading manufacturers of server computers are also among the companies moving most aggressively to reduce their need for servers and other hardware components. Hewlett-Packard, for instance, is in the midst of a project to slash the number of data centers it operates from 85 to 6 and to cut the number of servers it uses by 30 percent. Now, Sun Microsystems is upping the stakes. Brian Cinque, the data center architect in Sun's IT department, says the company's goal is to close down all its internal data centers by 2015. 'Did I just say 0 data centers?' he writes on his blog.'Yes! Our goal is to reduce our entire data center presence by 2015.'

Cinque provides few details - he says he'll flesh out the plans in future blog posts - but it's clear that he anticipates that the software-as-a-service model, and related virtua"

(Via .)