The Data Center Frontier Executive Roundtable features insights from industry executives with lengthy experience in the data center industry. Here’s a look at the insights from Mark Wachtmann of IO.
MARK WACHTMANN, IO
Mark Wachtmann serves as Vice President Product and Technology for IO and is responsible for the overall performance of the network and cloud services product lines. He has over 20 years’ experience of demonstrated success leading business and technology strategy, planning and execution for start-ups and established companies with global footprints. Prior to joining IO, Wachtmann served as Vice President Global IT Operations at Aristocrat. Wachtmann also held multiple leadership positions at GoDaddy, building and delivering web scale service provider class services. Prior to GoDaddy, Wachtmann held product and operations roles at Blackboard and AT&T. He holds a Bachelor of Science from California State University-Northridge.
Here’s the full text of Mark Wachtmann’s insights from our Executive Roundtable:
Data Center Frontier: The rise of cloud computing continues to boost business for data center providers. What are the trends you are seeing in cloud adoption, and how are they shaping the role of the data center service provider?
Mark Wachtmann: Cloud adoption has increased in the past several years and I fully expect this trend to continue. While this uptake has affected the demographics of the data center customers, it has not impacted the overall growth of the industry. Data center service providers are seeing a shift in their customer base, from enterprises to cloud and technology service providers. As demand for cloud services increases, cloud providers must find a data center partner that can house their unique requirements. Whether it is an enterprise or a cloud provider, they all need a data center to house their network, servers and storage.
Data Center Frontier: The hybrid cloud deployment model appears to be gaining traction with enterprises. How is the emergence of hybrid cloud impacting data center providers’ ability to attract enterprise business, which has historically focused on the need to shift IT workloads out of on premise facilities?
Mark Wachtmann: I don’t necessarily see the hybrid cloud restricting the ability to attract enterprise customers. Many data center service providers can offer hybrid cloud solutions within their existing product offerings. Data centers that don’t offer hybrid cloud services will undoubtedly fall behind.
Additionally, the transition to the cloud is not a simple skills translation. There is a steep learning curve, and businesses will need to have the resources to re-build their infrastructure if they want to move directly to a public cloud. Data center service providers that can facilitate the transition to cloud will be more attractive to businesses that need to focus their resources on core business needs. Ease of implementation is how hybrid cloud providers will get a leg up on the public cloud alternative.
Modular data centers fill a portion of an IO data center. (Photo: IO)
Data Center Frontier: It’s been an active period in the market for data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software. What’s your take on the state of the DCIM market, and pace of adoption of these tools by end users?
Mark Wachtmann: DCIM from a data center operator’s perspective is an essential tool. It allows you to efficiently and reliably run your data center. Most businesses don’t have the resources to build an entire DCIM infrastructure from scratch. It is also not a priority for them. Data centers that can expose their DCIM capabilities to their customers, providing them all of the benefits that a fully implemented DCIM system has to offer, will be a step ahead of the competition.[clickToTweet tweet=”Mark Wachtmann: As content creators increase their output, pressure on the network will increase.” quote=”Mark Wachtmann: As content creators increase their output, pressure on the network will increase.”]
Data Center Frontier: There have been lots of mergers and acquisitions in the data center industry. Is this likely to continue? If so, how might M&A activity impact the competitive landscape in the data center and cloud hosting industry in 2016 and beyond?
Mark Wachtmann: Mergers and acquisitions in the data center industry are expected to continue. The industry is moving towards expansive data centers that can take advantage of the efficiencies that accompany scale. The capabilities required to run a data center can’t be deployed cost effectively in small data centers.
In the long term, data center consolidation will be impacted by the amount of content that needs to be stored and transmitted. As content creators are increasing their output, the pressure on the network will increase. There is an opportunity here for larger data centers to deliver computing capabilities that allow them to push content closer to the end-user in order to ease the strain on the networks. I think as data center providers find opportunity in this area of innovation, the pressure on small data centers outside of the primary markets to join with bigger players will increase.