Cloud efficiencies help reduce data centre dependency

Cloud efficiencies help reduce data centre dependency

As data centre costs continue to rise, companies are turning to the cloud to help lower their physical requirements.

Energy costs and increasing levels of demand mean that data centre space is not cheap. As a result, many firms are looking to reduce the amount of space they are paying for. Microprocessor maker AMD, for example, is aiming to half the number of data centres it uses over the next couple of years.

Speaking to PC World, the company's vice-president for global infrastructure services, Tom Painter, said that the firm aims to reduce its data centres from the current six to just three in order to consolidate servers and cut costs.

Cloud computing looks likely to help in this task, and the solution has already provided efficiencies in the way the company organises its data. But this will need to be extended since the firm already maintains a 90 per cent utilisation rate of its servers, executing more than 40 million computing tasks per month.

The news comes as a number of other large organisations are looking into ways of closing their data centres in order to boost efficiency. Cost savings are clearly one of the biggest motivators, with the Obama administration expecting to save around $3 billion over the next four years by consolidating its 800 data centres.

However, security is also likely to improve. According to Government Technology, cloud computing and data centre consolidation can make data and services more secure than a traditional data centre environment. As a result, more companies and organisations are expected to move across to the cloud.

Businesses looking to move services into the cloud, should evaluate the performance of their existing network and consider setting up a leased line or MPLS network.