will robotics be in texas colocation’s future?

WILL ROBOTICS BE IN TEXAS COLOCATION’S FUTURE?


• What will a Texas colocation center of the future look like?

• Is it possible a robot will retrieve a drive or blade and deliver it to a replacement site?

• As organizations place greater reliance on data center services, providers must find ways to operate more efficiently.

• This growth is predicted to fuel the need for new robotics automation.

• Data centers will continually invest in ways to better control operations and automation tops the list for achieving efficiency gains.

• Robotics automation has been particularly successful in warehousing applications.


• These warehousing technologies know where inventories are located and how to put them in order.

• Operating in a Texas colocation center won’t quite be the same and will take further development.

• However, developers have already made significant inroads into robotics automation for data center applications.


HOW WILL ROBOTICS AUTOMATION CHANGE TODAY’S DATA CENTERS?

The advantages robotics could provide over today’s data centers include:

• Vertical scalability – Today’s Texas colocation centers scale only horizontally. When additional space is needed, the facility expands out. Robotics allows the data center to scale upwards so providers can maximize floor space most efficiently.

• No need for lighting – Because robotics replaces human staffing requirements on the data center floor, a Texas colocation center won’t need to maintain lighting. By eliminating lights, data centers can save substantially on power costs.

• Downtime reductions – Today, administrators swap out faulty hardware. With robotics, a Texas colocation center is automatically managed and controlled. All functions are predicted and calculated.



The advantages robotics could provide over today’s data centers include:

• Higher temperature operations – Just like some of the newer server technologies, robotics are designed to run at higher temperatures.

• Return on Investment – As with many new technologies, Texas colocation centers will likely incur a significant upfront investment with robotics automation. However, greater availability and better management create cost savings that can lead to a favorable ROI in the long-term.



However, robotics Automation in Texas colocation data centers will also create several challenges providers will need to overcome:

Custom hardware requirement -- Current hardware is meant to be handled by administrators, not machines. Therefore, everything from the server hardware and racks to the Texas colocation center itself would need to be designed for robotics automation. Specialized cabling – How would robotics work around current wiring and cabling? These configurations add another layer of complexity to the robotics automation design considerations.



However, robotics Automation in Texas colocation data centers will also create several challenges providers will need to overcome:

Upfront costs – As one can expect, a robotics-driven data center would be a costly endeavor, at least in the early stages of the technology’s availability. For some time, however, the ROI analysis will most likely only make sense for the very largest data center organizations. New staffing requirements - At first, data center staff may be concerned robotics automation will replace them. Although the data center floor may have no human staffing, technical expertise will always be needed to oversee and maintain the operation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SCOTT BRUEGGEMAN IS CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER AT CYRUSONE, A GLOBAL ENTERPRISE COLOCATION PROVIDER OPERATING 24 HIGHLY SECURE DATA CENTERS

ACROSS THE UNITED STATES, LONDON AND SINGAPORE.

LEARN MORE ABOUT TEXAS COLOCATION BY VISITING HTTP://WWW.CYRUSONE.COM.

will robotics be in texas colocation’s future?

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