As the year winds down and many people get caught in the throes of last-minute holiday planning, a lot is still happening in the world of data center management and IT. With most tech experts reflecting on the previous year or turning their attention to 2014, there are a variety of intriguing stories that merit your attention in the midst of shopping or traveling:
Consumerization of IT Poses Data Center Management, IT Challenges
One trend that drove enterprise planning this year was the consumerization of IT. Developments such as bring-your-own-device (BYOD), mobile apps and the remote workforce gave employees more leverage in company planning than ever before. According to a recent IDC report, consumerization of IT will continue to be a force in the enterprise, albeit with some unplanned budgets and risks that will have to be managed effectively. Within the next two years, 85 percent of organizations are expected to establish a mobile device management strategy, while 68 percent will deploy a policy for BYOD in the workplace. Additionally, 65 percent of businesses will implement a mobile application management strategy, and 63 percent will focus on self-service app stores. Data center and IT personnel will contribute to the generation and enforcement of these policies, as well as oversee the infrastructure supporting them.
Fabrics and Silicon to Drive 2014 Data Center Spending
Networking will be a prime focus for data center operators in 2014, as they increasingly look to fabrics and silicon to promote interconnectedness and reduce their reliance on siloed architectures. Software-defined and virtual networking will experience wider adoption, according to TechTarget, but the lack of unified policies across organizations could complicate matters. It will depend on data center management strategists to develop best practice policies for the transition to a more hybrid physical/virtual infrastructure model.
Does Wi-Fi Kill Plants?
A science experiment by a group of ninth-grade students in Denmark found that Wi-Fi routers could have an adverse effect on nearby plants. According to Consumerist, seeds planted near Wi-Fi routers either did not grow or died within a 12-day period, performing much worse than plants grown in an area with no Wi-Fi router present. These findings, which a neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden vowed to try out on a larger, more professional scale, could also offer more information into the effects of Wi-Fi router radiation. Research is currently being conducted on the potentially damaging effects of Wi-Fi and wireless devices on humans, but this is believed to be the first study conducted on its impact on plants.
