While the U.S. underwent frigid temperatures of the polar vortex, the data center infrastructure and the IT industry soldiered on. January is known for its technological promises as much as it is for its cold snaps. This week, a variety of exciting announcements and developments unfolded in the data center and IT industry. As we all look forward to the weekend, relief from the sub-freezing temps, here are the top data center infrastructure and IT news ending this week.
Big Data Will be Everywhere in 2014
The Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data will create an IT infrastructure boom in the new year, according to TechTarget. Machine learning, automation, and embedded analytics will be three of the chief applications of Big Data. Intelligent machine technology makes the rounds this year, as businesses seek to improve the efficiency and productivity of the ever-growing data center infrastructures, networks, and data storage facilities. As the Big Data hype machine loses steam, the real work of applying structured data-capturing technology to machines still lies ahead. Optimizing operational and management models will lead more companies to install monitoring technologies, as well as reassess the gap between humans and machines for work in a data center infrastructure.
Endpoint Shipments to Rise 7.6 Percent
As commodity smartphones, wireless availability, and the connected enterprise grow, they will continue to accelerate investment in all endpoint technologies. According to Gartner, global shipments of PCs, tablets, mobile phones and ultramobiles (hybrid mobile-PC devices) are expected to hit 2.5 billion units in 2014. This represents a 7.6 percent increase from 2013 shipments. Mobile devices, in particular, the Android operating system, are the clear driver and are projected to top 1 billion global users in 2014.
IT Infrastructure Will Content With IP-Based Communications
IP-based technologies, such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), will continue to displace legacy telecommunications devices as more businesses seek to ramp up their unified communications profiles. According to Frost & Sullivan, media gateway products are becoming irrelevant, as UC interest grows with VoIP access and session initiation (SIP) trunking quickly spouting past their nascent stage. The market for IP-based communications is forecasted to reach $2.54 billion in 2019. The trend toward cloud- and IP-based UC will allow businesses to reduce their investment in hardware and network assets, but will also likely lead to a push for 100 percent reliability in these services.
