Between the new options the Internet of Things (IoT) will provide, and the basic principles it will change, the IoT’s operations will make data centers both more efficient and more effective. It won’t be all sunshine and improved efficiencies, though, as there will also be challenges to the data center around this new development.
How Will the IoT Improve Data Centers?
The IoT offers an incredible potential for improvement in the data center.
New data collection. The IoT’s array of sensors can be used to monitor warehouse conditions, truck locations, customer traffic in stores, and any of dozens of other functions. All that data can be brought together to create actionable insights once properly analyzed, and let the business spot problems it didn’t even know existed.
Monitoring. The data center itself generates masses of data: humidity figures, air quality, temperature and so on. With IoT systems, it’s possible to monitor all of these to large degrees and make adjustments even remotely, improving energy use and system performance.
Driving innovation. The sheer demand on the data center calls for new solutions. Developments here, like the growing use of silicon photonics, can potentially be transferred to other systems, resulting in net performance gains in other sectors as well.
How Will the IoT Hurt Data Centers?
The benefits of the IoT sometimes come with unexpected dark sides.
More potential security failure points. IoT systems are commonly small and simple by design, set up to do one or two basic functions. That means there’s not a lot of room for security in these systems, and the potential for hackers to exploit these—not to mention remote locations—is fairly high.
Greater reward for hackers. All that new data could potentially be a treasure trove for hackers who can learn your business’ ins and outs from these figures and then sell them to your competitors. Hackers have more reason to attempt to crack your systems as a result of the IoT.
Bandwidth and backup catastrophes. All that data has one other effect, too: big questions about bandwidth demand as well as what you save and for how long. Failure to address issues of what’s kept and for how long will soon drown the business in an avalanche of new data.
How Do I Get the Most Out of IoT in My Data Center?
For those who want the full positive effects of IoT in the data center, yet want to pass up as many of those challenges as possible, start by contacting us at EmconIT. We have a long history of data center operations, and offer security measures, hardware maintenance and more to address IoT’s problems.