Growth is about getting the right solution along with the right support at the right point in your revenue plan. The journey to higher growth needs to be supported by cost efficiencies and a well designed, well supported Data Center with fastest response times could be your biggest ally in this journey!

Over the next three years, all mobile data will double, and all forms of global IT traffic will quadruple. Your servers and even your cloud will not be able to keep pace with the data deluge that is on its way! What then, is your solution to meet this new business paradigm halfway… and still grow?

In a study conducted by Ponemon Institute in 2013, a one minute Data Center downtime can cost an enterprise up to $7,900. This was a 41% increase from 2010 costs, and if we maintain the same growth rate, 2016 will post huge downtime losses!

As your enterprise grows, it will bring forth the need for increased storage, sometimes also the imperative of virtualizing it. While this is a cost, an optimised and well integrated Data Center can actually be your best answer. It can smoothen the operations, increasing productivity and hence profitability, helping minimize TCO and maximize ROI for the enterprise. It also offers a seamless change in technology adoption to aid new processes and better business processing. This is your best path to improving agility, resilience, security and also meet compliance standards.

So, faster growth projections will need Data Centers that allow storage and computing power with much better and faster performance, much lower downtime and at much lesser cooling costs (while inflicting lower damage to the environment). There can be no compromise on storage technologies, since an unscheduled down time in a Data Center can translate into big losses. Ensuring minimal or zero down time means higher growth and profits!

A study by IDC says 2017 will see 8.6 million Data Centers globally, and the burden of maintaining these in fighting condition will fall on your Data Center services provider. So the choice has to be a wise one.

In order that costs and uptime can both be contained intelligently, there are some ways to plan on the Data Center build, virtualization and networking.

The golden rule – Monitor constantly – whether it is the energy consumption, the equipment and servers or the security threats- keep a constant watch on the Data Center. There is efficient software available that ensures a smooth functioning and setup, use it.

The Data Center is not merely a cluster of well oiled servers, upgraded to a virtualised bunch of servers on the cloud (perhaps). While most companies see it is an investment, from a bottom-line perspective, its real value manifests only when it is viewed more strategically. Disruptive innovations and game changing Data Center technologies like virtualization, convergence and cloud mobility can impact the business strategy and drive growth as well as profits. The agility and faster delivery of data and other business operations that these technologies ensure, provides IT a strategic weapon to push business growth. CIOs need to just change their view of Data Center investments-from dead CAPEX to dynamic OPEX.

Globally, companies have leveraged their Data Centers to grow their business by upgrading, unifying and virtualizing them. Adding to their speed to market, these companies have managed to launch newer and better products faster, thus capturing a bigger share of the market. The ability to expand customer base, leverage analytics and generate strategic insights from the data critically adds to the growth paradigm. Making money, here, is about increasing top lines and crunching timelines.

Ultimately the fast paced response of an efficient Data Center ensures agility that provides the best way of increasing the jingle on the till. A well organised, upgraded and well maintained Data Center is thus foundation for this sweet sound of money rolling in.

Investing a stringent IT budget in upgrades of Data Center or Transforming them may just be the smartest decision a CIO will take today. With business scenarios never being more competitive, this could be the best chance at market differentiation, business transformation and hence, growth in revenues and market shares.