How the Cloud Could Change the Face of Company Data Centers

Experts are predicting data centers everywhere are about to be hit with a massive increase in the amount of work they’re expected to handle. Is yours going to be ready to manage all of that extra traffic?

By 2018, global data center IP traffic is estimated to almost triple from where it stood back in 2013, according to Cisco’s Global Cloud Index. Data center traffic could reach 8.6 zettabytes by the end of 2018, a fairly eye-catching spike considering 2013 topped out at 3.1 zettabytes. That’s good for a compound annual growth rate of 23%.

And Cisco projects that cloud data centers will be the ones shouldering most of that increased workload. Come 2018, Cisco predicts cloud data centers will process over three quarters (78%) of workloads, compared to just 22% for traditional data centers. 

However, these weren’t the only transitions Cisco predicts could be impacting companies over the next few years.

Increases in Data Center Virtualization and Cloud Computing

  • Data center workloads as a whole are expected to nearly double (a 1.9x increase) between 2013 and 2018. That increase is going to be driven mostly by cloud workloads, which will almost triple during that time period (a 2.9-fold increase).
  • Also, the amount of workloads per physical server for cloud data centers will jump from 5.2 in 2013 up to 7.5 in 2018. Compare that to traditional data centers, which will also see growth, but not even close to the same rate. Traditional data centers could see their workloads per server inch up from 2.2 in 2013 to 2.5 in 2018. 

Relying More on Public Clouds

  • Even though private cloud data centers will still be doing the majority of the work, their influence could start to shrink moving forward.
  • Come 2018, 31% of all cloud workloads will be handled by public cloud data centers, while 69% will be handled by private cloud data centers.
  • That marks a bit of a shift from where things stood in 2013, when public cloud data centers processed 22% of traffic and private cloud data centers took care of 78%.

The Cloud Will Get Busier

  • By 2018, the cloud will be responsible for more than three quarters (76%) of the total traffic going through data centers.
  • Yearly cloud traffic is expected to almost quadruple (3.9x increase) to 6.5 ZB as we reach the end of 2018. That breaks down to 541 EB of data being handled by the cloud per month.
  • In 2013, annual global cloud traffic was 1.6 ZB, which equaled 137 EB a month.

Change in How We Get to the Cloud

  • Once 2018 rolls around, more than half (59%) of all cloud workloads will be Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). That’s an increase from 2013, when just 41% of workloads were SaaS.
  • In contrast, the workloads that will see the biggest decrease could end up being Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). By 2018, these are expected to make up 28% of workloads, a steep decline from the 2013 level of 44%.
  • There won’t be much of a change as far as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) workloads are concerned. They’re projected to make up 13% of total cloud workloads in 2018, compared to 15% in 2013.

With these transitions looming – and in some cases, already underway – now is definitely a good time for companies to reassess the capabilities of their own data centers. Arraya Solutions can provide the forward-thinking knowledge and expertise needed to make sure data centers are ready for the challenges that lie ahead. Visit www.ArrayaSolutions.com or contact your Arraya sales rep to find out more.

Arraya Insights