Page 36 - FCW, May/June 2018

IT TRANSFORMATION
Zeroing in on
data center modernization
Finding a balance between the data center and the tactical edge is driving many agencies’ IT transformation efforts
Cameron Chehreh
Chief Technology Officer, Dell EMC Federal
offer a number of advantages for solving mission-critical problems in the government.
First, converged and hyperconverged technologies give agencies the ability to scale in a standardized way and take maximum advantage of software and automation in their data centers to achieve that scale. The technologies multiply the human factor, so to speak, by leveraging software to do a lot of the work. It’s not taking away jobs. It’s simply giving people additional capacity.
Second, the technologies allow agencies to harmonize hardware and software when they need to push compute and storage out to the tactical edge. Those solutions bring the data center closer to frontline users when, for example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s employees are responding to a disaster and need to run applications with poor network access or when warfighters require higher compute power than end-clients can offer.
Data protection and workforce transformation
From a security perspective, agencies must modernize their strategies and processes. It is no longer simply an opportunity to comply with statutes but an opportunity to protect the mission in ways we haven’t been able to do before. In other words, IT transformation offers agencies a chance to increase their security postures while remaining flexible in responding to mission requirements.
Data is a precious commodity because it powers decision-making, yet many agencies are struggling to develop comprehensive data protection strategies. Fortunately, through the application of software, agencies can create
AGENCIES ARE embracing digital transformation because they recognize that modernization has become an imperative. They know they need to create a new computing platform to comply with the government’s digital and budget priorities, and most agencies realize that they have to start by modernizing the data center first.
By incorporating automation and next- generation infrastructure into their data centers, agencies can decrease their IT
footprint, become more energy-efficient and adopt modern cloud-based applications while taking advantage of other burgeoning trends, such as the internet of things.
Bringing data centers closer
to frontline users
Many agencies are modernizing on new technologies such as converged and hyperconverged infrastructure to bring together compute, storage, networking and server virtualization. Those approaches
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