Working life in the datacentre has never been so simple ­ – and so complex. Recent research from Freeform Dynamics has highlighted that major projects in the datacentre during the next 12 months will revolve around several key issues.

Perhaps the easiest to associate directly with computer centre spend relates to IT infrastructure optimisation, a continuance of server and storage consolidation projects.

Such projects are now using virtualisation systems to reduce the cost of IT operations, to address availability and service level metrics, and better align IT systems use with business-defined requirements.

While IT infrastructure optimisation heads the list of technology-driven initiatives, governance, compliance, risk and identity management head the business-driven agenda. For many IT directors, such issues are almost two sides of the same coin ­ governance and compliance offer the carrot and stick ­ – and benefit from an understanding of risk that runs across the organisation.

Meanwhile, a broader understanding of risk that takes into account business and IT issues, can be used to support the delivery of policy-based security that takes into account the needs of the business. Such projects will mean corporate IT is now focused on how best to deliver on these broad-based matters, many of which will directly impact the datacentre, its design and operations.

Corporate strategic thinking is also likely to have a marked impact on datacentre project initiatives during the year.

There is already evidence that governance, compliance and risk management initiatives are having a profound effect on the daily operation of datacentre IT systems, frequently placing a strain on the ability of datacentre managers to implement operational processes and, at least in the eyes of auditors, the necessary reporting systems that are now frequently required.

Governance, compliance and risk are intimately connected, and any organisation that attempts to deal with them separately is likely to encounter challenges. Equally, such moves are unlikely to deliver real benefits.

IT governance

Put simply, IT governance should be about doing the right things for the right reasons, while compliance should be a simple reporting function that details what has actually taken place and any areas where established policies should be undertaken differently.

Treating compliance and governance together offers an opportunity to potentially make the operation of IT in general, and datacentre activities in particular, better aligned with business need ­ – and not just at a reporting level.

There are clear connections between governance and compliance projects and the policy-based security and identity management initiatives that are reported to be the most among the most crucial undertakings for this year.

It is interesting that outsourcing and managed services initiatives are again high on the list of work to be started.

The trend highlights how firms are increasingly looking to use skills held by third parties to help IT operate efficiently.

Indeed, the recognition is probably also linked to the fact that technology best practice delivery initiatives feature highly in most organisations.

Of the other enterprise initiatives scoring highly in the research, there are clear links between information lifecycle management projects and content management, workflow and business process management (BPM) initiatives. In fact, BPM and workflow projects could encompass many areas of IT and business as a whole, potentially altering the established work patterns in the datacentre.

As always, desktop modernisation and upgrade initiatives feature highly on IT directors’ priority lists for 2008 ­ – and it will be interesting to see how Microsoft Vista, software as a service and desktop management projects come together over the next year. There is no doubt the datacentre will be affected a s management of the desktop comes to the fore.

Equally, it will be interesting to note how infrastructure optimisation projects topping the list of technology-driven initiatives will be affected by the release in the spring of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008. But how such schemes are put into effect in the datacentre is likely to be shaped by firms’ technology agendas.

As mentioned earlier, general infrastructure optimisation is among the most commonly cited current or planned initiative. Alongside the implementation of sophisticated server and storage platforms, current research shows optimisation in the datacentre is almost certain to make significant use of virtualisation software on both server platforms and storage systems.

IT directors are also looking to make more effective use of systems management tools.

In the past, systems management has often been concerned with simple platform monitoring, but companies are now beginning to use virtualisation and systems management together to allow IT to better match resource use with business need.

Business-defined needs

Such an approach allows firms to exploit resources and provides the opportunity to align IT systems with business-defined needs and goals.

Technology leaders should note that best practice delivery projects are now much in evidence, perhaps highlighting that IT ­ – especially in the datacentre ­ – is finally looking to exploit, or at least use as a basis to be modified, practices and processes that are already established.

Attempts to make best use of existing resources illustrate how energy optimisation and green initiatives are also on the radar of many datacentre managers, although evidence shows that many organisations are far more focused on energy reduction than genuine green projects.

In fact, it is probably fair to say that for many managers, both inside IT and in the wider business, energy consumption, optimisation or minimisation is now a synonym for green, which is a misunderstanding of the fact that environmental initiatives should really be looking at wider, impact-minimisation projects.

By Tony Lock, programme director at analyst Freeform Dynamics