The urgent global need for data center transformation is driving demand for next-generation data center partners to manage disruptive technologies and focus on business outcomes
Dimension Data, the $5.8 billion global ICT solutions and services provider, today announced that it will quadruple the size of its data center business to $4 billion in the next five years.
The Group's existing $1 billion data center business has a significant presence in all major regions worldwide. It is looking to aggressively grow and scale these businesses both organically and through acquisition. In addition, Dimension Data believes its access to a significant set of data center assets across its parent company, the NTT Group, differentiates the business.
"In all regions and with all clients, large and small, there is an urgent need to undergo the transformation process needed to not only achieve better data center performance and manage disruptive technologies, but to also become progressively greener, in terms of environmental custodianship," says Steve Joubert, Group Executive for the Data Center Business Unit.
Although all of Dimension Data's geographical markets are targeting exponential growth, analysis shows there will be higher rates of development in mature regions such as North America and Europe, given the legacy data center investments in those regions that require transformation. For many organizations, the most cost effective way of navigating the future will be through IT-as-a-Service, managed services, and outsourcing.
Cloud, virtualization 3.0, and "software-defined everything" have changed the data center landscape forever. New workloads, users, connected devices, and locations are compounding the pressure on the data center. Dimension Data's clients are asking for help in dealing with all of this in a way that helps their data center become a true 'business response center' capable of being agile and speedy when the business needs it to be.
"Getting there requires an integrated approach in the secure delivery of workloads and applications across the traditional data center, cloud and the enterprise network, all of which make up the next-generation data center," continued Joubert. "This calls for a level and range of capabilities that the average organization doesn't have and shouldn't need to build or acquire when all of the considerable benefits of cloud, networking, security, and systems integration experience, as well as economies of scale and a global footprint, are available through Dimension Data."
Currently Dimension Data operates 12 public cloud locations around the world with further locations coming online in the next few quarters. Dimension Data significantly extends its cloud locations through its OneCloud partners, giving it one of the largest cloud footprints in the world.
Additionally, Dimension Data offers its clients significant benefits as part of its membership of the NTT Group. NTT is the world's second largest provider of data center space, with some 243 secure data centers globally. Dimension Data also has access to NTT Data's application and workload capabilities in industrial-strength solutions and services around SAP for example; and to the 6,000 engineers in NTT facilities who have built some of the most advanced data centers in the world. This, coupled with Dimension Data's investment in people, process, and management capabilities of next-generation data centers, provides a massive advantage in the market.
