I saw the cover of Computer world the other day with a title of "Swinging toward centralization". I'm not one to be jumping on trends but I think this idea has merit. To me, it ties into virtualization, possibly cloud computing, and also the IBM concepts of the smart planet.

Centralized IT could mean first the optimization of hardware resources. The best approach is to use virtualization so all the hardware resources can be used optimally. For example, instead of having, let say 100 computers running at 50%-70% utilization, you can centralize and use virtualization and either reduce the number of computers to around 70 or use the extra capacity for growth. This is a pretty conservative example. Just consider this quote from Computer World, April 20, 20009:

"Austin Energy: With a new virtual environment, applications run on 150 servers instead of 600"

Centralization gives you this opportunity. Note that I'm talking about centralizing the hardware resources. If you centralize processing for one large application, you'll likely need the help of advance features such as IDS Continuous availablity (CAF) and the integrated replication capabilities (HDR and ER).

Centralization does not mean that the personnel must also be centralized. Today, network access is pretty much a fact of life (I so wanted to use the word ubiquitous!). All the application and system management can be done from anywhere. For IDS, just consider the Open Admin Tool for IDS (OAT) or management tools from our partners such as AGS and CobraSonic. Managers can consider these resources as part of a "cloud".

What a nice segway to my next point

We hear a lot about cloud computing. You can buy time on some machines in the cloud. We could also mention software as a service like in the case of LotusLive (see https://www.lotuslive.com/en/) or the IBM cloud offering. This does not mean that you have to go outside to have a cloud. You could create a cloud from your centralized data center and provide capacity on-demand based on resource optimization.

When we talk about a large centralized data center, the server consolidation is only part of the savings. the saving in energy can be significant. The other day, I listened to a presentation by an IBMer that manages a large data center providing services worldwide. Here are the type of things he did:

His team installed active RFID sensors to monitor the temperature and humidity levels in different areas of his data center, including multiple locations in the racks, and at different times. With this information, he was able to clearly identify machine needs. At one point, he was able to identify that if he installed a (raised) floor tile with holes at a specific location, he could eliminate his "hot spot" without increasing his air conditioning needs. He even figured out the correlation between applications and machines heat output. So he can regulate the room temperature based on which application is running!

Talk about a great example of a smarter planet: instrumented, interconnected, intelligent (devices).