Do you think CIOs & IT administrators of enterprises & organizations have been caught unaware of the sheer gravity of the Covid-19?
The whole world was unprepared for such pandemic and its effect and preparing for unprepared is what technology evolution is all about. Humans would always be the core of every management, but with the leverage that today’s datacentres can be managed from even remote places has benefited enterprises to ensure that in the middle of crises the work does not get hampered. With restricted movement, there has been an effect on day-to-day activities, but the way CIOs and IT administrators have managed the situation is applauding.
In what ways has the COVID-19 pandemic brought in challenges to the very idea of BC&DR?
Due to the migration of human resources and initial lockdown, there was a time when BCDR (business continuity and disaster recovery) plans were impacted; but now, with businesses and industries restoring and functioning normally, the recovery has started.
The work-from-home (WFH) and learn-from-home (LFH) are more like the need of the hour rather than an answer. With constant focus to avoid spreading of the virus and due to lockdown, this was the best possible solution that businesses could focus on to ensure continuity of the work. But, this has also taught us the best utilization of the technology. With Delta Electronics work from home UPS solutions, our customers can enjoy uninterrupted power services at home.
Also, the new learning with respect to WFH and data accessibility during the lockdown period has resulted in increasing enquiries for space and services at data centers and this trend is expected to gather further momentum. The COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown and WFH have multiplied digital and online transactions, reflected in greater demand for collaborative tools like Zoom or usage of enterprise applications such as SAP or net banking.
Even on the consumer side, over the-top or OTT platforms for entertainment such as Netflix and Hotstar require a robust and scalable data infrastructure as data traffic surges.
There is an increase in data centre capacity usage, and we believe that post the Covid 19 situation, the working style will continue to be data center-driven and demand growth will continue.
As a vendor of power conditioning systems (UPS systems) for datacenters, how do you look at the BC&DR getting affected?
The constantly evolving datacentre environment has enabled enterprises to maintain business continuity during these challenging times. At Delta Electronics India, our team has been supporting the businesses in their focus towards maintaining uptime with regards to IT assets. No matter the power design is Tier-III or Tier-IV, having minimum 2N UPS architecture, downtime or even a planned shutdown of single N feed is a risky and complex task. Hence, a true modular hot-swappable UPS is the best option for meeting these challenges. A modular hot-swappable UPS will help avoid any shutdown in most conditions and also failure of few critical components does not mean downtime of any feed. A downtime or shutdown in a live data center is highly risky and also involves lot of approvals, which can be avoided. Also, unutilized power capacity can be re-deployed with true modular hot-swappable architecture.
Do you also help them in remotely managing UPS systems running datacenters and allied IT infrastructure?
With the rising demand for computing and storage, it is essential to keep a check on energy consumption to avoid high power costs, where DCIM solutions are becoming necessary in reducing costs. Apart from minimizing data center operating expenses, DCIM solutions also help businesses achieve the operative objective and strategize the future plan. We have Delta InfraSuite Manager Solutions that belongs among the ranks of the truly comprehensive DCIM solutions that are designed to cover all of the enterpriseÊs infrastructure management needs. InfraSuite Manager was designed with a modular structure, including seven modules, to ease implementation and simplify later upgrades. This module includes a base model (operations), energy, slide show, assets, capacity, work order asset inspection. With the implementation of DCIM solutions, an enterprise can enable better capacity management, detecting problems that can limit availability,
reducing energy consumption, increasing asset utilization, and reducing staffing needs.