| The public cloud has many benefits: it can be delivered on-demand and is based on a more flexible operating model without expensive capital investments, as opposed to rigid traditional architectures. Nick Parfitt, principal analyst for DCD's Asia Pacific (APAC) region, said it was inevitable that Australian organisations would still have their own data centres to adapt to the emergence of public infrastructure. |
The appeal of cloud computing
"The appeal of cloud computing goes way beyond that," Parfitt noted. Australia's economy is largely based on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and is far more mature than most other economies. This is because it is isolated and this is because Australia is sparsely populated. This means a relatively small number of companies are about to build their own data centers, and while there is evidence some companies are investing in upgrading existing in-house data center facilities, many are looking to move their operations away from legacy systems. "
As previously reported by industry media, the Australian government has long advocated a cloud-first approach to take advantage of the greater functionality and efficiency that cloud computing offers. How has government cloud adoption progressed over the past three years? According to Parfitt, migration projects have had pedagogical successes but have also failed due to inexperience.
“The NSW government sector delivering services to clients’ private and public clouds is considered a blueprint for other local government services in Australia. Likewise, GovDC’s IT support for NSW public sector staff has embarked on a cloud-based approach. The road to computing service catalogs," Parfitt said.
Peter Adcock, vice president of design and construction at Digital Realty's APAC region, said an Australian Bureau of Statistics report released in 2017 showed that about a third of Australian businesses had adopted commercial cloud offerings. If one uses hyperscale deployments as a metric, cloud computing will grow.
"The exponential growth in the use of cloud computing at hyperscale in recent years has allowed us to accelerate the pace at which we expand our data centre business in Australia," Adcock said, "especially for Melbourne and Sydney, which has been the case.... ..besides start-ups and local businesses, we've also seen a number of major multinationals make huge commitments to Australia's hyperscale data centre capacity."
But while the adoption of cloud computing has eroded on-premises data centre and colocation demand, Parfitt pointed out that the impact of cloud computing adoption in Australia is less pronounced than in places like the US. Citing the results of a recent DCD survey, he noted that Australia is a larger colocation market compared to other APAC markets.
However, the appeal of cloud computing is real, and the trend toward higher computing densities inherent in cloud computing deployments also puts additional pressure on traditional data centers. Parfitt admits this: "The data center requirement used to be 50 racks, now it's 10."
"The big data centre providers are doing a good job of providing an environment that cloud providers can use. They're delivering modules, scalability, high densities of up to 10kW per rack, well above the Australian average, and This is achieved by providing resiliency and availability," he explained.
Adcock said: “Today’s data centers must operate at hyperscale capabilities to remain competitive, provide new services, and meet changing demands. Hyperscale data centers are expected to account for the vast majority of data center traffic by 2020. , and data center refreshes and hyperscale deployments will also increase.”
In fact, data center providers have had some success with hyperscale deployments. Adcock noted that Digital Realty's first Melbourne data center facility is fully leased to an Australian bank, and construction of a 14 MW SYD11 data center facility is due to be completed this year.
But traditional data center providers aren't necessarily suited for hyperscale deployments? Parfitt says he doesn't see them comfortable with the status quo: "Data center providers are shifting from a facility delivery model, they're moving to services, whether it's colocation or colocation, that Customers add value.”
"We expect Australian businesses to start adopting hybrid solutions, modernising or retrofitting their existing systems in line with global trends," Adcock said.
"When adopting cloud computing, most companies generally build public clouds before moving to private clouds," he said, noting that the Australian data center market is expected to reach $2.055 billion by 2021.
What's next?
Adcock noted that the upcoming development will attract enterprises to implement, even those that are not in favor of hyperscale deployments: "A key driver of data center growth is edge data centers, which are small facilities at the edge of the network. End users and Devices need to respond quickly, with minimal latency, while avoiding the latency typically associated with routing to a centralized data center.”
“In a country as large as Australia, edge data centers have the delivery speed and reliability advantages that they offer. Businesses will start to rely more on edge solutions, especially in remote areas,” he said.
Whatever happens in the future, there can't be just one deployment method, which means on-premises, hosting and cloud computing have to adapt to each other.
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