How people cope with self-managed data centers

Self-managing data centers, sometimes called self-driving data centers, are attracting interest from all sides of IT. Large enterprises are seeing the potential for automation to increase profits, and smaller startups are setting their sights on automation to more easily compete.

For better or worse, the IT world has clearly embraced automation. Given the tremendous advances in artificial intelligence, industrial robotics, and device connectivity, it’s only a matter of time before we see and use automation in our daily lives. In some ways, we’ve already reached that point.

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The era of automation has arrived. Although no data center is fully automated yet, many companies are becoming more interested in it. Various automation systems and services are currently launched on the market.

• Scheduling and Monitoring: Organizations can easily automate schedule and timeline tasks using current technology.
• Regulatory compliance: Many systems provide automated measures to ensure compliance with all applicable standards, procedures, and guidelines.
• Software and hardware upgrades: A data center’s internal software and hardware (which provides most of its functionality) are typically maintained, patched, and updated through autonomous protocols.
• Equipment configuration: Many data centers use automated systems to monitor server nodes and their configuration.

While these automated systems are useful, they mark only the beginning of comprehensive data center automation.

Some people may ask, when will self-managing data centers become mainstream? When will self-managing data centers become common? The answer is: soon.

The IT sector, and any industry that relies heavily on IT, is moving towards more automation. Examples include modern production lines with industrial robotics, automated customer service desks and virtual chatbots that provide technical support to end users.

Modern data centers use automation technology not for convenience or to reduce labor costs, but out of necessity. Given the rapid development of information technology, it is impossible for data centers to adopt all innovations.

As a solution, many are adapting the idea of ​​data center automation through different stages. The process is similar to self-driving cars: Level 0 describes a car without any automation technology, where a human controls every aspect of the vehicle or facility. Level 1 cars have some basic functions (such as cruise control), which allows the vehicle to maintain a certain speed, but the driver still has to handle steering.

Levels 2, 3, and 4 all increase the level of automation. Until the highest level of automation, level 5, for cars with level 5 automation, humans are just passengers. For data centers, level 5 automation fully controls the daily operations of programmable artificial intelligence-driven robots and automation systems. IT developers and organizational managers who are freed from the daily management and maintenance of data centers can focus more on future innovations and business plans.

Key benefits of self-managed data centers

Proponents of data center automation highlight the many benefits of self-managing the data center, including:

• Reduced staff requirements: Large organizations can improve profitability by reducing headcount through adoption and automation. Startups can use automation systems to fill job roles that were not otherwise fulfilled.
• Reduced costs: An often cited benefit of data center automation is reduced business costs. With fewer staff, other employees can be assigned more meaningful work, so the potential for reducing daily costs is huge.
• Reduced Errors: Humans are bound to make mistakes. Even the most skilled and diligent employees make mistakes. Mistakes can be very costly to an organization’s business. An automated system will only make mistakes if it is programmed incorrectly, whereas a 100 percent accurate program will perform an absolutely perfect task every time.
• Real-time responsiveness: Skilled workers regularly adapt to new situations and projects, but it still takes time to transition from one task to another. Robotic and AI-driven systems can multitask, take on new tasks, and complete operations much faster than a human worker could.
• Greater data security: Automated security systems can minimize the impact of data breaches or similar incidents. Currently, manual systems require human response and solutions to resolve issues, a process that can take hours, days, or even weeks. Automated systems can resolve these issues immediately and work in real time to fix security vulnerabilities.

Automation in the data center has the potential to change the way data is stored and processed in positive and lasting ways. But automation has its own drawbacks that need to be considered before going all-in.

Disadvantages of self-managed data centers to consider

Opponents of automation adoption have a number of valid points, some of which are directly contrary to the benefits outlined by proponents:

• Fewer jobs: Proponents of data center automation point out that adopting automation will reduce the need for staff, but this may mean that IT professionals will have a harder time finding jobs in their field of expertise. This is especially true for those trying to launch a career in the data center, as robots are taking over many entry-level jobs that humans once did.
• Low consumer confidence: Despite automation’s advancement across all sectors, including among mainstream consumers, confidence in automation technology is still lacking and remains a major barrier to full automation in the data center.
• System failures are possible: Just as skilled workers are bound to make mistakes, highly complex machines are also prone to failures. Some may not experience serious hardware failures for years or decades. But after a failure occurs, the organization will find that it ultimately needs to rely on the response of human workers to restore the system to normal operation.

As you can see, the concept of a fully automated data center is an abstract one. Humans will be needed, at least for a while, to monitor and manage these systems.

How do people accept the concept of autonomous data center management?

While IT staff, especially those working in data centers, may worry about the increased workload that will come with increased automation, workers can work in tandem with automated systems. While some menial tasks will need to be completed, don’t worry: programming, maintenance, and supervisory roles will always be filled by workers who specialize in AI and robotics.