Predictions for IT Operations, 2019: Death of the Data Center

The data center has been the mainstay of most IT operations since the inception of computing. While time-sharing capabilities (essentially cloud computing) in the 1970s had a brief heyday, on-premise equipment has been a strategic necessity for reliability and for controlling an organization's long-term digital direction.

Wide area network improvements, heightened cost concerns, security fears, and IT vendor shifts toward recurring pricing have brought forth cloud as a compelling offering. Still, on-premise data centers remain entrenched by a cautious IT organization that is wary of change and struggles to justify its existence to business management.

It is time to call the struggle over. The data center is dead.