Atos Origin’s Global Data Center Strategy
Atos Origin has recently reviewed and revised its plans for data centers. Essentially we are looking to grow and align our (twin) data center capacity while accommodating newly-emerging standards, especially as regards power and cooling. Furthermore, we remain committed to providing high-quality data center services on a global basis as well as our desire to minimise customer disruption.
Data centers are the heart of our Managed Operations services. Almost all of the services we deliver depend to some degree on those data centers, and without reliable data center services Atos Origin would find it very difficult to meet its current service delivery requirements and impossible to meet the latest organic growth targets.
As you would expect, as an outsourcing company in a dynamic world, we are almost bound to have too many data centers, often of an aging nature, as we take them over from our customers. Country organisations have therefore been developing plans concerning the rationalisation of those centers for some time now, but there is always scope for greater alignment and consolidation to increase operational efficiency and service quality.
Recent market developments
Along with our competitors in the IT services business, we have seen a rise in demand for (especially twin) data center-based services in recent months and years. Customers also demand ever-increasing qualities of service from their data centers; qualities which they are finding ever harder to fulfil for themselves:
- Levels of availability: the services need to be there “7 x 24 x forever”
- Security and continuity, not only from the perceived threats of terrorism
- Compliance to a complicated super-set of governmental and industry standards
- The ability to cope with systems that consume ever-higher amounts of power, and thus also cooling
- Energy-efficiency, in view of concerns about climate change
What does the new strategy encompass?
The strategy fulfils a number of major requirements:
- Accommodating the growth of (twin) data center capacity
- Accommodating newly-emerging data centre standards, especially as regards power and cooling
- Alignment of our global data center developments, so that we can deliver common services to global customers
- Becoming more “green”, by using less energy and resources
- Optimizing our investments needed
We are continuing to develop the strategy based on three major areas:
- Defining common global services and levels, aligned to and evolving with our complete portfolio
- Further development of the selected physical sites to fulfil those services
- Architectural approaches as to how we can assemble customer solutions from those facilities
Next steps
The strategy covers a timeframe of 5 – 10 years. Over that period, we envisage a sizeable and scalable twin center facility in each of the major European countries (France, Germany, The Netherlands and the UK). Those and other global facilities may well also need to be combined in various ways, and we would expect to form stronger operational links between adjacent countries.
The strategy also involves the establishment of a planned lifecycle for data centers. This would include identifying the circumstances in which they should be improved, renovated or closed, and ensuring that this is feasible and manageable. Clearly this means that some existing centers will continue as the core of our ongoing services, while others will need to be closed and consolidated.
Each country involved is currently working on determining the specific impact for each of their data centers and this will be made known locally as appropriate.