岱凯中国区首席执行官陆志宏

近期，我们发布了2017年IT行业发展趋势，对数字技术的关注预计仍是未来12个月IT行业的关键趋势。而数字化基础设施是其中的重要发展方向之一。关于数字化基础设施，我们看到了如下趋势：

Trend 1: Integrated hybrid IT environments become central to delivering the speed and user experience the business expects

趋势一：集成混合IT环境成为实现企业预期的发展速度和用户体验的关键所在

There’s growing acceptance that technology is hybrid. And it’s not a future state. Hybrid IT has arrived. For CIOs, this brings the challenge of ensuring that the various elements of their hybrid environments come together to deliver a single integrated set of services.

越来越多的人认为技术是混合型的。而这并不是未来时的发展状态。混合IT已经到来。这给CIO带来了挑战——确保其混合环境的各种要素能够汇集到一起，实现统一集成的一系列服务。

I use the term ‘services’ very deliberately. I’ll explain why…

我刻意地使用了“服务”一词。下面我将解释为什么。

If you were building a data centre a few years ago, your biggest concern would be uniting the different technologies within your facility. So you’d evaluate different tools to help you achieve this. Security would be a key consideration that guided many of the decisions made. Next, you’d turn your attention to middleware: here it was all about integrating tiers of applications to deliver a single, end-to-end application experience.

如果你在几年前建设一个数据中心，你最关心的问题是怎样把不同的技术在你的设施内统一起来。所以，你会评估不同的工具来帮助你完成。安全性将是指导你做出许多决定的关键考虑因素。接下来，你会把注意力转向中间件：这里实际上就是集成各种应用程序，以提供单端到端应用体验。

Fast-forward to today. In the world of hybrid IT, you’re acquiring capabilities from a variety of different sources. Some may be provided by your own IT department, and some might be software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications such as Salesforce. It’s likely that much of it will be infrastructure-as-a-service, delivered from cloud providers.

时间快速发展到今天。在混合IT世界里，你通过各种不同的方式获得功能性。有些可能由你自己的IT部门提供，有些可能是Salesforce等软件即服务（SaaS）应用程序。很可能是云提供商提供的基础设施即服务。

DevOps has also evolved. Today, developers typically use a variety of portals – some may work in Amazon, others in Azure – and they’ll create applications using a combination of different toolsets. Next, they move the applications into production. Here again, there are many options. Production might take place in the very clouds where development took place, or it could be done in an internal VMware, Microsoft, or Zen production environment.

DevOps也有所发展。现在，开发人员通常使用各种门户网站——一些可能在Amazon上，一些在Azure上，他们把各种不同的工具集组合起来创建应用程序。接下来，他们将应用程序移入到产品中。这里也会有很多选择。生产和开发可能都在云中进行，或者在内部VMware、Microsoft或Zen生产环境中完成。

Now the burning question is: ‘How do I bring these services together securely, and deliver a single cohesive experience to my customers and employees?’

现在的问题是：“我如何将这些服务安全地结合在一起，并且让我的客户和员工有一致的体验？”

Rationalise and optimise

合理化和优化

One way to optimise your hybrid IT environment is to rationalise the number of participants within it, especially the number of clouds you’re using. If you’ve always required a dual-sourcing strategy, leveraging just one single cloud isn’t an option, but it’s unlikely that you need more than three or four at the infrastructure level, in addition to the SaaS choices.

优化混合IT环境的一个方法是使参与其中的各要素的数量合理化，特别是你正在使用的云的数量。如果你总是需要双源方式，那就不能选择只利用一个云，但除了SaaS选择之外，在基础架构级别上不太可能需要三到四个以上。

Optimising the network is also critical. Failure to do so will impact your ability to provide a high-quality user experience. And it will introduce unwelcome costs that can negate the promised value of cloud.

优化网络资源同样也非常关键，否则会影响你提供高质量用户体验的能力。这也会带来不希望看到的无法体现云的价值的成本问题。

Many organisations see value in enlisting the expertise of a managed services provider to help them integrate the disparate elements within their environments and to deliver the speed and user experience their business requires, while maintaining their security posture.

许多企业认识到利用专业的托管服务提供商的重要性，这可以帮助他们通过整合其环境中不同的要素，来实现他们企业所需要的速度和用户体验，同时保障他们的安全态势。

Trend 2: Hyper-convergence and flash storage bring operational benefits – and challenges – to the data centre

趋势二：超融合和闪存存储为数据中心带来了运行优势和挑战

Over the last year, we’ve seen a number of disruptive data centre technologies coming to market. These have great appeal in terms of speed and ease of use at dramatically improved price performance.

在过去一年里，我们看到一些颠覆性的数据中心技术进入了市场。这些技术在速度和易用性方面有很大的优势，极大地提高了性价比。

Vendors of these products promise to deliver ‘a cloud-like experience inside your own data centre’. However, the challenge with adopting these technologies is that they impact how you manage your environment.

这些产品的供应商承诺在你自己的数据中心内实现类似云的体验。然而，采用这些技术的难点在于它们会影响你如何管理你的环境。

Hyper-convergence

超融合(Hyper-convergence)

Hyper-convergence changes all your internal processes because most of them were originally built around the separation of the network, storage, and compute layers. Hyper-convergence allows you to operate all three under a single stack.

超融合会改变所有内部进程，因为它们大多数最初是围绕各自独立的网络、存储和计算层而开发构建的。超融合允许你在一个机架内运行所有这三层。

But while hyper-convergence vendors have all achieved various levels of integration within their products, most have done very little integration with the network, or considered one another’s products. So a process that works for one may not work with another and as a result, you’re limited to undertaking very device-specific technical activities.

但是，虽然超融合供应商已经在其产品中实现了不同级别的集成，但是大多数供应商在网络方面的集成非常少，对彼此的产品也考虑不够。因此，适用于某一产品的进程未必适合另一产品，这导致了你只能进行与具体设备相关的技术开发。

This limits how many of these products can actually be implemented, and – going back to the point I made earlier about dual-sourcing – nobody wants to be locked-in. Yes, the ability to move into production in a short period of time is alluring, but be aware that these products do come with the risk of creating operational islands.

这就限制了这些产品能够实际实现的数量——回到我之前对双源的观点，没有人愿意受到限制。是的，在短时间内就能够投产是非常诱人的，但要清楚地知道，这些产品确实带来了建立运行孤岛的风险。

Flash storage

闪存存储

Flash storage is another disruptive technology. When it was introduced a few years ago, it came with a hefty price tag, so businesses only used it in very specific areas where they absolutely needed the speed it delivered. Today, however, its cost is more aligned with that of traditional storage, so it’s getting more attention.

闪存存储是另一种颠覆性的技术。几年前推出时，它给人的印象是居高不下的价格，所以企业只将其应用于绝对需要其速度的特殊领域。然而现在，它的成本和传统存储差不多，所以得到了更多的关注。

The appeal of using flash is that it delivers high levels of performance, and it dramatically simplifies the management of physical storage devices. Our clients tell us that today, they’re using flash for 15─20% of their estate, but in future they foresee that they’ll use it exclusively, as it makes everything easier and interchangeable.

闪存更吸引人是因为它性能更高，并且大大简化了物理存储设备的管理。我们的客户告诉我们，目前，他们使用闪存的比例大概是15％-20％，但在未来，他们预计只会使用它，因为这让一切更容易实现而且可互换。

However, flash can introduce new operational challenges. That’s because it disrupts the processes within your existing environment for managing storage and it affects decisions about where you want your information to be.

然而，闪存可能带来新的运行挑战。这是因为它会破坏现有环境中用于管理存储的进程，也会影响你决定在哪里存放你的信息。

So, instead of focusing on managing units of storage, you’re now going to have to address where your information needs to reside in order to get the most business value from it.

因此，现在不是专注于管理存储单元，而是必须解决信息存放在哪里的问题，进而从中充分发挥企业价值。

In addition, network performance can be a stumbling block for successful flash deployments and connectivity requirements need to be carefully considered.

此外，网络性能可能是成功实现闪存部署的障碍，需要仔细考虑连接要求。

Trend 3: Data centres are moving closer to the cloud

趋势三：数据中心越来越接近云

I was recently asked by the CIO of one of our global automotive clients how we could help them move their applications closer to the cloud and to low-latency points in the network through a co-location arrangement. Many businesses are even questioning whether they want their own data centre at all. Those that do want their own usually are those with sufficient scale and business differentiating processing needs.

最近，我们的一位全球汽车客户的首席信息官问到我，我们如何帮助他们通过协同安排让应用更靠近云端和网络中的低延迟点。许多企业甚至怀疑他们是否需要自己的数据中心。那些想拥有自己数据中心的企业通常有大规模和业务差异化处理过程这类需求。
Of course this wouldn’t be something that the automotive client would do overnight – they see it as part of a long term strategic plan ─ and something that would likely coincide with their next technology refresh. Whichever technologies form part of that refresh would be moved into a data centre that’s co-located with, or at least has a low-latency cross-connect to, the major cloud providers.

当然，这不可能是汽车客户一夜之间做成的——他们认为这是长期战略规划的一部分，也有可能是他们下一次技术更新所需要的。无论更新采用哪种技术，都要迁移到与主要云提供商在一起的数据中心，或者至少是与主要云提供商有低延迟交叉连接的数据中心。

This conversation is one of many that we’ve had with our clients over the last year. As part of the NTT Group – the largest data centre space provider in the world – we receive many requests from organisations that are looking for help in moving to a data centre that can provide them with a high-speed network to the cloud, as well as to the Internet.

过去一年里，我们的客户与我们进行了很多类似的会话。作为NTT集团（世界上最大的数据中心空间提供商）的一部分，我们收到了许多企业的申请，这些企业正在寻求帮助，希望能够迁移到为云和互联网提供高速网络的数据中心。

Trend 4: Applications are defining infrastructures

趋势四：应用正在定义基础设施

In the world of hybrid IT, it’s important that you make infrastructure purchasing decisions from an applications perspective.

在混合IT世界中，从应用角度看，基础设施采购决策很重要。

Years ago, when the focus in the data centre was all on technology standardisation, developers would have to write their applications to the standards defined by the IT department.

多年前，当数据中心关注的重点全都在技术标准化上时，开发人员必须按照IT部门定义的标准来编写其应用程序。

That’s all changed: in today’s hybrid IT world, major application sets are being delivered in a hybrid environment. Developers are composing applications, sometimes using in-house resources and environments, sometimes not ... so the infrastructure needs to be able to support the applications, with high levels of automation and programmability, from wherever they’re sourced to ensure an integrated outcome.

这一切已经发生了改变：在当今的混合IT世界中，主要的应用程序是在混合环境中交付的。开发人员编写应用程序，有时使用内部资源和环境，有时不使用。因此基础设施应能够支持具有高水平的自动化和可编程能力的应用程序，无论源自哪里，都能够确保集成成果。

With the trend to increasing hybrid options through technologies like containers, businesses need an approach that ensures the flexibility needed as the application models evolve.

随着诸如容器之类的技术带动了混合型选项的日益增加，企业需要一种灵活的适应应用模型发展的方法。

Speeding DevOps to production

加速从DevOps迁移到生产环境

Most importantly, every infrastructure plan needs to consider how to move quickly from DevOps into production.

最重要的是，每一基础设施计划都需要考虑如何从DevOps快速迁移到生产环境。

A few years ago, businesses would typically issue 1─2 change releases per year. Today, even organisations that are still running mainframes are putting out up to seven changes a day. And the Facebooks of the world release thousands of changes a day.

几年前，企业通常每年发布1到2次更新。今天，即使是仍在运行大型机的企业，每天也会发布7个更新。Facebook每天的更新甚至达到成千上万次。

Achieving this speed and agility calls for a shift in mindset about how you build your applications, and how you move application development into production. Most companies don’t have processes, or the infrastructure software integration skills, that support this new model, so they elect to engage a managed services provider to assist.

要实现这种速度和敏捷性需要改变思维方式——怎样构建你的应用程序，怎样将应用程序开发变为产品。大多数公司没有支持这种新模式的过程或者基础设施软件集成能力，因此他们选择聘请管理服务提供商来提供帮助。

Trend 5: The Internet of Things is delivering on the promise of big data

趋势五：物联网实现了大数据的承诺

Increasingly, big data projects are going through multiple updates in a single year – and the Internet of Things (IoT) is largely the reason.

越来越多的大数据项目在一年内经历了多次更新——物联网（IoT）是这方面很大的原因。

In the past, big data was a somewhat abstract concept. The idea was that if you looked long enough at big data sets, you’d be able to find patterns that would add business value. That approach was time-consuming, and the returns were uncertain.

过去，大数据是一个有点抽象的概念。其概念是，如果你能够长时间研究大数据集，你将能够找到有助于增加商业价值的模式。这种方法比较费时，回报也是不确定的。

IoT makes the whole exercise more concrete as it provides you with very specific things to look for. For example, some of our manufacturing clients are looking into their machine maintenance windows so that they can start to predict when they need to perform maintenance, and so keep improving their manufacturing quality standards.

物联网使整个过程更具体，因为它为你提供了非常具体的东西。例如，我们的一些制造客户想确定他们的机器维护窗口，这样，他们可以开始推测何时需要进行维护，从而不断提高他们的制造质量标准。

So IoT makes it possible for you to examine specific patterns that will deliver specific business outcomes. This in turn is driving a healthier investment in big data projects and a faster return on them – because now businesses know what they’re looking for.

因此，物联网支持你去查找具体的模式，实现具体的商业产出。这反过来又推动了对大数据项目更合理的投入，并更快地获得回报——因为现在企业知道他们需要什么。

The network itself is also becoming a source of business intelligence. The information it contains about how people move around and interact can be used to improve services or health and safety. For example, in a retail environment, even without you knowing, the network can track where you’re walking, and how long you dwell in a particular area. This information can be linked back to architectural maps and provide rich insights to retail marketers about the foot traffic through their stores.

网络本身也是企业智能的一部分。它包含的关于人们如何移动和交互的信息可以用于改善服务或者健康和安全。例如，在零售环境中，网络在你不知道的情况下也可以跟踪你去了什么地方，以及在某一区域停留了多长时间。这些信息可以链接回建筑物地图，向零售营销人员提供有关人流在其商店内行迹的深入分析。

With the infrastructure in place and the business return in sight, new uses of the data start to emerge and the true promise of big data will be realised.

随着基础设施的建立完善，企业有望很快得到回报，数据开始出现新的用途并且大数据的承诺用也将实现。

What are the implications for infrastructure?

对于基础设施意味着什么?

The marriage of big data and IoT has some significant infrastructure implications. What storage infrastructure do you require? How do you compose your network to support both long range outdoor Wi-Fi links to battery powered sensors; and to move large data sets around for analysis? What are the implications for your data governance policy?

大数据和物联网的结合对基础设施有很大的影响。你需要什么样的存储基础设施?你如何构建网络以同时支持远程室外Wi-Fi链路和电池供电的传感器以及对移动大数据集进行分析？这对你的数据管控策略有什么影响？

And, of course, you need to make your infrastructure decisions based on what’s going to deliver the business outcomes you’re looking for the fastest.

当然，你应该根据最快能够得到的企业产出来做出基础设施决策。

In order to expedite the returns from their big data investments, many organisations are opting for cloud- or managed services-based infrastructure for IoT and big data. This approach allows them to focus on the value of the data instead of spending months or years building infrastructure themselves.

为尽快得到大数据投资回报，许多企业为物联网和大数据选择了基于云或者管理服务的基础设施。这种方法使他们能够专注于数据的价值，而不用花费数月或者数年的时间去建立基础设施本身。

We believe technology is the key that unlocks potential for businesses, and for the world, in ways we’re only beginning to comprehend. By applying our capabilities in digital infrastructure, hybrid cloud, workspaces for tomorrow, and cybersecurity, we look forward to continuing to help our clients accelerate their journeys to become digital businesses in 2017.

我们认为，技术是发挥企业潜力的关键，我们还只是开始理解整个世界。通过在数字基础设施、混合云、未来工作空间和网络空间安全方面施展我们的能力，我们期待继续帮助客户在2017年加速成为数字企业的进程。