Cloud provider ISVs (CPIs), aka Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) including Salesforce, Microsoft 365 and Google Apps, and ServiceNOW, are becoming increasingly important in many companies, with or without formal IT involvement, writes Wikibon CTO David Floyer in his latest alert: “Keep Your Own Data Close and Your Competitors Data Closer”. Many of these cloud-based services actually run in mega-datacenters such as Switch Communications’ SuperNAP in Las Vegas. This provides an opportunity for companies that need to combine their data in those services with other public or competitor data for business analysis.

In the era of Big Data, Floyer writes, it is vital to keep the analysis as close as possible to the data. He predicts that active data and metadata will migrate from the SAN to flash storage in the server to reduce data latency from milliseconds to microseconds to nanoseconds in part by reducing the distances involved as well as taking advantage of the order-of-magnitude read/write speed improvement of flash over spinning disk.

Companies should identify the mega-center their key CPIs use and move their own legacy systems to that colocation center in part to centralize as much of their business data as possible in one physical location.  The mega-datacenter they chose should also host the cloud data and stream providers for their industry and as many of their competitors as possible. The center should also provide telecommunications services through multiple carriers. If some of their CPIs are not in that mega-datacenter, wherever possible they should move to an alternative CPI that is to avoid data and CPI sprawl.

This reduces the times involved in coalescing the Big Data that the organization needs for its forward-looking data analysis. Moving petabytes of data across a network can take weeks, preventing the kind of near-real time analysis that can allow a company to be first-in on new trends in their industry and markets. That can make a major difference in overall corporate performance.

Overall, he says, “Movement of large amounts of data over networks is a sign of a fundamentally weak data infrastructure architecture and should be avoided like the plague.”

Like all Wikibon research, this Alert is available in full without charge on the Wikibon Web site. IT professionals are invited to register to join the Wikibon community. Membership allows them to post their own questions, tips, and research, as well as comment on published research on the site. Members also receive invitations to the periodic Peer Incite Meetings at which their peers present on how they are using advanced technologies to solve business and technical challenges.