There is no doubt that our organisations are becoming ever more data centric, wanting to know how we can gain insight into our day to day operations and continue to be competitive and relevant to our customers, while delivering a wide range of new experiences for them.

This move to a more data driven environment is also altering the way we engage and even purchase technology in our businesses, with technology decisions now no longer the preserve of IT people.

These changes do mean we need to reconsider how we design and deliver technology. Which has led to the idea of “The Next Generation Datacenter”, but what does that mean? What is a Next Generation Datacentre?

That is the subject of this week’s podcast, as I’m joined by Martin Cooper, Senior Director of the Next Generation Datacentre Group (NGDC), at NetApp.

With over 25 years in the technology industry, Martin is well placed to understand the changes that are needed to meet our increasingly digitally driven technology requirements.

In this episode, we look at a wide range of topics, starting with trying to define what we mean by Next Generation Datacentre. The good news is that NGDC is not necessarily about buying a range of new technologies, but about optimising the processes and technology that we already have.

We touch on how a modern business needs flexibility in its operations and how decisions made in different parts of the business, who focus on applications and data, not infrastructure, require IT teams to respond in an application and data focused way.

Martin also discusses the types of organisations that can benefit from this NGDC way of thinking, and how in fact, it’s not about entire organisations, but about understanding where the opportunities for transformation exist, and delivering change there, be that an entire business, a single department or even a single application.

We also provide a word of caution and how it’s important to understand that not all our current applications and infrastructure are going to migrate to this brave new world of Next Generation Datacentres.

Next Generation Datacentre is not about a technology purchase, but is about understanding how to optimise the things we do, to meet our changing business needs and Martin provides some excellent insight into how we do that and the kind of areas we need to consider.

To find out more from Martin and from NetApp you can follow them in all the usual ways.

Their website Netapp.com

On twitter @NetApp @NetAppEMEA

You can also follow Martin @mr_coops

Martin also mentioned a selection of podcasts that often discuss next generation datacentre, you can find more details on those shows by clicking the links below.

SpeakingINTech

The Cloudcast

NetApp’s own TechONTAP podcast.

I hope you enjoyed the show, if you did and want to catch all future Tech Interviews episodes, then please subscribe and leave us a review in all of the normal places.