It is no longer practical or cost-effective to completely engineer all aspects of a unique data center. Re-use of proven, documented subsystems or complete designs is a best practice for both new data centers and for upgrades to existing data centers. Adopting a well-conceived reference design can have a positive impact on both the project itself, as well as on […]

Small server rooms and branch offices are typically unorganized, unsecure, hot, unmonitored, and space constrained. These conditions can lead to system downtime or, at the very least, lead to “close calls” that get management’s attention. Practical experience with these problems reveals a short list of effective methods to improve the availability of IT operations within small server rooms and branch […]

Data center systems or subsystems that are pre-assembled in a factory are often described with terms like prefabricated, containerized, modular, skid-based, pod-based, mobile, portable, self-contained, all-in-one, and more. There are, however, important distinctions between the various types of factory-built building blocks on the market. This paper proposes standard terminology for categorizing the types of prefabricated modular data centers, defines and […]

IT virtualization, the engine behind cloud computing, can have significant consequences on the data center physical infrastructure (DCPI). Higher power densities that often result can challenge the cooling capabilities of an existing system. Reduced overall energy consumption that typically results from physical server consolidation may actually worsen the data center’s power usage effectiveness (PUE). Dynamic loads that vary in time […]

In a 2015 Forrester customer service survey to more than 7,000 adults in the United States, 77% stated their top priority is to have companies value their time. Optimizing your contact center to support customer expectations has an invaluable impact on satisfaction and loyalty. The white paper “Contact Centers Must Go Digital or Die” illustrates: • How to deploy digital […]

Employees aren‘t quitting their jobs—they’re quitting their bosses. That’s bad news for organizations planning for innovation, succession, and market longevity. Human capital is an organization’s most valuable resource—and turnover is expensive not just in terms of sourcing, rehiring, and training costs, but also lost productivity. See how Employees, Managers, and Executives benefit from using a Unified Talent Management approach.

Today’s executives don’t hold HR in very high esteem: according to Deloitte, “42 percent of business leaders believe their HR teams are underperforming or just getting by, compared to the 27 percent who rate HR as excellent or good when assessing HR and talent programs.” Learn how HR can become a strategic partner to the C-Suite.

In this white paper, IHS Infonetics Research discusses how businesses are steadily migrating voice and Unified Communications (UC) to a hosted cloud model. This trend enables seamless use of emails, text messages, instant messages, voice and video—from anywhere. However, key business applications largely remain in their own silos. The paper describes the next wave of unification, which involves integrating applications—from […]