CyrusOne Infrastructure-Rearchitecture Program Launches

CyrusOne Press Release
October 6, 2022

CyrusOne has embarked on an infrastructure-rearchitecture program that will cut our physical server footprint in half, generate more efficiency and create better sustainability outcomes.

Imagine data centers as a delivery truck, the engine and parts as the servers and the packages as the data center services we provide. Like delivery trucks, data centers require routine preventative maintenance on their engines – the servers – to stay in service and run most optimally. But there comes a point where trucks and their engines break down beyond repair. And what if you could also upgrade the trucks and their engines to make them run more efficiently for customers and with less impact on the environment?

CyrusOne gets ahead of breakdowns with a robust life-cycle management program and replaces servers as needed. Senior Director of IT Infrastructure Preston Burkhalter and his team have begun an 18- to 24-month project that will upgrade servers while moving more of our server capacity, data monitoring, data collection and data housing to the cloud. During this life-cycle management effort, we’ll take the opportunity to replace outdated servers with new ones that will run more efficiently, generate less heat and consume less power. Concurrently, we are refreshing applications powering critical infrastructure systems which will allow us to reduce our footprint of servers.

This benefits us and our customers.

First, it will cut the amount of time our IT teams must spend on maintenance, such as ensuring proper operations and patching. Instead, they will soon be able to spend more time and focus on pushing out metrics and KPIs to customers. For example, our Software Engineering team is focused on developing new tools to surface data to our customers. Following this new architecture, our efforts will make it easier for them to securely tap into standardized data outputs for our customers to better manage their global presence.

Second, since the new servers generate less heat and run more efficiently, we use less power to operate and less water to cool our data centers. This means more sustainable operations to meet our ESG goals and match customer demand for the least amount of environmental impact.

Third, by reducing the sheer number of servers we power by nearly 50%, we will focus on efficiencies by cutting cost and waste.

“We’re practicing what we preach,” Burkhalter said. “This drives the overall sustainability program, but it will also help my team because we’ll have less to manage. We can do more with less and focus more on what our customers need from us and less on babysitting things that aren’t customer-facing.”

In sum, we have begun to move away from systems that depend on having physical presences in our data centers and we’re using a cloud hybrid strategy to create better efficiency and service. Our IT team’s job will be easier, our operations will be more sustainable, and our customers will have better service with CyrusOne’s same level of redundancy, data-loss prevention and disaster reliability.