Video: Get up to speed on the 21st century data center

Today's data centers are more critical than ever as the nerve centers of modern business. However, if their resources aren't managed diligently, then costs can easily spiral out of control.

There are new technologies that can make data centers more flexible, more powerful, and far more efficient, but most companies aren't starting from scratch, so migration projects have to be carefully managed and need a clear return-on-investment. And, of course, there's also the cloud and service providers like Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure that are wooing companies to stop building their own data centers and simply purchase data center capacity on-demand, and then scale it up and down as needed. 

These are the main topics in this episode of "The Editors" (formerly known as "The IT Factor"), with Larry Dignan, ZDNet Editor in Chief, and Jason Hiner, TechRepublic Editor in Chief.

This show is part of our ZDNet and TechRepublic special feature on "The 21st Century Data Center." We look at the IT and business factors that are driving the biggest transformation in data centers. That includes virtualization, data center consolidation, infrastructure as a service (otherwise known as outsourcing your data center to the cloud), hybrid cloud, and converged infrastructure.

You can view the 23-minute video over on TechRepublic, or download it and watch it at your convenience. It is free to all registered ZDNet and TechRepublic members (if you aren't already registered, it only takes a moment).