The economist Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883-1950) argued that innovation led to“gales of creative destruction” that caused old inventories, ideas, technologies, skills, and equipment to become obsolete. Today, these gales are mixed with the air-conditioning in the modern data center.
Schumpeter was worried about whether capitalism would survive, but perhaps a modern IT manager is more imperiled. Trends in processors, storage, networks, and
software routinely turn yesterday’s newest technology into today’s refuse.
By examining the changes, however, clear trends emerge. Components become faster, smaller, more capacious, and less expensive. Then, looking closer, a few more trends appear, and these trends apply equally to CPUs, networks, and storage.
