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A broad view on IT geostrategy: what datacenter managers can learn from geopolitics

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A broad view on IT geostrategy: what datacenter managers can learn from geopolitics

At first glance, datacenter management and international relations would seem to have little in common. However, the international strategy of a company, sometimes called its geostrategy, comes directly from the language of global politics or geopolitics. When a data center wants to develop a stronger geostrategic approach, it relies on a similar conceptual paradigm to that used by world leaders and alliances on the geopolitical landscape.

Because the geostrategy for a technological infrastructure is couched in the language of a seemingly incongruous field, much can be learned from the political world to optimize data center planning and implementation. This broad view on the subject will help you reassess your geostrategic framework. This connection, though, goes well beyond the bird’s eye perspective. In fact, data geostrategy is infused with the pushes and pulls of international relations. In other words, geostrategy (of both politics and business) is all essentially one area.

Geo-strategy: basic guiding principles for politics & data centers

The location of a nation versus locations of any elements of interest – allies, enemies, proxies, resources, etc. – define and circumscribe its geostrategy. The basic purpose of geostrategy is to determine how best to designate resources so that the goals of the state’s international relations – whether political, diplomatic, or military – can be most easily and optimally achieved. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostrategy Resources are limited country by country just as they are for the budgets of individual data centers.

In politics as in IT management, a focused and coherent geostrategic approach relies heavily on the ability of decision-makers to determine what efforts are less effective and/or critical so that resources can be pointed in the right directions. The huge decision of where or when to mount military strikes is one example. In business, similarly poignant geostrategic decisions involve the parameters of better serving particular markets based on a variety of factors, including cost-effectiveness and competition. (Plus, military strikes clearly affect business, just as any other geostrategic efforts do.)

Geostrategy is not simply an offshoot of geopolitics, though. Rather, it is intrinsically embedded in all political maneuvering. In other words, the place of a nation on the globe has everything to do with its strategy. The same is true for business IT teams. Failing to pay appropriate attention to geostrategy – not just where the company is or where the customers are, but the relationship between the two – is like playing chess without paying attention to all the pieces on the board. That interrelation extends out to and back from the geopolitical landscape as well.

Geopolitical strategic examples – the role of superpowers

In December 2013 The New Yorker covered a dozen of the most compelling and possibly profound geostrategic moves made by various countries around the globe. Typically major geostrategic efforts (ones that have broad consequences for most nations) are the tasks of the so-called “superpower” countries – Russia, China, and the United States. However, proxy locations are often the sites of conflict or displays of power.

Geostrategic pushes listed by the magazine included China’s creation of an Air Defense Zone (ADZ) off the coast of Shanghai – in a broad stretch of ocean between South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. The geostrategic response by the United States following that incident occurred approximately 72 hours later, when the American Air Force sent a pair of fighter jets through the area. Military officials referred to the brazen response to China’s similarly brazen territorial claim as unprovoked, ordinary training flights.

The United States may have gotten the last word regarding airspace (quietly demonstrating their disregard for China’s claim while allowing the country to save face with its neighbors). On the other hand, according to energy media site Energlobe, China is demonstrating its status as a world power in the field of energy security from a tripartite standpoint involving geopolitics, geoeconomics, and geophysics.

Geostrategy as broadness or specificity

The real point to take away from the geostrategic principles espoused and demonstrated by the world’s nations is the steady eye toward all the different factors involved. No incident is in isolation. Every move looks toward the present only in its relationship toward the past and future; a nation’s perspective toward another country or itself is only in the context of the entire global community.

When developing a geostrategic plan for your data center, remember that tactics and strategy should not be confused. Consultant and author Milo Jones of Silberzahn & Jones argues that strategy is all about planning and foresight http://silberzahnjones.com/2011/12/10/start-with-geostrategy-or-call-it-tactics/. It’s not about individual moves. It’s about the interrelation of parts. More than anything, it’s not strategic to imitate the competition or use conventional models. Geo-strategy is all about innovation. Furthermore, geostrategy – in tech and in business – involves determining the driving forces for business and using them to your damage. In Jones’ own words (in case you are skeptical that geopolitics and business geo-strategy are inextricably linked), “these deep forces [driving the marketplace] are geopolitical.”

By Brett Haines of Cloud and VPS hosting provider Atlantic.Net 

The post A broad view on IT geostrategy: what datacenter managers can learn from geopolitics appeared first on Atlantic.Net.


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