Balancing the needs of the present and the future is the key factor in forming a data center strategy, according to a panel of experts at the DatacenterDynamics 2010 Asia-Pacific conference, which took place June 16 in Sydney.

The panel, in a session titled "How do IT and facilities react to an uncertain future?" came to a consenus that innovation in the industry was not as pervasive as it should be.

While everyone talks about breaking new ground, customers are often unwilling to be the ones to take a leap of faith, said Tony Khoury, technical director at Page Data, an Australian distributor of networking equipment.

"When I'm trying to sell a new product, everyone else wants to see someone else use it first," he said. "When you go to buy a house you find out what's coming in store in the future but this market is still saying, 'let's just do what we did five years ago.'"

If doing things in-house, it is vital to have top-level buy-in to support innovative thinking, according to Jon Curry, data center manager at Telstra, an Australian telecom provider.

"My executives are very supportive of us breaking new ground, but it's always difficult," he said. "It's definitely important to try and keep out-of-the-box thinking alive in the design process."

Telstra has recently undertaken a major overhaul of its data center strategy, which saw the system go from two petabytes of storage in 2006 to twelve petabytes in 2008.

But many of the changes had to be implemented while retaining legacy kit, meaning some innovation was stifled.

"We've got some kit that you just don't dare go near," Curry said. "So you've got rooms that are just not architecturally ready to do the new stuff."

But new approaches to the data center are still possible, even within institutions as risk-averse as banks, according to Glenn Allen, infrastructure transformation manager at the National Australia Bank.

"Our data centers now get about 60 percent of power and 50 percent of cooling energy from our own gas-powered generation," he said. "That project is amongst the first of its type."

One of the biggest challenges in maintaining an innovative edge is getting the right people in an organization, according to Chris Molloy, chief executive of TEX Solutions, a training and consulting company for technology infrastructure.

"There are definite challenges on the human-resources side," he said.

"Most data center downtime is caused by human error. It's vital to make sure your people are up to operating your new and upgraded technologies."