Today's IT landscape is facing a distinct set of unique challenges and developments, as the world at large becomes more digital-centric and data-dependent.

This article is excerpted from 7x24 Exchange International's Spring 2018 edition and is authored by Uptime Institute's Vice President of North America, Matt Stansberry.

In the article, Stansberry addresses 5 key questions data center owners and operators need to incorporate into their 2018 data center strategy, including:

• How climate change is increasingly affecting data center design, site selection and technology decisions
• Impacts of new building management systems and the risks they pose on data center cyber security
• Resiliency decisions related to edge computing - designing for high reliability, micro modular deployments
• Data center staffing - staffing needs are shifting, are your hiring and training programs keeping up?
• DCIM and the increasing importance of having better tools to deploy and manage data center resources