Where’s some of the most advanced computing infrastructure in the world being built right now? A lot of people would say China. The country is building dozens if not hundreds of large data centers to support its exploding online population, now estimated at 500 million and climbing, according to PCWorld.com.

Reports PCWorld, “The build-out is strongly backed by the Chinese government, which has made expanding the national computing infrastructure a part of its latest five-year plan. And local governments are funding the development of vast cloud cities – industrial zones that aim to provide the foundations to support as many as 20 data centers over time.”

Of course there are a number of major challenges in a build-out this massive, especially for outside companies seeking to participate. These include:

• Governmental policy and regulations, such as ownership rights for data and other assets
• Securing adequate bandwidth
• Securing adequate power
• Carbon footprint

Everything in China is magnified, given the staggering size of the country. “China has almost five times the population of the U.S., so our problems are five times greater,” Sheldon He, a product marketing manager with Intel, reminded PCWorld. But he added, “If we can succeed in solving these problems it could lead to innovation.”

Not just innovation, but big-time innovation.

Global spending on data center hardware is projected to reach $98.9 billion in 2011, an increase of 12.7% from 2010 spending levels, according to a research report from Gartner. As reported in ciol.com, Gartner is predicting that hardware spending in data centers will climb to $106.4 billion in 2012 and surpass $126.2 billion in 2015. Data center IT hardware typically includes servers, storage and networking equipment. Gartner’s research is summarized in its latest data center report, Forecast: Data Centers, Worldwide, 2010-2015.

According to Gartner, the trend towards consolidation – a reduction in the number of midsize data centers while the mega-data centers enjoy robust growth – will continue unabated. By 2015, 2% of all data centers will contain 60% of all data center floor space and account for 71% of all data center hardware spending.

“Traditional in-house enterprise data centers are under attack from three sides,” said Jon Hardcastle, Research Director, Gartner. “Firstly, virtualization technologies are helping companies to utilize their infrastructure more effectively, inhibiting overall system growth. Secondly, data centers are getting more efficient, leading to higher system deployment densities and inhibiting demand for floor space. Thirdly, the move to consolidated third-party data centers is reducing the overall number of midsize data centers.”

“Meanwhile, the largest data center class is, of course, benefiting from the rise of cloud computing,” he added.

Is bigger better? It can be when you deploy enterprise-class Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) to drive efficiency, lower costs, and optimize operational agility. This kind of DCIM is going to be in demand moving forward, as it is specifically engineered to handle large, complex infrastructure environments.

Scalability and capacity planning, says DataCenterKnowledge.com in its recent survey report, 2011/2012 Data Center Market Insights.

After polling more than 200 data center professionals, DataCenterKnowledge.com has affirmed what everyone already knows – the relentless pressure to expand data center capacity to meet the growing needs of the business is creating huge headaches (some might say of nightmarish proportions) for data center operators of all shapes and sizes.

“Why are scalability and capacity planning such difficult problems? It has historically taken enterprises from 12 to 36 months to plan and deploy new data center space,” says the report. “These projects also entail an investment of tens of millions of dollars — and sometimes hundreds of millions. The scope and complexity of adding data center space places a premium on understanding the utilization of existing capacity, which will drive the timetable for rolling out new space.”

The report then goes on to identify the solution – Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM).

“DCIM software and efficient hardware can improve server utilization and extend the life of an existing data center, which can in turn postpone the huge capital investment of building more space,” the report concludes.

We couldn’t have said it any better.