Building The Data Centre Of The Future
BCW, 16/09/2009, posted in "Analysis"
Business Computing World (BCW) is a blog focused exclusively on business technology. BCW offers technology-led companies up to date information on issues affecting their businesses. Founded in September 2009 and ...more info
Business Computing World (BCW) is a blog focused exclusively on business technology. BCW offers technology-led companies up to date information on issues affecting their businesses. Founded in September 2009 and aimed at IT decision makers who need at-a-glance coverage of core business technology, BCW enables IT professionals and business leaders to interact with their peers and connect with vendors. We specialise in discussing how technology improves business processes―making it a vital read for IT workers. ...less info
Experts are predicting that the amount of data space needed to support the fast growing online economy will double every eleven hours by 2012. Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report proposes that there should be universal 2Mbps broadband for the country’s households, which ultimately will increase demand for data centre capacity as a result of increased utilisation of online services and systems.
Combine these facts with Lord Carter’s assertion that a lack of new capacity will inhibit the UK’s ability to be a force in this global economy, and data centre development looks like good industry to be in. But Phil Lydford, CEO of e-shelter UK, explains that it isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. Aside from the obvious financial challenges of funding a major capital project during a global recession, building the data centre of the future poses significant challenges, from finding a location and securing sufficient available power to environmental sustainability and fibre connectivity.
Old versus new
Historically there have been two types of data centres: buildings that have been retro-fitted to enable them to house racks of servers, and custom-designed and developed data centres. These types of data centre generally fall into two groups, those developed by third parties and intended to serve a large number of small customers, buying space by the server or rack, rather than by larger enterprises that procure tens or hundreds of thousands of square feet.
Any business needing data centre capacity on this scale may historically have built its own facility from the ground up, to meet its specific requirements at a high capital cost that can run into millions of pounds. But, at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century a perfect storm of global recession and an increasing consumer and corporate appetite for Web-based products and services mean the traditional thinking on building data centres needs to be rethought.
‘Legacy’ retro-fitted data centres don’t generally meet the exacting standards of the large corporate user, but the appetite for IT projects requiring many millions in capital investment is also waning—if they can secure investments at all. In addition, building a new data centre is not as easy as it might appear.
Location, location, location
The first challenge is to find a suitable site on which to build. There are five accepted first tier European cities that are data centre clusters—Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Madrid and Paris—where both capacity and available sites on which to build are approaching critical levels. This will force developers of next generation data centres to look outside these key cities—but not too far.
To attract custom from the largest data centre consumers, financial services and banking, facilities should be located about 50 miles (80km) from the corporate (or national) headquarters or existing data centres to provide the synchronous communication that enables the replication of business critical databases within accepted latency times.
New compliance and corporate governance mandates also create additional headaches for developers. In the United States, financial services regulators have already recommended minimum and maximum distances between an organisation’s primary and back-up data centre sites so that a single event will not take both offline. This type of regulation will be introduced in the UK, if not already adopted by U.S.-domiciled corporations complying with Sarbanes Oxley and other regulations. For data centre developers this will mean building new sites in areas unaccustomed to such large construction projects—possibly on green belt land—potentially adding time, capital and complexity to any new build plans.
Easy access
In addition to the physical location of new data centres, it is vital that the facility has access to a high-speed fibre backbone. The data centre of the future will need a minimum of 100Gbps—ideally uncontended and diversely routed services—to ensure that the performance of mission critical systems meet customers’ requirements. In the event that a future data centre site does not have a suitable network infrastructure in the area, it will be important to plan for new fibres to be incorporated in development plans.
Green to the core
Future data centres must be more efficient than existing facilities. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System and the BRE Environmental Assessment Method for Buildings (BREEAM) use emerging standards for the design and construction of environmentally sustainable data centres that provide developers with a blueprint for building the most sustainable facility.
New facilities, like e-shelter’s new London campus or Citibank’s facility in Frankfurt have both been designed to achieve the LEED Gold and Platinum standard, respectively, while Digital Realty Trust has embraced BREEAM as their environmental benchmark in the UK. The data centre of the future will require LEED or BREEAM to be designed in to it to ensure that the fabric of any new facility meets the most exacting standards of environmental sustainability—not just in terms of their operation, but also in terms of their visual impact on its surroundings.
The EU Code
The EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres is another key area that will need consideration as developers look to bring additional data centre capacity online. The Code is currently voluntary but will, it is believed, become compulsory for data centre operators in the near future. It is therefore something that developers cannot ignore—unless they wish to face being forced to make substantial (and costly) changes to their facilities before they can bring them online and earn income from tenants.
The Code urges data centre designers, developers and operators to tackle the issue of energy consumption and imposes a responsibility and measures to improve efficiency in new facilities onto the operator. Climate change has risen up both consumers’ and business’ agenda over the last decade, and many existing facilities will not meet the EU Code’s standards if it becomes mandatory. For developers planning custom-built facilities that will come online within the next five years, understanding the implications of the Code on their businesses—and those of their customers—will be key.
Carbon reduction commitment
A future consideration for data centre developers is the formal introduction of the UK Government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme in April 2010. This is a test run for similar schemes that will be adopted by other EU member states. While the final wording of the CRC has not been finalised, the proposal is to impose a legal obligation on any company with a combined annual electricity bill of greater than £1,000,000 (equivalent to an 800kW data centre!) to comply with CRC regulations.
The regulation’s aim is to reduce the carbon emissions of enterprises which are considered to be major energy consumers. It seems fair to apply to traditional commercial and industrial operations, which typically operate at full capacity from day one, the impact on a data centre, where the load grows steadily over a number of years, has not been fully understood or incorporated. With fines and ‘naming and shaming’ included in the operation of CRC, data centre operators will be perceived to be the ‘bad boys’ of carbon emissions, which will affect the marketability of data centre space and, arguably, increase the pressure to further regulate the industry.
It is only possible to reduce CO2 and energy consumption in a fully populated data centre. Data centre operators with older, converted data centres may find it more difficult to incorporate environmental initiatives as their original design causes fundamental system inefficiencies. And, while environmental sustainability may have slipped from some board agendas as the recession tightens its grip, the less—charitable—benefits of lower energy consumption and emissions have not reduced operating costs.
Measuring efficiency
Either as a result of customers’ focus on environmental sustainability or cost—or most likely a combination of both—developers of new data centres will need to measure and prove the efficiency of their facilities. One way of achieving this is to measure the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of a facility, with the emphasis on keeping the number as low as possible. A PUE calculation can highlight inefficiencies in the transfer and delivery of power, showing where energy is being wasted and, most importantly for both operator and customer, where money can be saved.
The currently accepted PUE figure for a converted data centre is around 2.4, with some custom-developed facilities running at around 1.8—in real terms this can reduce power consumption and cost by around 30%, based on a fully populated data centre.
Power availability
While efficiency is important, a new data centre is a non-starter unless it has an adequate supply of electricity with which to power it—and it’s an issue that could seriously impact the industry’s ability to meet both current and future demand. If you are planning to build a new data centre in the next five years and haven’t reserved the power for it with your supply company you could already be in trouble.
With 2012 fast approaching, spare power for data centres is likely to be in short supply. And even if you can get hold of spare capacity at short notice, it’s quite likely that the supply network won’t be up to the job. In the event that the grid points need upgrading in order to be able to supply the capacity needed for a new data centre, you will need to negotiate the requirement with the power supplier before anything else is done. It will also add significant additional cost to a data centre development project.
Developers also need to find out whether power is readily available from two grid points—and ideally from two different supply companies—prior to selecting a site. This will provide peace of mind for both the operator and its customers in the event of a power outage in one source, because the other source will continue to deliver power. A new data centre will need to reserve enough capacity well in advance to support the anticipated capacity of its facility. With the growth of high-density computing solutions, it will be prudent for developers to ensure that there is ample power available to enable them to increase the potential capacity of their facilities.
All in the planning
Building the data centre of the future is not as easy as it may first seem at first glance—but it’s not impossible. Finding a site that meets all of the different criteria—power, connectivity, planning, synchronicity, physical security, to name just a few, is critical, before a single foundation is dug. Getting it right takes time, money, patience, attention to detail and commercial awareness. It also requires an understanding of what the current and future demands will be for decades to come.
Lord Carter’s Digital Britain blueprint puts future data centre development at the very heart of the UK’s ability to compete in a global marketplace—implementing this vision relies on ‘getting it right’.
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