Re-Locating Your Data Centre Can Be Like Moving House
BCW, 14/09/2009, 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
When your data centre reaches 90-95% of its intended capacity, it’s time to seriously consider moving your data to a larger facility. With experts predicting the amount of data being stored is set to double every eleven hours by 2012, many CIOs and IT managers will have to consider this re-location sooner than they realise.
In this article, Philip Lydford, CEO at e-shelter UK, advises IT managers on how they should approach relocating critical infrastructure and explores how, when moving to a new data centre, the challenges faced are similar to those encountered when moving house.
Location, location, location
The first challenge is to find a suitable location for your new facility. The five accepted first tier European cities that are data centre clusters—Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Madrid and Paris—are finding that capacity is fast approaching a critical level. This is forcing data centre managers to look outside these key cities—but not too far. Ideally, 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.
That said; don’t write off areas that you may have not considered before. Be rational, think about how your staff would reach the facility in an emergency. This includes assessing the transport connections during the rush hour, just as you would check how far your new home would be from work (the commutable distance). In addition, it is essential that you conduct a proper risk assessment of the area, such as flood risks, airport routes, terrorist threats, etc.
Data Centre Information Pack (DCIP)
In recent years, examining the energy efficiency of a property has become a major consideration for home buyers. When purchasing or selling a property it is a legal requirement to produce an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) with the Home Information Pack. The EPC carries ratings that compare the current energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions with potential figures that the property could achieve. Likewise, it is essential that any IT manager who is moving to a new data centre demands a similar document to the EPC from the data centre developer. This will ensure they can utilise more of the available electricity for core IT functions, and of course reduce costs where applicable.
Typically, there are two types of data centres: conversion (buildings such as warehouses that have been retro-fitted to enable them to house racks of servers), and new builds (custom-designed and developed facilities). In most cases, ‘legacy’ retro-fitted data centres are fairly inefficient with regards to power consumption so, a modern custom-designed facility, like a new build house, will be more environmentally friendly.
Fixtures and fittings
Assessing whether you should opt for an unfurnished or furnished property is also important. By choosing the latter you remove the headache of maintenance, repair and possibly replacement of necessary electrical and cooling equipment as this will be handled by the facility provider. This also ensures that kit is up-to-date and running at maximum efficiency.
However, if you do decide to opt for a facility where you will be required to take your own fixtures and fittings—cooling systems and electrical equipment—then make sure they will fit and suit the new IT environment. Consider your future requirements; will your current equipment be suitable? Approach this as you would when throwing out old junk from your house to make room to start a family.
Keep, bin or upgrade
When you move into a new home you should produce a full inventory of any fixtures and furniture which may be in need of repair, replacement or even discarding. The same principle applies when you are relocating your IT infrastructure. Make sure that you have an up-to-date inventory of all the applications running on your servers. There may be unnecessary applications processing that you were unaware of, which can be decommissioned or may require upgrading.
Once this audit is complete, examine whether you still need an application or if there’s a better one available, considering new technology advances such as virtualisation and cloud computing. My advice is to be ruthless while taking into account what you need in the future. It is surprising the positive impact that a good ‘application spring clean’ can have on the efficiency of a network.
Utility suppliers
While efficiency is important, any data centre is a non-starter unless it has an adequate supply of electricity with which to power it. If you are planning to build your own facility in the next five years and haven’t reserved the power for it with your supply company you could already be in trouble.
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 which will add significant additional cost to a data centre development project. You will also need to find out whether power is readily available from two grid points—ideally from two different supply companies—prior to selecting a site.
This will provide peace of mind in the event of a power outage at one source, because the other will continue to deliver power. A new data centre will need to ensure it can support the full power requirements of the anticipated capacity of its facility. With the growth of high-density computing solutions, it will be prudent for IT managers to ensure that there is ample power available to enable them to increase the potential capacity of their facilities.
Completion
Whether you opt to outsource your capacity requirement to a third party developer or project manage the build of a new corporate facility, it is essential that it is approached strategically. Much like buying a house, you should compile a list of must-haves, nice-to-haves, and finalise on a realistic budget. Once all this has been agreed, stick to it—it is when you start making unwanted compromises that your relocation will fall through.
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