Building A New Data Center

What is a Data Center?

Data centers are the “nerve centers” of the new economy or special environments that
house the latest advances in computer processing and business innovation. Data centers
centralize and consolidate Information Technology (IT) resources, enabling organizations
to conduct business around-the-clock and around the world.

A data center is a “hardened” facility that is dedicated to providing uninterrupted service

to business-critical data processing operations. Among its many features are:

• 7 x 24 x 365 availability
• Fail-safe reliability and continuous monitoring
• Power management and network communications, redundancy and path diversity
• Network security, physical access control and video surveillance
• Zoned environmental control
• Fire suppression and early warning smoke detection systems.

THE RECENT SURGE IN DATA CENTER ACTIVITY

The emergence of the Internet as a universal network, the Internet Protocol (IP) as a
common computer “communication standard” and the continued advancements and
maturity of Web technology have served as catalysts for a number of common business
initiatives. These initiatives include:
• Server consolidation and centralization of processing capability
• Business system continuity and disaster recovery
• Database content and storage management
• “Webification” of business applications
• Information distribution via Intranet and Extranet
• eBusiness and Electronic Data Interexchange (EDI)
• Supply Chain Management (SCM) and

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Sales Force Automation (SFA)
• Wireless applications and connectivity.
Another factor contributing to the surge of data center construction is the increase in the
number of Internet connected devices per business or household. Often times, data
centers are expanding well beyond the number of actual users. Business professionals
are adopting wireless PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) in addition to or within their cell
phones. Residential customers often have multiple PCs, wireless networks and a growing
comfort factor with the Web as a shopping mall, Yellow Pages and eLibrary.
Consequently, a “many-to-one” device-to-user ratio is driving the need for additional
network connectivity and data center expansion.

Additionally, bandwidth capacity and availability are increasing while monthly access
charges are decreasing for wide area, metropolitan and residential services. Web
resources must also increase in order to meet the market demand for higher
performance and availability. CDCs are also expanding and modernizing to meet the
growing demands of mobile professionals, as well as supporting rapid new customer
acquisition and enhanced service initiatives. IDCs continue to sprout up around the world
to capture market share in the online business and consumer service market.

COMMON ATTRIBUTES OF DATA CENTERS

There are many common functions in data centers today—whether they are owned and
operated by corporations or leased from an Internet data center operator. For the most
part, all data centers require:
• Internet access and wide area communications
• Application hosting
• Content distribution
• File storage and backup
• Database management
• Failsafe power

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• Adequate heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and fire suppression
• High-performance cabling infrastructure
• Security (access control, video surveillance, etc.)

ACT secure data centre proposal

The ACT government has allowed ActewAGL to lease a block of land in

Hume for the development of a gas-fired power station and secure data
centre.

The Canberra Technology City proposal aims to develop a world-first data

centre campus to create a comprehensive, long-term data solution for
Australian and international organisations.

"Canberra, as the nation's capital and a world leader in the field of

information technology, is an ideal location for such a development," said
Chief Minister Jon Stanhope.

"The CTC proposal would deliver many benefits for the ACT, making us
leaders in data centre infrastructure, facilities and services, and attracting
high-value data centre tenants, such as global financial institutions and
their skilled workforces."

A consortium of partners has combined to come up with the CTC proposal,

including ActewAGL, Technical Real Estate (a developer and owner of the
data centres), Galileo Connect (a UK-based world leader in engineering
and designer of future-proofed data centres) and CB Richard Ellis (global
property and leasing services).

The ACT proposal is in response to an increase in demand over the last

two years for high-powered, secure data centres that can be upgraded
and expanded with no down time.

The gas-fired power station would sell electricity to the "mission-critical'

data centres, which would be leased to commercial customers.

The offer of the 21-hectare site opposite the Mugga Lane landfill, 600 m
west of the Monaro Highway, is available for 12 months. During this time,
ActewAGL will undertake further investigations and obtain any approvals
necessary for the development. If approved, construction of the facility is
scheduled to start early in 2009.

Akses Data Center Sistem Informasi Pendidikan Nasional

(SIDIKNAS)

Seiring dengan pengembangan Jardiknas, Depdiknas juga telah

membangun fasilitas Data Center yang berfungsi sebagai sumber daya
data dan informasi Pendidikan Nasional. Beragam layanan disedikan di
Data Center Sistem Informasi Pendidikan Nasional meliputi: Email, Web
Hosting, Sistem Data Pokok Pendidikan, E-Learning dan beragam aplikasi

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Sistem Informasi Manajemen dan Administrasi Online (e-Administration)
yang dibangun oleh Depdiknas.

Pengembangan Data Center Sistem Informasi Pendidikan Nasional

dikelola oleh Pusat Informasi dan Humas bekerjasama dengan Bagian
Sistem Informasi Biro Perencanaan Sekretariat Jenderal Depdiknas.

Data center infrastructure: In-house hosting

versus outsourcing

17 Sep 2009 | SearchDataCenter.in

By Jasmine Desai, Principal Correspondent, SearchDataCenter.in

When it comes to IT infrastructure, an in-house data center is among the

big ticket CAPEX items for most Indian CIOs. This is why many businesses
prefer to have a better OPEX-CAPEX equation by taking the data center
outsourcing route. Today, Indian organizations are definitely looking at IT
infrastructure outsourcing as an alternative, with co-located hosting prices
dropping on a consistent basis.

This trend is substantiated by analyst firm Gartner Inc., which observes

that despite the economic slowdown infrastructure outsourcing (including
IT) will witness bullish growth in FY '09-'10. As we shall soon examine, the
call between in-house data center infrastructure and opting for co-located
data center services involves more than just accounting jugglery.

Data center outsourcing and India.org

In India, organizations are skeptical when it comes to putting their entire

IT infrastructure under another entity's control. Business critical
applications continue to be hosted and managed internally in most large
and medium Indian businesses, more so in the case of financial services
companies such as banking and insurance firms that store highly sensitive
personal data. However, the trend of outsourcing non-critical applications
to third-party service providers is on the rise.

A good case in point is Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka-based Café Coffee Day

(CCD), which uses a mix of in-house and outsourced hosting. CCD has its
own data center in Bengaluru that hosts its business-critical applications
such as SAP. However, CCD's point-of-sale software has been outsourced
for the past six years to Chennai-based TAS Automation. CCD's e-mail and
corporate website are hosted with a data center service provider in
Mumbai.

Outsourced data center infrastructure services are adopted largely by

organizations that have realized that IT is an enabler and not its core
function. If this describes your company, does it make sense to outsource?

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"When it comes to in-house infrastructure, there are challenges like
regulatory compliance requirements, data center design and levels of
built-in redundancy," said S Jayabalan, the chief technology officer of
Netmagic Solutions, a managed service hosting provider that has physical
data centers in Mumbai and Bangalore and a virtual data center in the US.
"Also, how does one foresee the business requirements five years down
the line? One does not think of these factors upfront. That is where the
third-party players come into picture, as the data center is their core
focus."

Requirement analysis

The data center function to be outsourced (entire vs. partial) is a strategic

step that has to take into account many factors. According to Venkatesh
Babu, the CIO of CCD, an organization should evaluate its data before
considering outsourcing. "Confidentiality of the data plays a major role
when taking this decision," said Babu. Since CCD's confidential data
resides in SAP, it is hosts and manages its ERP system in house.

When an organization decides to opt for a mix of in-house and outsourced

data center infrastructure, benchmarking is a good start. This will help it
identify loopholes to be remedied by involving third-party experts.

"Smart companies have to realize the levels up to which they want to

build and buy. Things which are strategic in nature on which organizations
have good control should be done in house. Outsourcing should be
considered for things that they do not specialize in," said Jayabalan.

Data center infrastructure provider selection

Evaluating a vendor can be a troublesome task. "One should look at the

service provider's capability, infrastructure, facility and security
mechanisms in place," Babu said. "Look at the vendor's credibility in the
market. Always look at all the references. Above all, the cost factor should
be kept in mind."

Build your in-house Site visits are critical to

data center understand the service
Pros
provider's capabilities.
* Data is in your hands with a lot of Comprehensive reference checks with the
transparency.
* Trust factor is high as the team and service provider's existing clients come next on
its performance is known. the evaluation checklist.
* A specialized team caters only to a
single organization -- yours.
Security, transparency and trust issues come
Cons
* Huge cost incurred to hire and
into the picture when an organization puts its
manage the IT team. In certain data in the hands of a third party. The service
situations, to make a profit or justify
the cost, these IT teams in turn aspect is yet another key issue. This is where
become IT service providers. service level agreements (SLA) play an important
role in bridging this trust. The SLA should have

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sufficient safeguards in place to protect your organization's interests.
However, the validity of an SLA in the Indian context is still disputable.

SLA hotchpotch

Considering the snail-paced Indian legal system,

the viability of SLAs (especially in case of a Outsourced data
breach of contract) is disputable. center infrastructure
Notwithstanding that, SLAs are put in place to Pros
* Constant upgrades to the latest
ensure the binding of two organizations. technology releases.
* Service provider is exposed to more
problems and thus develops a strong
The commercial arrangement in cases knowledge base.
* Resiliency is built up as it is a
attributed to SLA breaches is the service-debit carrier-neutral set-up.
or service-credit model. "It is understood in the
Cons
industry that there will be certain lapses. In the * Probable data privacy concerns if
case of any sort of breach, then it could be not hosted with an established player
and backed by clearly defined SLAs.
translated to monetary terms. Accordingly, the
credit or debit is calculated," said Gowree
Gokhale, the head of IP/IT practice at
international law firm Nishith Desai Associates.

From the CIO's perspective, a customer-driven SLA is always a challenge,

especially when it comes to negotiating with bigwigs.

"SLAs can be negotiated with medium-sized vendors. However, one gets

no choice with the top vendors," Babu said. "If one has good relations with
the vendor, then SLAs should not be a problem since one can try to
resolve [a problem] through non-legal ways. A lot is dependent on trust
here."

This lack of legal recourse in the case of unprofessional service providers

has been a major cause behind the mistrust prevalent among Indian CIOs
on the outsourcing front. More so the case, since it leaves a CIO with no
option but to terminate the contract in the case of a company consistently
defaulting on its service level.

Despite the uncertainty prevalent on the infrastructure provider's service-

level fronts, CAPEX savings have been a big draw for all the Indian
organizations opting for data center outsourcing. Adding to this is the
reduction in management complexity and skilled manpower costs.

Organizations relying on outsourcing, can build trust with regular

communication. "There should be periodic well-defined parameters for
different levels of interaction," according to Jayabalan. "Weekly interaction
could be at the operational level, whereas fortnightly it could be a slightly
higher level of discussion. The monthly interaction could look at business-
level discussions."

As a trend, data center infrastructure outsourcing is growing in India since

available expertise and resources for in-house data centers cannot always

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be found. However, outsourcing is definitely not set to wipe out the in-
house model.

An Outsourced Data Center

A Good Idea For Your SME?
With limited time and resources, many IT departments at small to
midsized enterprises are turning to third-party providers for network
management services or even to run their entire data centers. Weather,
network upgrades, security, and other factors have also fueled the rise in
outsourcing, as being freed of complex management tasks, application
updates, and data backup can give IT more efficiency without busting
their budgets.

Much like hiring consultants, outsourcing is not a one-size-fits-all

proposition; some companies may find that they prefer to keep their data
and network inside the company walls. But for many, outsourcing at least
part of the management responsibilities may be a better way to utilize
staff hours, keep users happy, and alleviate IT manager stress.

Future Think

According to AFCOM (Association for Data Center Managers), big changes

are ahead in the industry, and data center managers who aren’t
outsourcing now may ponder the strategy for the future as shifts occur. In
a recent survey, the association predicted that by 2015, the talent pool of
qualified senior-level technical and management data center professionals
will shrink by 45%.

It also said that within the next few years, more than half of all data
centers will have to relocate to new facilities or outsource some
applications. For those remaining at companies, power failures and limits
on power availability will halt data center operations at more than 90% of
the data centers, and one out of every four will experience a business
disruption serious enough to affect the entire company’s ability to
continue business.

If these AFCOM predictions are true, it means that the smaller talent pool,
increased power demands, and growing rate of disruption will all become
factors for considering outsourcing, especially as grid computing and
virtual processing drive the need for more innovative technology.

Outsourcing Options

When it comes to what can be outsourced, the range of offerings is both

broad and deep. A data center can shuffle off its entire network
management and application hosting needs to an outsource services
provider or simply enlist help for large tasks such as data backup and

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recovery or upgrade services.

“There are as many types of data center business models as there are
data centers,” says Carl Landis, director of data center operations for
DataPreserve. “They range between some combination of three models,
however.” The first is a basic center that rents space, air conditioning,
power, and bandwidth in a secure environment. Second are these services
in conjunction with equipment, and third is all of these with support
services thrown in.

Some providers have “cabinet colocation” that enterprises in the area use
because they need more space for equipment but don’t have the
resources to build a secure, temperature-controlled building. At Dallas-
based Dataside, for example, the firm has lockable cabinets inside its data
center that provide fully redundant electrical power, raised flooring, fire
suppression, controlled temperature and humidity, and onsite staff.

Others, such as DYONYX, have application hosting and security

management. The latter could be particularly valuable for SMEs that don’t
have time to do the types of vulnerability assessments that are crucial for
network management. Application hosting, too, can alleviate time
crunches by taking care of user help desk calls, upgrades, customized
development requests, and guaranteed uptime.

Data collection and disaster recovery is another popular option, and firms
such as DataPreserve specialize in creating personally tailored strategies
for SME clients that let them back up data remotely and access it when
needed.

“Outsourced data centers offer many advantages over traditional data

centers,” says Fred Mapp, CIO at i/o Data Centers, “such as having
professionals manage the day-to-day power, bandwidth, and other basic
requirements.”

Factors To Consider

In pondering an outsourcing plan, Mapp suggests that SMEs first look at

their data center strategy because moving ahead with outsourced
services requires not just an honest assessment of current operations but
also future goals. According to Mapp, here are some questions you should
ask before making the call to an outsourcing service:

• Is the data center a commodity?

• Should it be viewed as a utility and paid for based on the amount used,
like electricity or water is?

• What are the requirements of managing the data center?

• What are your capabilities to design, build, and operate a data center if

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a new data center has to be built?

• Do you have the know-how within your staff?

• How will you scale up to accommodate growth?

• For disaster recovery and business continuity, can you identify a single
point of failure?

• Do you have a backup plan and understand the costs of disruption?

Sometimes SMEs have enough expertise in-house to handle data center

management, and IT managers might prefer to do their own application
hosting, troubleshooting, and data backup alone, in order to have more
control over what’s happening in terms of network management.

“It could be argued that data centers are more expensive than the closets
or back rooms that many companies use to operate their critical
technology equipment,” says Michael Goodman, DataPreserve major
account manager. “Remember, though, that these locations typically offer
little physical security and no redundancy of power, cooling, or
bandwidth.”

Using outsourcing even on a short-term basis can be helpful for utilizing

resources more effectively, those in the industry believe. Mapp says, “I
truly believe that companies will be successful when they begin to
develop a strategy that incorporates using experts to manage their data
centers and provide flexibility to address change.”

by Elizabeth Millard

Building a Data Center? Lucky You! Here are 10

questions you should be asking yourself before you
begin.

April 13th, 2009 · 2 Comments

It’s often a very lengthy process to get approval to build a data center.
One problem with the whole process is that funding is often a criteria for
approval and yet until the project is “official” little has been done with the
eventual design of the data center – which in turn could have a dramatic
effect on the funds needed. 10 or 15 years ago this wasn’t the case as
most data centers were built to the same basic specifications and the only
real variants were tier level (availability) and occasionally the power
envelope needed. In today’s world though many things have changed
and the number of decisions and choices designers need to address
continue to increase. Yes, we could still build data centers the old
fashioned way, but I suspect that would be a seriously career threatening
move.

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The fundamental problem with almost all data center projects is that
those people who get “volunteered” to manage them rarely have
experience in building data centers – it’s often a once in a career activity,
so the most critical success factor is knowing what to ask, and who to talk
to. Below are 10 questions we think you should be asking, right up front,
of yourself, your boss, the facilities team, the designers, and other key
contacts you trust. Without these answers, or at least some guidelines on
how to get them, your chances of success are slim indeed. Over the next
few weeks I will be digging into each of these areas in more detail – so
stay tuned…

1. How big is big enough?

The first question asked is often the most difficult to answer, or the
simplest. “It depends” might be valid for an analyst, but not when
you’re potentially spending 10’s of millions of dollars on a new data
center. And the difficult part of this question is not figuring out how
much you need – it’s figuring out what you need in 15 years.
2. How much availability do I really need?
Data Centers are generally defined by tier level; which essentially
dictate the availability (up-time) goals for the environment. While
industry standard TIA 942 is often cited, many companies use The
Uptime Institute’s 4 Tier availability guidelines as a good rule of
thumb in early design stages. Determining this tier is critical, as
upwards of 60% of your capital budget can be determined by your
tiering decision.
3. How much energy will I need?
Traditional data centers were built with a static energy footprint
designed to support the maximum capacity of typical IT equipment
of the time. This model no longer works and data centers need to
be designed with energy scalability in mind to support future
installations of very high density rack environments.
4. What about Green?
Are there Green technologies on the market or emerging that I need
to be aware of when designing a new data center? From a design
perspective what are the most efficient ways to use handle head
and cooling loads within a data center?
5. How long should it last?
What is a realistic life cycle for a new data center? Traditional data
centers were build to last 15 or 20 years, but with today’s rapidly
changing technologies and compute demands is this a realistic
timeframe? Are there ways to extend the life of a new data center
well beyond 20 years?
6. Are all applications created equal?
In traditional data center design we build to support the exceptions
– high availability, high performance and scalability. But do all your
applications need these levels of support? Can I build an
environment to support different service and technology levels,
based on the requirements of my applications?

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 7. What are the newest design trends today?
What are the dominant trends in data center design today and what
are the benefits and tradeoffs when using (or ignoring) them?
8. Should I build one or build many?
In consolidation projects the most often asked question is “how
many data centers do I need?” The answers revolve around risk
and reward, capital budgets, geography, service levels and recovery
time objectives. And in some cases building two can be less
expensive than one.
9. What about BCDR?
When planning a new data center should I be building out my
business continuity plans as well – or perhaps considering BC/DR in
the overall design phase? Are there new techniques in solving the
BC/DR issues while still providing high growth and redundancy
levels for critical applications?
10. Who will build it – and what should I ask up front?
How do we determine the engineering firm, the construction
company, the subcontractors, the commissioning firm, etc. etc. etc.
Are there current best practices to watch out for, or worst practices?

isnanto10 at gmail.com

isnanto_pru at yahoo.com

Isnanto 0818129333

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