6 Common Data Center

Problems and Issues

Managing data center infrastructure can be an around-the-clock job.
Your stakeholders are expecting 100% uptime, whether or not it is
reasonable. Between backups, security, resource utilization, and
replacements, you feel more like a firefighter than a System Admin.
Establishing a plan can take the edge off the pressures of your
responsibilities.

Identifying and applying data center challenges and solutions in cloud

computing and on-prem operations is key to your IT success. By
considering the following six common data center problems, you
prepare yourself to recognize and address these issues before they
impact your operations. We will first focus on the top six data center
challenges, namely:

1. Data Center Design

2. Power Supply Failure
3. Environmental Issues
4. Networking and Cabling
5. Security
6. Management

1. Data Center Design Issues –

Infrastructure and Capacity
Planning
Some of the top data center challenges revolve around physical space
within a data center. Whether it’s too little space, too much space, or
excessive heat due to hardware proximity, poor planning for your data
center physical infrastructure can have significant and lasting effects.
See the failures of IT infrastructure capacity planning below, and
explore how you can prevent them!

Insufficient Space for Expansion

The importance of sufficient space cannot be overstated.

• Is there room for expansion?

• Do planning regulations allow your center to expand up?

• Do the surroundings allow your data center to expand out?

A poor data center design may limit the future growth of your data
center. Having to engage in a data center relocation due to unforeseen
growth can have a major impact on business continuity and expenses.

Too Much Space After Equipment Refresh

When consolidating old and new servers, planners need to be aware that while new
servers are smaller and have a smaller physical footprint, newer servers need
significantly more power with their higher energy consumption. There are differences
in the demands of virtual servers vs. physical servers that will also impact the needs of
your facility.
At the same time, this significantly increases the amount of cooling systems that are
required for the equipment refresh. This represents a significant challenge for the
thermal footprint of the data center.

Challenges of Data Center Thermal

Management
Advanced thermal controls must perform a delicate balancing act to achieve proper
airflow and temperature by utilizing the available cooling options such as airflow-based,
water-based, and refrigerant-based systems.

Locating a data center in a location that has free cooling from cold air and/or cold
water, thus generally in the far north or the far south, may help reduce the challenges of
data center thermal management. Check out what Google did in Finland in a disused
paper mill to make use of water from the Baltic Sea to cool its data center.

2. Power and/or Uninterruptible

Power Supply (UPS) Failure
Power failures and the failure of supposedly uninterruptible power supplies is one of
the most common causes of unplanned outages. These failures typically result simply
from bad planning and a lack of investment in the necessary UPS equipment.

3. Data Center Environmental

Issues
Data centers and their associated servers have power requirements for both operation
and thermal management. These power requirements translate into energy needs. Data
centers are huge users of energy, so where can we get this energy supply?

One option is to locate a data center near an affordable source of energy. From an
environmental point-of-view, renewable energy is the obvious long-term candidate. For
example, a data center located near a river with significant hydropower production
might be preferred to a data center located near a nuclear power station, even if, in the
short-term, nuclear power might be less expensive than hydropower. Data center plans
should consider the long-term environmental impact.

According to Forbes, globally, data centers now account for 1% of electricity demands
and contribute 0.3% of CO2 emissions. Energy efficiency, however, is key. Data center
designers need to consider overall energy consumption as well as energy efficiency.
There is no sense in designing for low-cost energy only to learn that the energy
consumption is minimal or, conversely, that energy is not being used efficiently. Studies
show that data center capacity is typically underutilized, yet idle servers still consume
energy. Any gains from low-cost energy must be used effectively and efficiently.
4. Challenges in Data Center
Networking and Cabling
There are two potential challenges in data center networking. First, bandwidth: how
much data can travel over a connection? Higher bandwidth means better network
speed.

The other side of the coin is latency: the measurement of how long it takes for data to
travel to its destination. Latency is the delay of the data, which at the macro-level is a
function of distance that data must travel.

Regardless of the speed of the connection, data must travel some distance. That
movement of data between locations takes time. Networking in a data center relies on
speed: fiber optic cables and data traveling a short distance to avoid data center latency
issues. Cables between your server, storage, and networking equipment can quickly
become unruly, so having a plan in place beforehand can prevent challenges down the
road.

Besides distance, network complexity is important. Network equipment is never 100%

efficient as they are constantly prioritizing how packets should be routed. The shortest
route might not always be available. Data may have to travel through more connections,
which increases latency. In many cases, network bandwidth monitoring software can
help you observe your network condition and respond accordingly.

5. Data Center Security Issues

There are several common data center security challenges, from physical security to
access-related issues, such as Denial of Service (DoS). In addition, there are data-related
issues, such as confidential information being stolen, data being altered, or the pure loss
of data. IBM’s recent study of data breaches shows that more than half (52%) of data
breaches are caused by malicious attacks, with the breakdown of root causes being:
1. Compromised Credentials

2. Phishing

3. Cloud Misconfiguration

4. Vulnerability in Third-party Software

 5. Physical Security Compromise

These threats, however, are no longer the costliest malicious data breaches, as of 2021.
Business Email Compromise now tops the list, from an average cost point-of-view, with
Phishing and Malicious Insider close behind.

6. Data Center Management

Issues
The management of a data center is challenging. The highest priority is identifying and
eliminating risk from the operation of the data center, with the goal of achieving high
reliability of critical systems and providing high availability to customers. A key
technique to address data center management issues is to take a calculated approach
to Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM).

DCIM typically monitors, measures, manages, and controls a data center’s:

• Equipment, such as servers, storage, and network

• Infrastructure such as power distribution and cooling systems

The goal of DCIM is to allow a holistic view of a data center’s performance in terms of
floor space, equipment, and power/energy, as well as analyzing the data related to these
criteria. DCIM should allow facilities to determine how efficient they are operating.

Real-time Network Monitoring and

Reporting
One important aspect of DCIM is to properly monitor and measure network operations.
As stated previously, there are numerous challenges to be addressed in data center
networking and cabling, from the bandwidth between critical systems to the latency
involved in the networking. Thus, DCIM requires a real-time view of the network to
ensure that proper reporting and analysis can be done to identify and fix any potential
bottlenecks.

Operation-side monitoring and client-side monitoring can be a different challenge

altogether. You may encounter client issues that don’t originate from within your data
center, but DCIM tools won’t necessarily help you identify where the real failure is.
Clients can leverage network monitoring software for more comprehensive visibility
into their overall network.

Optimizing Performance
Efficient data center management means optimizing performance. For data centers, this
means doing more with less, while at the same time ensuring availability, Uptime, and
reliability. One key component of optimization is power usage. How effective is the data
center in its total power requirement?
Performance is also about computation usage: efficiently managing workloads, and
cooling efficiency. Well-optimized data centers are generally more reliable, providing an
additional boost in performance as perceived by customers.

Reducing CAPEX and OPEX

Organizations that are operating their own data centers are making capital expenditure
investments with associated upfront costs as well as recurring upgrade costs. A typical
CapEx approach is focusing resources on non-core business of the organization. Third
party IT hardware maintenance can effectively delay the need for equipment refreshes
while saving 30-40% compared to OEM support contracts.
The alternatives are co-located and Cloud-based data centers with controllable
operating expenses (OpEx). OpEx allows greater flexibility. Remote hands in data
centers can also be used to reduce the cost of colocation ops while maintaining a
reasonable level of control over your network.
In both CapEx-oriented and OpEx-oriented approaches, organizations need to optimize
their usage of resources so that they are only paying for what they really need.

Overcome Persistent Data Center

Challenges with the Right
Partner
Comprehensive data center and networking optimization can be difficult to achieve
using several different vendors. Park Place Technologies offers hardware
maintenance, infrastructure managed services, network monitoring and management,
and data center hardware sales from a single source!
Contact us today to learn how you can get seamless support and tackle common data
center problems with tested patners.
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