Whitepapers
In high technology industries, there are often large disjoints between vision and reality. In the data center world, this is typically exemplified by volumes of pronouncements and articles that speak glowingly of capabilities and methodologies that provide the impression that “everyone” is, or should be, implementing said functionality.
As continually escalating volumes of data continue to intersect with the need for faster response and action, centralized processing structures and human intervention will increasingly serve as impediments to the delivery of new applications and end user capabilities. As evidenced by the emergence of distributed data center networks that push their boundaries closer and closer to the end users of the services they house, the structure, and the capabilities, of databases will evolve as well….
As more and more corporate applications find their way to the cloud, and companies elect to use some derivative of XaaS to access desired capabilities, data center capacity, and their ability to scale, has become a primary consideration for providers. Capacity planning has always been more of an art than a science, but as the annual volume of information generated, transmitted and stored is geometrically escalating, even building a facility the size of the Taj Mahal is only temporary solution.
Not every application supported in your enterprise data center needs to, or should, move to the cloud. Reasons for not using the cloud can vary widely between applications and companies. Security, processing requirements or network issues are just a few reasons why your company may elect to keep some functionality in-house…
Data centers just keep getting bigger. Sometimes it seems that not a day goes by without someone announcing that they’ve built, or intend to build, a facility large enough to apply for statehood. Although every company isn’t an internet giant, the demands of things like the cloud, low latency performance, Big Data, IoT, augmented reality, and a host of others that are either available now, or already on the near horizon, is causing anyone contemplating a new facility to ask the question, “how big is big enough?”…
On October 21 a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on Dyn’s internet directory servers prevented a number of end users, especially along the East coast, from doing a variety of internet related activities ranging from tweeting to binge watching Stranger Things on Netflix. As we all know by now, the attack was the result of a malicious botnet, Marai, doing its best Invasion of the Body Snatchers imitation, launching the assault from the multitudes of IP cameras it had infected.
Have you ever been to a social gathering, a cocktail party let’s say, where you didn’t know anyone, and it seemed like everyone was talking about something you couldn’t understand? While you stood by that fern hoping that no one would come up and ask you about the evening’s main topic of chit-chat, didn’t you wish that you knew something about the subject so that you could at least nod knowingly and laugh at the right times?
In the average data center, cooling accounts for almost 40% of the site’s power consumption, so doing things right, or wrong, can have big financial ramifications. Since we all know that “it’s the little things that get you” this white paper examines the most common cooling errors made by data center operators.
For the data center operator, a time to sit back and rest on your laurels simply does not exist. They said you needed to virtualize your servers and you did it. Move some applications to the cloud they said, and you did it. Implement DCIM, you did it, and you’re not even sure why since it doesn’t really do the one thing you wanted it to do.
No one denies that the volume of information traversing the Internet is growing at a rate faster than the rabbit population at your local pet store. The anecdotal evidence surrounds us. In almost any public environment, the guy who stands out is the one who isn’t hunched over a glowing screen with his thumbs tapping out a message faster than a woodpecker assaults a tree trunk.
The demand for more efficient and cost effective computing has driven organizations large and small to reevaluate their strategies. This examination can incorporate many aspects, encompassing system architecture and software platforms, as well as the IT hardware, and of course the data center facility. Moreover, there are many strategic options for the enterprise CIO and CTO to consider, such as the possibility of direct or indirect ownership and operation of their own data center facility, as well as colocation, cloud, or hybrid combinations thereof. Nonetheless, the IT hardware must ultimately reside in a physical data center that will provide conditioned power and safe environmental conditions for the IT equipment.
When any person, product or technology reaches the level of public awareness where nuance has given way to ubiquity, and the singularity denoted by the word “the” has become the accepted prefix to a name or descriptor, opportunity for competitors often begins to arise from their long shadows. For a number of customers, the shared nature of public clouds is an acceptable negative element of the solution’s experience, but as in the case of dedicated data centers, the unique requirements of a sizeable segment of the marketplace have led them to a perspective that is totally at odds with your mother’s admonishments regarding the relationship between your toys and your siblings and friends, in other words: it’s not so nice to share.
As Coleridge made clear, water is essential for survival. In California for example, people are finding new meaning in the phrase, “water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink”. Since data centers hadn’t been invented when he published The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in 1798, he didn’t mention them. But if they had, he certainly would have included them in his epic poem since water is too often a common requirement for their operation. This water dependency is an area of consideration that businesses should factor into their plans for upcoming data centers.
Remember Economics 101? Sure it’s been awhile, and for many of us it wasn’t the most riveting subject—they don’t call it the “dismal science” for nothing—but a few things probably still stand out. “Supply and demand” ring a bell? Another common term from that time that we all probably remember is “economies of scale”–probably because it made so much sense.
Type “Big Data” into the search engine of your choice and you’ll get over 1 billion possible results. That’s even more than Miley Cyrus gets. Obviously, this means that you need to be thinking about how Big Data might impact your data center since it’s mor e likely that you will have to accommodate that within your facility than Miley.
As industries mature they tend to adopt standards. These are typically best practices that have been formally adopted that provide customers with a level of assurance that the product they are purchasing meets a proscribed level of measurement for performance, safe operations, etc. Customers rely on standards as a method of performing comparative analysis on competing suppliers. As part of the maturation of this standards-development process, qualified third parties verify the legitimacy of providers’ claims.
For many CIO’s data centers are, for lack of a better phrase, a necessary evil. In relation to the applications and hardware that they house, they are don’t change on a regular basis. It’s kind
of like buying a Ferrari and realizing that you have to have a garage to put it in. Required yes, sexy no. In most instances the decision regarding what type of data center to obtain, and who to get it from, is a process of determining who gets the most checkmarks on a feature summary check sheet. Power, check; 36” raised floor, check; and so on.
IT capacity planning has long been the “Gordian Knot” for data center professionals. Trying to account for the business’ hardware and software needs, coupled with the vagaries of short and long term corporate strategies, typically makes projecting your organization’s capacity requirements an exercise akin to nailing jell-o to the wall. These efforts are hardly aided by the product offerings of data center providers who view capacity planning as a euphemism for “you need to lease your future space NOW”. This paper will examine the issues that have long characterized the process of capacity planning and explore a new alternative that serves as the metaphoric equivalent of Alexander the Great’s sword as the solution to the Gordian Knot.
As corporate computing and storage needs continue to grow, the need to for more data center space follows. This continued escalation of demand is generating the need for customers to demand more from wholesale data center providers. In a recent series of blogs we described the new requirements for providers as being the data center industry’s version of baseball’s five-tool player. This white paper is the compilation of that series.
Within the past five years data center providers have found that it is more cost and energy efficient to build out these facilities in an incremental fashion. As a result, many providers have developed what they refer to as “modular” data centers. This terminology has been widely adopted but no true definition for what constitutes a modular data center has been universally embraced.
When you think of the leading data center markets in the country a few cities and states immediately come to mind: New Jersey, Northern Virginia, Santa Clara California, Dallas, Texas, Jackson, Mississippi… While the capital city of the Magnolia state may seem more likely to conjure visions of mint juleps rather than rows of racks and servers, that won’t always be the case if the state’s governmental leaders have their way.
Case Studies
Data Center Quarterly
Data Center Minute
In this monthly video commentary from Compass Datacenters our CEO, Chris Crosby, will briefly talk about new and emerging issues that are important to the data center industry.
This month Chris discusses the increasing instances of arc flash within the data center and the implications for end users and providers
The issue with many new “next big things” is that they tend to skip one or more essential steps. In this brief video, Compass Datacenters’ CEO, Chris Crosby, will explain why calibrating your data center is the essential step required to accurately measure and model data center performance and provides the necessary bridge to new capabilities like the Software Defined Data Center.
Predictions are tricky things. Big Data was going to be the “next big thing” and now folks are saying that it’s sinking faster than the Titanic, so obviously in the making of any prediction there is a margin for error. In this month’s Data Center Minute, Chris offers his thoughts on the predicted demise of the data center.
Industries change over time. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes for the worst. The one common element they all share is that at some point in their maturation process they reached an inflection point. In this month’s Data Center Minute Chris discusses how the data center industry has reached its own inflection point and where it needs to go from here.
If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “it looked good on paper” then you know that there is often a real difference between what is bought and what is delivered. Data centers are no different. In this month’s data center minute Chris explains the difference between the Uptime Institute’s design and constructed facility certifications and how most Tier III facilities really aren’t.
Everyone is talking about the Internet of Things, and if you’re not, you probably should be. Excitement alone, however, doesn’t guarantee effective implementation. The high volumes of data and latency requirements that come with the IoT dictate that many current data centers may be a part of the solution but they won’t be THE solution. In this month’s Data Center Minute, Chris talks about the elements you need to consider in planning to join the IoT.
The nature of data is changing the demands on today’s data centers and many current structures will not be up to the coming challenges. In this month’s Data Center Minute, Chris discusses how elements like the IoT and increasingly packet rich applications will be changing the way data centers will be planned for and deployed in the months ahead.