The Year of the Data Center.A few years ago, the economic outlook in Japan was still grim and many large companies providing 'Managed Services' remained hesitant hes·i·tant adj. Inclined or tending to hesitate. hes  i·tant·ly adv. to invest in a colossal co·los·sal adj. Of a size, extent, or degree that elicits awe or taxes belief; immense. See Synonyms at enormous. [French, from Latin colossus, colossus; see colossus. Data Center (DC). At the end of 2006, the Tokyo market started to feel the pinch, very few available Data Centers truly met requirements in terms of design and today, available space is rapidly running out. In conjunction with the above, technology trends have pushed further the infrastructure requirements. PTS PTS put to sleep; a common euphemism for euthanasia, but also used to describe general anesthesia. believes that 2007 is the Year of the Data Center, as clients and DC providers will have to make strategic choices in regards to their approach. Clients are thriving to maximize their non DC real estate due to a revived economy, co-locate their IT within specialized spaces, and improve on their BCP BCP Best Current Practice(s) BCP Business Continuity Planning BCP Business Continuity Plan BCP Book of Common Prayer BCP Banco Comercial Português BCP Bureau of Consumer Protection (US Federal Trade Commission) requirements. On the other hand Managed Services An umbrella term for third-party monitoring and maintaining of computers, networks and software. The actual equipment may be inhouse or at the third-party's facilities, but the "managed" implies an ongoing effort; for example, making sure the equipment is running at a certain quality providers are now trying to catch up and will have to invest massively into green fields or expensive refurbishments that will have to demonstrate nothing less than a STARS T3 (see previous page) tier requirement. Technology impacts In past years the ratio of Mechanical & Electrical plants (MEP MEP maximum expiratory pressure. MEP, n muscle energy procedure; diagnostic and therapeutic technique. Pulsed muscle energy techniques (MET) and integrated neuromuscular inhibition technique (INIT) are two examples. ) over IT space has steadily increased. The demand for power density (watts / m2) has departed from its normal trend in around 2005 and is now taking a very steep course (see figure 1). The MEP / IT ratio is explained by the increased demand for high Tier DC specifications whilst the later power density increase is triggered by recent technology changes. These ratios in itself explains two things: one, the customer will move MEP plant away from expensive real estate and two, DC will need to cater for high power density and as a knock-on effect knock-on effect Noun the indirect result of an action or decision Noun 1. knock-on effect - a secondary or incidental effect Britain, Great Britain, U.K. , a significant rise on floor loading will force DC designers for creative solutions. A brief summary of technology trend and impact on power is demonstrated in the table below. The net result of this table will probably be a more optimized environment for computational density with Virtualization An umbrella term for enhancing a computer's ability to do work. Following are the ways virtualization is used. Hardware Virtualization Partitioning the computer's memory into separate and isolated "virtual machines" simulates multiple machines within one physical computer. being the number one contender. The complex impact on the infrastructure could be depicted de·pict tr.v. de·pict·ed, de·pict·ing, de·picts 1. To represent in a picture or sculpture. 2. To represent in words; describe. See Synonyms at represent. as in figure 2. Management tools are still essential to manage capacities within future data centers and by embracing trends such as virtualization, effective asset management will become a possibility. Cooling and resilience resilience (r  ·zilˑ·yens),n The impact of an optimized, high-density power and computational infrastructure has rendered traditional air-cooled cabinets inadequate. Cabinet vendors and cooling systems cooling systems for housed animals include spraying of roofs with water, evaporative pads with fans, foggers and misters; for pastured animals shelter from the sun by trees or artificial shade devices and cooling ponds are used. manufacturers are all competing to establish themselves in providing new cooling solutions. [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] For DC providers the main constraint Constraint A restriction on the natural degrees of freedom of a system. If n and m are the numbers of the natural and actual degrees of freedom, the difference n - m is the number of constraints. of high density solutions is the lack of standards, which may not be attractive, due to limiting the competition and in turn costs. Together with pressure to invest in the construction of new buildings that will need to sustain the next 10 to 15 years, DC providers are facing significant challenges. Another growing concern becomes the resilience of cooling and power systems. In the pre-era of virtualization almost every application is running on its dedicated server, making utilization of servers quite inefficient, although the positive aspect of this inefficiency was an intrinsic resilience among systems. With increased computational efficiency through technologies such as Virtualization, multiple virtual machines are made possible to run in a smaller space and the whole office technology such as Voice, network and servers may run in a rack, 'virtually'. Cooling backup response time will also be paramount as the thermal rise will be much faster. Energy efficiency In parallel to the technology trends, other market pressures are starting to emerge, such as the abidance to the Kyoto protocol Kyoto Protocol: see global warming. and the 'Corporate Social Responsibility' requirements; both call for the three 'R' principle, Reduce, Re-use, Recycle re·cy·cle tr.v. re·cy·cled, re·cy·cling, re·cy·cles 1. To put or pass through a cycle again, as for further treatment. 2. To start a different cycle in. 3. a. . As a consequence, there is an urge for DC owners or operators to analyze and monitor their operational efficiencies. A simple mathematical formula defines the efficiency as a fraction of the input power delivered to the IT load as follows: data centre efficiency = IT load power/total data centre input power The same formula has been used for a long time in the UPS efficiency where various vendors are competing and venting venting, n an exit passage constructed in a casting mold to allow gases to escape during the casting process. venting Ventilation Psychology The verbalization* of one's 'emotional baggage' to another person; qvetching their efficiency factor. In a large DC, were hundreds of UPS are operating, a 1% gain on efficiency will translate into enormous savings when calculated on a year basis. DC providers should now look holistically at their DC design and quantify Quantify - A performance analysis tool from Pure Software. the total loss of energy (in heat form), all the way from the incoming utilities to the machine room and to the equipment level. Whilst the upfront capital costs are higher, the total cost of ownership (TCO (1) (Total Cost of Ownership) The cost of using a computer. It includes the cost of the hardware, software and upgrades as well as the cost of the inhouse staff and/or consultants that provide training and technical support. See ROI. ) may be significantly reduced. PTS started in London in 1983 providing IT Infrastructure solutions with a small group of forward thinking individuals. Today, PTS Consulting Group has offices throughout the globe with over 400 employees providing a wide range of services. Contact details PTS Consulting Japan K.K. 9F Joule joule (j  l, joul), abbr. J, unit of work or energy in the mks system of units, which is based on the metric system; it is the work done or energy expended by a force of 1 newton acting through A Building
1-10-10 Azabu-Juban, Minato-ku Tokyo 106-0045 Japan Tel: +81-3-5114-8561 Fax: +81-3-5114-8562 Email: info@pts-consulting.jp Web: www.pts-consulting.jp RELATED ARTICLE: The conundrum conundrum A problem with no satisfactory solution; a dilemma of todays market Business leaders in Japan today are confronted with solving a never ending series of issues that are critical to the success of their operations; maintaining competitive advantage against strong competition (locally and globally), increasing customer satisfaction against pressures to reduce cost while sustaining growth, and most importantly Adv. 1. most importantly - above and beyond all other consideration; "above all, you must be independent" above all, most especially , the protection of mission critical systems hosted in your Data Center. Companies have undergone varying degrees of 'Business Continuity Planning' in ensuring continued operations in protecting their critical data in the event of a disaster. Members of the Board, customers and even regulatory authorities Noun 1. regulatory authority - a governmental agency that regulates businesses in the public interest regulatory agency administrative body, administrative unit - a unit with administrative responsibilities exercise a comfort level of assurance that senior management have this under control. However, all are placing continued pressure to maintain an effective level of operational efficiency and practicality with powerful entities such as the Financial Services Agency The Financial Services Agency is a Japanese government organization responsible for overseeing banking, securities and exchange, and insurance in order to ensure the stability of the financial system of Japan. The agency reports to the Minister of Financial Services. . Organizations are constantly reviewing and updating their contingency plans A plan involving suitable backups, immediate actions and longer term measures for responding to computer emergencies such as attacks or accidental disasters. Contingency plans are part of business resumption planning. in order to ensure continued operations in the event of any climatic event. One facet facet /fac·et/ (fas´it) a small plane surface on a hard body, as on a bone. fac·et n. 1. A small smooth area on a bone or other firm structure. 2. of this review involves the operations and efficient use of the Data Center. The professional experts within PTS discussed with Japan Inc. their thoughts on some of the trends and factors to be aware of when approaching this issue. One potential area that is overlooked is in Data Center Optimization optimization Field of applied mathematics whose principles and methods are used to solve quantitative problems in disciplines including physics, biology, engineering, and economics. . Companies have backup and offsite processing facilities that provide for a level of comfort that operations will run smoothly in light of any climatic event. Given changes in technology and the massive increases in the amount of data stored, today is the appropriate time to review this comfort zone. RELATED ARTICLE STARS[c] is a unique rating system--Site Tier Allocation Rating System, which utilises the Uptime Institute Tier Classification to further identify 4 intermediate classifications when carrying out a site due diligence Research; analysis; your homework. This term has caught on in all industries, because it sounds so "wired." Who would want to do analysis or research when they can do due diligence. See wired. . STARS[c] aims to aid Landlords in realising their Tier Class. STARS[c] creates a detailed analysis of facilities for Clients. STARS[c] offers the following: * Broader Tier dassification scale * Site comparison & Gap analysis * Indicates Sile potential and present limits * Single Points of Failure (SPoF) * Availability & Downtime The time during which a computer is not functioning due to hardware, operating system or application program failure. Costs * Life Cycle Costs * Database available at PTS world-wide * Unique Lifecycle Cost + Downtime Cost [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [c] 2005 STARS All Rights Reserved
Tier 4 Multiple active paths; redundancy, concurrently maintainable,
fault tolerant
Tier 3 Multiple paths, but only one active; redundancy, concurrently
maintainable
Tier 2 Single path; redundancy
Tier 1 Single path; no redundancy
Note: Table made from bar graph.
Power Density (Financial Sector)
2001 40
2002 50
2003 60
2004 75
2005 75
2006 120
2007 175
figure 1
Note: Table made from line graph.
power computational
Technology trend Description density density
Blades Self computer designed up to several up to several
for space efficiency 100% increase 100% increase
Virtualization Typically servers in a up to 30% up to 60%
DC are dedicated to a increase increase
single task resulting
in a low average
utilization.
Consolidation of
multiple servers to
virtual servers on one
physical machine can
drastically reduce
power consumption due
to reducedhardware.
Multi core / Dual core doubles 10% increase 80% increase
Multi performance as does per core / per core / 80%
processor dual processors 50% per CPU increase per
theoretically. Not all CPU
software benefits from
more than one CPU, as
software development
traditionally uses a
single thread
mentality. Multiple
tasks can be run
parallel without
interferences, however
in rare cases they may
be limited due to
external shared
resources such as
memory, hard disks or
network etc. Beginning
from 2007 most
software will be able
to use multiple
threads, effectively
utilizing multiple
CPU's (see
virtualization).
Grid computing Grid computing: grids up to 30% up to 60%
connect collections of increase increase
computers which do not
fully trust each
other, and hence
operate more like a
computing utility than
like a single
computer.
Power Supply Typical commercial PC up to 12% --
Units (PSU) PSU seldom exceeds 70% lower
changes efficiency. Higher
efficiency is
increasingly
emphasized, and
several groups and
programs world-wide
push manufacturers to
use more efficient PSU
in their server
design. Recently
manufacturers will
seek to fit PSU with
an efficiency of 80%-
85%, resulting in an
overall drop of power
consumption of up to
12%.
Green servers Savings significantly up to 33% --
reduced as utilization lower
increases; works best
in office environments
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