data centre management - winter 2014

I N S I D E : News • DCIM • Storage

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DATAcentreMANAGEMENT WINTER 2014 3

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I N S I D E : News • DCIM • Storage

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WELCOME

Independent researchcommissioned by ZeniumTechnology Partners has found

that there is mounting pressure onthe data centre to meet changingbusiness requirements through theadoption of new technology,ongoing evolution and optimisationof data centre infrastructure.

This shows how quickly the datacentre market is moving and thatthere is still a huge opportunity forgrowth and that improvements intechnology will mean that the datacentre will continue to change and

adapt in coming years.You will be able to keep up with

all these changes at next year’sData Centre World, which takesplace on the 11-12 March 2015 atExcel in London.

The event promises to be biggerand better than ever and you canregister at www.datacentreworld.com

There are over 150 companiesalready booked to exhibit at theevent and the free conference willdeliver information that will makeyour operation more efficient.

CONTENTSNews 4DCM looks at all the news fromacross the industry, with news fromhome and abroad

DCIM 12An in-depth look at DCIM and itscapacity to manage data centresefficiently

Software 24How intelligent workloadmanagement can boost efficiency,plus a look at how an SDN-enableddata centre can speed up yourbusiness

Power 28Socomec says that it is possible tofutureproof your business

Cooling 29Geist explores the process ofintelligent containment

Storage 34A look at the creation of 3D V-NAND

Energy efficiency 37How using IT intelligently can boostthe energy efficiency of your datacentre

4

John HatcherEditor

Produced by Turret Group on behalf of

NEWS

4 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT WINTER 2014 WWW.THEstack.COM

NEWS IN BRIEF■ VIRTUALLY THEREInteroute has announced it willopen its second GermanInteroute Virtual Data Centre(VDC) zone in Frankfurt on 1stof December this year. TheInteroute VDC zone in Berlinhas already been hosting dataand applications for customerssince its opening in 2012. Thesecond zone in Frankfurt amMain, combined withInteroute’s advanced privateand public networkingcapability, meets growingcustomer demand for securecloud enterprise grade cloudcomputing inside Germannational borders, withcomplete data control andultra low, in-country latencyproviding a secure, flexibleand in-country resilientplatform for all computingneeds. The addition of dualzone in-country capability tothe Interoute Virtual DataCentre, available across 12zones globally, meansInteroute is able to meet thelocal needs of Europeanbusinesses and also provide aglobal platform for growth andexpansion.

Mounting pressure on the data centre

It also appears that risingconcerns about how best tomeet fluctuating needs forstorage and computingresources is driving interest inoutsourcing as the solution toaddress these issues. Indeed51% of respondents said thattheir IT infrastructure would beconsiderably improved if theychose to outsource data centrerequirements.

The research - entitled‘Motivation to Modernise’ –found that among those withbudget allocated, on averageonly 24% have specifically set

aside funds for data centremodernisation. Mostcompanies (56%) haveassigned 30% or less of thebudgets to this area andworryingly 22% have onlyassigned 10% or less.

The modest budgetsassigned purely tomodernisation may explain inpart why 60% of ITprofessionals were onlyprepared to go as far as sayingthat they could ‘possibly’ scaleto support their businessneeds within the next 3-5years. Unfortunately 16% were

more negative, saying thattheir data centre will probablyNOT be scalable over this timeframe and another 2% weredefinite that what theycurrently have in place is notappropriate for their futurebusiness needs.

Interestingly, the report alsocited that confidence in therole of outsourcing as apotential solution for scalabilityand modernisation is high.94% of the senior ITprofessionals questioned feltthat outsourcing their datacentre requirements would

improve their company’s ITinfrastructure to some degree.13% believe it would improveit radically, and another 51%said it would be considerablyimproved. Those with currentexperience of outsourcing(99%) think that outsourcingimproves a company’s ITinfrastructure to some degree,compared to those who do notoutsource (79%). Thisrepresents a massiveendorsement for outsourcingas a ‘tried and tested’ solutionfor a variety of short and long-term data centre issues.

Independent research commissioned by Zenium Technology Partners has found that there is mounting pressure on the datacentre to meet changing business requirements through the adoption of new technology, ongoing evolution and optimisationof data centre infrastructure. It has driven 70% of companies to allocate at least some of their overall IT budget to focus onmodernisation initiatives. However, just 21% of the respondents went on to add that they could definitely scale in response todemand from the business.

New gen setsCummins Power Generation is introducing the QSK95 Seriesgenerator sets, a new line of high-performance generatorsets.

The QSK95 generator sets are Cummins Power Generation’smost powerful diesel generator sets to date, offering up to 3.5 MW60 Hz and 3.75 MVA 50 Hz. They are engineered with the highestkilowatt per square foot ratio in their class, resulting in a smallerfootprint that achieves a 20 percent improvement in power density.

While the new generator sets boast more power, they also offerbest-in-class fuel economy — over the course of 8,000 hours ofoperation, the QSK95 can achieve fuel savings of more than$400,000.

Security still a concernOver 50% of organisations that host some or all of their dataoffsite identified security as their main concern, according toresearch conducted by Pulsant. This is in stark contrast toother issues such as the importance of the reputation of thedata centre provider (15%) and location of the data centreitself (14%) that were only identified by a small percentage oforganisations as being a main consideration.

The research highlighted that 83% of organisations still keeptheir business critical data on-premise. However, the research alsoidentified that there is a move in the industry towards more hybridapproaches, with the report also revealing that two thirds oforganisations are making use of hybrid hosting models, while only11% of respondents store all business data offsite. The researchrecognised that although 24% of organisations store all businessdata on-premise, there is increasing confidence in externally hostedsolutions which meet specific certified criteria to host businesscritical data to acceptable service levels.

“The maturity of hybrid hosting models which operate tocertified data management best practices is now enabling businessto securely migrate data off-premise. Suppliers are providing andmitigating data transition risks through migration expertise andtechnologies, allowing businesses to maintain control of their dataand leveraging external supplier benefits,” says Matt Lovell, CTO,Pulsant. “Our research identifies that organisations continue to havedata management and security concerns.”

Data centers store the most valuable company possession: Data – but the challenges for data centers are manifold.

To address these challenges, Siemens has pooled its vast expertise and experience across several disciplines into a comprehensive portfolio, integrated solutions and global services for data centers. Our experts have teamed up to

siemens.com/datacenters

help you manage the infrastructure of your data center for maximum uptime, reliability and efficiency, optimizing everything from data center management, automation and control, power distribution with Totally Integrated Power (TIP) to fire safety, security and services.

Data center solutions from SiemensFor the factories of the 21st century

NEWS


NEWS IN BRIEF■ CHANNELPARTNERNext Generation Data (NGD)says that Turrem Data hassigned as a channel partnerand will be taking colocationspace at its NGD Europe tier 3mega data centre.Turrem Data will offer systemsintegrators and largemultinationals NGD’s highsecurity ISO27001 accreditedcolocation data centrefacilities as a Pan-Europeanhub for hosting, storing andremote monitoring of world-class digital security and dataforensics solutions. Localsystems design,implementation and furthercustomer support services arebeing provided through TurremData’s Pan-European networkof security specialist resellers.

■ NEW OFFICENode4 has opened a newoffice in London. The newoffice, located in the City, ispart of Node4’s ongoingcommitment to provide directsupport to its new and existingcustomers at a regional level.The new office will allowNode4 to meet with London-based customers anddemonstrate itscomprehensive range ofsolutions. This enhances directcommunication withcustomers in the City andopens up further opportunitiesfor them to take advantage ofNode4’s extensive solutionsportfolio.

FOODforTHOUGHTFranek SodzawicznyCEO, Zenium Technology Partners

As economies stabilise, it’s encouraging to see that theinvestment community is once again investigating opportunitiesfor the next best return, and that the data centre sector continuesto be an attractive proposition.Of course the market landscape is changing. Mergers andacquisitions are impacting the face of the better known brandsand, in parallel, new players are attempting to create their niche.But what will the critical considerations on the business agendabe in 2015?We decided to explore this question by commissioning anindependent research study into the current issues in the datacentre sector. Interestingly it found that whilst data centremodernisation might be a buzz word today, it may not be such abig focus tomorrow. Budgets are assigned to this issue, but itappears that they aren’t as extensive as you might expect. Whilstmodernisation is considered important, it’s not regarded asimportant enough for many C-level executives to feel the need tobe involved in the process. This is a real concern when you alsotake in to account that a staggering 94% of the senior ITprofessionals questioned admitted that their in-house data centreis technologically out of date. The disconnect between what is in place and what is needed forthe future is very worrying. There is massive demand forincreased storage and computing power to manage hugevolumes of data, and the impending impact of the ‘Internet ofThings’ will only exacerbate these problems. To that point alone,just 21% of the respondents felt that their data centre coulddefinitely scale in response to demand from the business.The Skills Gap is set to remain a ‘hot topic’. 64% of respondentscited that they feel it will have a detrimental impact on theirbusiness and, as a result, 29% indicated that they have startedtaking steps to tackle this issue – but that still leaves a lot ofexposure across the rest of the industry.Outsourcing, thankfully, will also remain popular – for perhaps asurprising reason. The report findings seem to suggest thatcompanies are now viewing outsourcing as a businessimprovement process and not just a way of ensuring extra spaceis available. The key objectives for outsourcing today include thedesire to improve scalability, tackle data centre modernisationissues and ultimately improve IT infrastructures (94%). This is asignificant endorsement for using outsourcing as a ‘tried andtested’ solution for a variety of short and long-term data centerissues.It’s great to see that the fundamental business drivers for theindustry will remain the same; scalability, agility, flexibility andmanaging data growth. But it has to be said that if data centreand IT strategies continue to be hindered by restricted budgets,lack of foresight and limited innovation, the gap between what isneeded and what is in place will only get wider.

Solid solutionKeysource has commenced work on a data centre for leadingcloud computing experts brightsolid. The centre represents a£5 million investment and will be located at the AberdeenJournals’ Lang Stracht site.

Detailed planning isunderway with the data centrebuild scheduled to commenceduring October 2014 and thefacility due to open in April2015. The 2200 sq m. site willinitially comprise 210 high-density racks with capacity of30 kW per rack. It has beendesigned by Keysource toexpand to twice this size,allowing for storage of 400

Petabytes of data. The facility has also been

designed to achieve anannualised Power UsageEfficiency (PUE) of 1.25. Thiswill make the data centresubstantially greener than theindustry standard and on apar with the highestperforming data centresincluding that of other leadingcloud providers.

Madek has successfully completed the delivery of a stand-bypower solution for the largest commercial data centre inUkraine.

Madek’s team of engineers supplied two P1375E3 and fourP1700P1 generator sets to the Parkovaya Data Centre, which islocated in the centre of Ukraine. Commissioned early in 2014, theproject was delivered on time, on budget and to specification.

All six generator sets were fitted in the data centre’s engine roominside the special compartment. They are synchronized with eachother and they will provide emergency power in the case of themains failure.

Commenting on the project, Dmitry Gladkyi, commercial directorof Madek, said:

“The successful delivery of this power solution for such a high-profile data centre is the latest in Madek’s ever-growing catalogue ofprojects which have been completed to the highest standard andquality. We have developed a reputation as specialists in data centrepower provision, with our generator set experts identifying the mosteffective solutions to ensure clients’ peace of mind.”

Standing by Ukraine

NEWS


NEWS IN BRIEF■ CLOUD PRICETo examine the real-worldcost of cloud computing overtime, 451 Research islaunching a Cloud Price Index.Like a consumer price index,the 451 Cloud Price Index (CPI)is made up of a basket ofgoods; in this case, it includesthe services required tooperate a typical Web serverapplication.In the first edition of the CloudPrice Index, the averagehourly price for a typical Webapplication is $2.56, with the'hyperscalers' (AWS, MicrosoftAzure and Google ComputeEngine) slightly cheaper at$2.36. The CPI is based onquotes and estimates derivedfrom a range of cloudproviders based on aspecification of a typicalmulti-service cloudapplication.

■ FLAGSHIPJuniper Networks hasintroduced a virtualizedversion of its flagship MXSeries 3D Universal EdgeRouting platform to deliver theindustry’s first full-featured,carrier-grade virtualizedrouter. The Juniper NetworksvMX 3D Universal Edge Router,which operates as software onx86 servers, gives serviceproviders and enterprises theability to seamlessly leveragethe benefits of both virtual andphysical networking so theycan rapidly deliver servicesand cost-effectively keepahead of customer demand.

As applications becomemore network-centric, and thevolume of data grows in thecloud, organisations areseeing increased bandwidthdemand for front-endapplications driven by mobilityand Bring Your Own Device(BYOD), mid-tier big dataanalytics and contentdistribution, back-endtransaction processing andstorage management. Thesurvey results below indicatethat hyperscale and multi-tenant requirements aredriving demand for highernetwork bandwidth to manage

vast volumes of data, lowerlatency to accelerateapplication delivery andperformance, and increasedsecurity to meet service levelagreements (SLAs), andregulatory and compliancerequirements. Organisationshave responded by increasingtheir network bandwidth, andmore than 77% ofrespondents runninghyperscale environments saythe move to the cloud hasalready necessitated theupgrade of their networks toat least 40Gb Ethernet(40GbE).

Emulex has announced the results of a study of 1,623 ITprofessionals, in which respondents provided insight intotheir enterprise data centre networking environments. Thestudy, conducted in October, found that 57 percent (%) ofrespondents have adopted hyperscale networkingenvironments that require massive scalability in networkresources. Of those respondents, more than half (51%)named increasing bandwidth as a major challenge in movingto hyperscale environments.

Networking andbandwidth still an issue

Headline findings from thesurvey:

· 87% believe thatdevolving more power to localauthorities will increasebusiness growth in the regionsand as such welcome the moveto have an elected mayor inGreater Manchester

· 79% think the extension ofthe high-speed internetinfrastructure across the UK ismore important for theirbusiness needs than improvedrail links via HS2 and HS3

· Half of respondents areconfident that the region cansupport technology companiesand believe that thesebusinesses will be moresuccessful if based outside ofLondon

· Respondents were split asto what would best support thedevelopment of techbusinesses outside of Londonbetween those who favouredtax breaks and those whopreferred public/private backedregional tech clusters

The vast majority of nearly200 business leaders basedin the North West believeimprovements to internetinfrastructure are moreimportant for theirbusinesses than improvedrail links to the north, andthat the Government needsto do more to make the‘Northern Powerhouse’ areality, according to a recentsurvey undertaken byDataCentred, a provider ofdata centre and open-source cloud computingservices based inManchester.

Internetmore importantthan HS2

New PDUs launched

Excel Networking Solutionshas launched a newrange of desktop power

distribution units.The latest addition to the

Excel range is designed to addgreater accessibility to thework place as it presents bothpower and network ports in acompact and stylish designthat sits on the edge of thedesk, removing the need toscramble underneath tocharge and power phones,tablets and laptops.

The anodised aluminiumdesk top PDUs are easilyfitted to the desktop with

clamps supplied. They areavailable with UK or SchukoPower Sockets and haveoptions for 6c apertures toaccept data outlets and USB

power and come in a choiceof sizes. The USB outletssupply up to 2.1 ampspermitting phones or tabletsto be charged.

NEWS


NEWS IN BRIEF■ AGREEMENTEquinix has announced anagreement to provide directaccess to Google CloudPlatform via the EquinixCloud Exchange in 15markets worldwide. Byoffering high-performance,dedicated connectionsthrough Cloud Exchange,Equinix is helping Googlecustomers realise the fullbenefits of their cloudservices.

■ BILLIONSPublic IT cloud servicesspending will reach $56.6billion in 2014 and grow tomore than $127 billion in2018, according to a newforecast from InternationalData Corporation (IDC). Thisrepresents a five-yearcompound annual growthrate (CAGR) of 22.8%, whichis about six times the rate ofgrowth for the overall ITmarket. In 2018, public ITcloud services will accountfor more than half ofworldwide software, server,and storage spendinggrowth.

Virtually done

Matthew Finnie, InterouteCTO, said: “Interoute believesin being close to its customersand key markets because itbrings lower latency and higherperforming solutions,straightforward compliancemanagement and goodcustomer service. That’s whywe are investing in many zones,rather than relying on a singleor limited presence to serve acontinent. Our recent UK data

centre and network expansionbrings our cloud within a fewmilliseconds of our customers,partners and major businesshubs in the UK. Low latencymeans higher throughput,fewer servers for the sameapplication and less rewrites toget it there, making InterouteVirtual Data Centre the practicaloption for Enterprise migrationto the cloud and for the mostambitious of developers."

Interoute has opened two new Interoute virtual data centre(VDC) locations, one in London’s Canary Wharf and a secondsite in Slough, bringing its total number of Interoute VDCzones to 10. Together with its recent acquisition of one of thelargest networks in the UK, Vtesse, this cements Interoute’sposition as one of the fastest growing providers of enterprisecloud services across the world.

Better connected

euNetworks has invested the £8m in pre-deploying this highbandwidth infrastructure in London to help retain the city’s positionas a leading technology hub. The company works with both datacentres and some of the largest technology businesses in the world,who have an ever-increasing demand for these services.

Brady Rafuse, CEO of euNetworks, says: “As a leading Europeanbandwidth infrastructure provider, we invest in our network toprovide high bandwidth scalable connections. Data centreconnectivity infrastructure is critically important to business today asit enables the agility and flexibility customers seek in response todynamic market conditions and cost efficiencies.”

euNetworks has launched its dc connect service, an £8millioninfrastructure investment providing near instant, scalablehigh bandwidth connectivity across 35 data centres inLondon with onward connectivity to 250 data centres inEurope.

Not ready yet

When asked if they were ready to migrate to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), only 10 per cent of the 100 IT decision makerssurveyed believed they were, while only a further 8 per cent hadalready migrated or were in the process of migration.

Despite the relatively low rates of migration to IaaS, 88 per centof IT decision makers stated that moving applications fromtraditional server environments to the cloud was of top, high ormedium priority, with only one-in-twenty stating it was not a priorityat all. Only 7 per cent of respondents were confident that theycould call on all the required skills to manage applications runningin IaaS environments from an in-house team. While over one-third(36 per cent) believed they had most skills in house, a combined59 per cent had only some of the required skills, no skills or did notknow.

These findings were reflected in planned IaaS buying andmanagement behaviour, with only 26 per cent planning to buydirectly from the vendor. Nearly two-thirds admitted they wouldneed some form of third party support, with 38 per cent engaging athird-party consultancy for total management, and 25 per centplanning a mixed model of in-house skills and consultancy services.

“There’s a very clear desire for businesses to move applicationsaway from traditional environments and towards Infrastructure-as-a-Service providers, however a lack of adequate skills seem to beholding back many IT departments from making this move,” saysSteve Nice, CTO, Reconnix. “It’s natural for businesses to err on theside of caution, but this conservative approach can mean that manyare missing out on the transformative benefits of the cloud.

“It’s clearly a confidence issue, and the challenge is for ITdepartments to take the necessary steps to prepare themselves forinevitable change. By failing to take action now, they risk puttingthemselves at a technological disadvantage to competitors or beingcaught blindsided and forced to rush through a migration that couldend up costing over the odds.”

Microsoft Azure was acknowledged as the most trusted IaaSprovider, with 36 per cent of respondents choosing it ahead ofrivals IBM’s Smart Cloud (22 per cent), Amazon Web Services (14per cent) and Rackspace (14 per cent). Only 5 per cent of IT buyersplaced trust in Google’s Compute Engine ahead of the competition.

“The prominence of Azure and IBM in IT buyers minds issurprising, especially considering how far ahead AWS is, bothtechnically and in terms of market share,” explains Nice. “ITdepartments not used to buying cloud services can sometimes notbe aware of the difference in levels of performance between IaaSproviders and it can be tempting to choose a trusted name. Thistrust, however, could be based on a decades old relationship andnot on the performance of current product offerings.”

Cost was identified as the most important factor when making adecision on moving to the cloud. Respondents cited potential costsavings as the single biggest motivator (32 per cent) but also as thebiggest barrier to migration (30 per cent).l

Over four-fifths (82 per cent) of current UK IT leaders do notbelieve they are yet fully ready to move from traditionalserver and hosting environments to IaaS providers due to ashortage of in-house skills according to new researchcommissioned by Reconnix.

MANAGEMENT

12 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT WINTER 2014

As the requirement for off-site data storage hasincreased so has the needfor additional, larger datacentres and for them to

employ bigger and heavier dataenclosures. This, in conjunction withthe demands of Health & Safety, haspresented the industry with its own setof unique challenges.

One such challenge, how to safelymove these large data enclosures, wasidentified by Rittall who are one of theworld's leading international datacentre system providers. Among otherthings Rittal manufacture and supplydata enclosures, these data racks orcabinets are large and when fullypopulated can weigh in excess of3,520lbs (1.5 metric tonnes) and beworth around £1 million.

Once delivered to the data centrethe enclosures need to be removedfrom their anti-vibration pallets andsafely transported to their final installdestination. The journey to their finalinstallation typically involvesmanoeuvring the enclosures alongrelatively narrow corridors, throughdoorways with limited height, aroundcorners and negotiating gaps whilstgoing in and out of service lifts.Although the enclosures are fitted withcastors these are not suitable for such ademanding journey.

The size, shape and weight of thedata enclosures also make the loadunstable, especially when on inclines orwhen cornering, this could lead to theunit tipping over causing serious injuryto personnel and damage to bothsurrounding equipment and the dataenclosure itself. The answer to easilyand safely moving these fully loadeddata enclosures needed to be found.

Andy Gill, engineering director Rittal-CSM said, “A number of issues neededto be addressed before we would beable to provide our customers with a

solution of how to move our dataenclosures to their final installdestination. The combination of theirsize and shape and the fact that thereare very few secure points to whichtraditional lifting equipment canconnect to made the challenge evenharder.”

In November 2013, after searchingthe market, Rittal approached Wiltshire-based materials handling manufacturersBIL Group having seen one of theirexisting products, a cleverly designedmoving system known as Skoots. TheSkoots moving system comprises of apair of wheeled units, each with ahydraulically controlled toe plate. Theunits attach to either end of a load withthe toe plates being inserted betweenthe load and the floor and both unitsare secured together with strapping forextra safety. The toe plates on bothunits are then raised evenly, lifting theload from the ground and making iteasy to manoeuvre. The Skoots movingsystem has been successfully used formany years for applications such asmoving vending machines, largefreezer units and shop display cabinets.

“The existing Skoots system certainlymade a good starting point, howeverwe quickly realised that in order for usto fully solve all of the uniquechallenges presented to us it wouldrequire some redesign and productdevelopment on our part.” said MarkFarrell, Managing Director, BIL Group

By January 2014 BIL presented Rittalwith a first prototype and it was quicklydecided that BIL should continue towork on the project in order to producea final working production model. Overthe next few months, one by one, allissues were solved ¬- a toe plate barwas added to enable the Skoots unit tohook securely under the chassis of thedata enclosure to prevent slipping andit was designed to be adjustable toenable it to cope with any changes to

the enclosure's depth, such as theaddition of cable management trays.The traditional Skoots strapping used tosecure the units together was replacedwith heavy duty adjustable clips and animproved hydraulic jack was fitted. Thestability issues were solved by theinclusion of removable outriggers orstabilisers. Having them removablemake the units very versatile and allowsthe load to be rolled the last few feetinto its final position even if space istight.

By May 2014, after having passedextensive independent testingprocedures and been successful in fieldtrials at data centres in Houston, NewYork, Santa Clara, Dublin, Amsterdam,Singapore and Hong Kong, the SkootsSKENCSYS1 data enclosure movingsystem was ready. It has also achievedCE accreditation and has a pendinginternational patent application.

“We are very pleased with endresult and now have a product that isextremely versatile and can easily beadapted to fit most OEM dataenclosure cabinets currently available,with that in mind I'm looking forwardto helping other data centres solve theproblem of how to move their dataenclosures both safely and easily.”commented Tim Murrow, UK SalesManager, BIL Materials HandlingDivision.

BIL Group are currently inproduction of the Skoots SKENCSYS1fulfilling orders for a number ofinternational clients and have also sincecompleted a further project with Rittaldeveloping a special narrow Skoots unitto move cooling cabinets.

To find out more about the SkootsSKENCSYS1 data enclosure movingsystem call 01249 822 222 or visitwww.bilhandling.co.uk/skoots-skencsys1-promo. BIL Group are alsoexhibiting at Data Centre World, 11-12March 2015, Excel London stand C100.

Changing ROOMSA UK company says it has

solved the data centre cabinet

challenge

MANAGEMENT


Logicalis is an internationalenterprise service provider ofintegrated IT solutions andservices. It designs, specifies,deploys and manages

complex IT infrastructures for morethan 6,000 corporate and public sectorcustomers. The group’s expertisespans a range of sectors and ITsolutions, including collaboration,cloud computing, data centre hosting,managed services and businessanalytics.

Understanding power consumptionin the data centre is fundamental forthe company – but also highlycomplex. The company’s primaryfacility in Slough, England is designedfor 400 racks containing a minimumof two power distribution units(PDUs). There are also uninterruptablepower supply (UPS) systems, networkswitches, meters and environmentalcontrol devices, bringing the total ofdata points to more than 1,000.Collecting periodic data from all ofthese devices for calculating powerusage effectiveness (PUE) andreporting was a time consuming task,and did not give the Logicalis team thereal-time visibility necessary to identifyanomalies in energy use that representwasted expenditure.

In addition, visibility of powerconsumption was key for maintainingIT service availability – whether itinvolves a hosted infrastructure or aprivate cloud environment. Withpower management becoming sucha critical factor in both the delivery ofmanaged and cloud services,Logicalis needed to transform itsmanual approach to capturingconsumption data. The companyrecognised that by offering theircustomers energy efficiency,

sustainability data, cost transparencyand power reliability, they have theopportunity to differentiate theirmanaged services offerings in themarketplace.

Logicalis was already using anumber of CA Technologies solutionsto support its network managedservice and found them easy to use,reliable and cost-effective. Logicalisthen chose the CA DCIM solutionbecause of its proved ability to providea bridge between facilitiesinfrastructure assets and IT devices.

CA DCIM gathers data fromfacilities and IT devices via SNMP,Modbus, and BACnet protocolswithout requiring any additionalhardware. It has been integrated withexisting Building Management Systems(BMS) so that advanced analytics andreporting capabilities can complementexisting BMS functions. The solutionperforms advanced calculations withresults stored as time series data. CADCIM provides that data toadministrators as well as other IT andFacilities management solutions,including capacity management,performance management,infrastructure management, coolingsystems, virtualisation management,and the service desk.

With CA DCIM Logicalis was able tovisualise, monitor, and better managethe use of power, cooling and ITcapacity in the data centre by helpingstaff to identify possible faults withdevices, detect changes in power andtemperature, minimise powerhotsposts and overheads and report tocustomers on their powerconsumption levels. The solution hasalso solved the problem of timeconsuming task of collecting data formanagement and reporting, as it

automatically polls, calculates, gathersand stores both live and historicaldata.

The Logicals team documentedfinancial savings in energyconsumption and staff time as well astop-line revenue generation due tocompetitive differentiation. Althoughby design Logcalis’ PUE was already aslow as it can get, due to it being abrand new data centre, by monitoringthe company has been able to keepon top of faults affecting efficiencyvery quickly. For example, CA’ssolution picked up a chiller that wasnot free cooling as efficiently asanother – which turned out to be afault with a valve.

The Logicalis team noted that theytypically see energy savings ratingfrom 2.5% to up to 30% and more,for older data centres operating legacyequipment. In addition, the teamdocumented a 93% reduction in timespent collecting data and producingquarterly reports, including PUEcalculations. The results of thefinancial analysis show that Logicalisachieved a 159% ROI over the three-year term on their investment in theCA Technologies DCIM solution. Thisrepresents a payback period of 11months, which includes a 6-monthramp-up period before benefits wereaccrued. The analysis took intoaccount expenses, assets amortisation,and depreciation.

By using the CA DCIM solution aspart of its managed services offerings,Logicalis has been able to increaseefficiency, availability and overallbusiness agility. The investment hashelped Logicalis pass these savings onto their customers, differentiating themin the marketplace and helping themto out-innovate the competition.

GIVING A, competitive edge

UK service provider Logicalis

was able to bring competitive

pricing structures to the

marketplace through

leveraging the CA DCIM

solution, which helped it

reduce power costs and other

service delivery overheads. As

a result, Logicalis has

increased efficiency,

maximised availability and

reduced power utilisation for

its managed services offerings

and was able to go to market

with more competitive

offerings.

// when transparency matters.further information at www. fntsoftware.com/DCIM

// Data Center Infrastructure Management

Experience the inner calm that comes with successful data center management.

FNT‘s Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) solution is the central management and

optimization software for your data center. From the building infrastructure (power, cooling,

floorspace, etc.) and IT infrastructure (such as networks, servers, and storage) down to the

services (software, applications, and services), DCIM from FNT enables a comprehensive and

integrated view of your valuable data center resources.

MANAGEMENT


Data centre owners need tomanage and store anincreasing amount of dataand handle the growth ofapplications in a finite

amount of space, which placesincreasing importance on equipmentdensity and environmental, power andinfrastructure design. To improveoperational efficiency, minimise risk ofdowntime and plan for the future, datacentres need complete visibility, controland management of their assets,capacity and the environmentalrequirements. All the infrastructure andequipment needs to be documentedand managed throughout the life cyclewith environmental data to provide atotal and holistic view of the data centre.

Managing the physical cableinfrastructure with thousands of datapaths connecting all types of IT-relatedequipment (such as servers, storageand network switches) using a varietyof connectors, cables and patch panelsis an important part of any DCIMrequirement. Especially when youconsider that a single connectivitychannel contains many pieces of ITequipment and may travel throughmultiple rooms and racks. What youdon’t want to happen is for someoneto inadvertently remove the wrongpatch cord during the many moves,adds and changes (MACs) that arecarried out over time, causingunplanned, potentially costly downtime.

When talking to data centremanagers we have gained anunderstanding of the practicalities andprocesses in a new build, as well as theaddition of new servers and storagedevices and the refreshing oftechnology in existing structures.Typically these processes span acrossmultiple teams, driven by work-orders,with each team executing theirindividual process. Thereforemanagement of connectivity and thevarious connected and non-connectedassets means that an up-to-date record

of the entire infrastructure needs to beconstantly updated and made availableto everyone, all the time.

One approach to document andmanage physical connectivity has beenthrough the use of Active/IntelligentPatching Solutions. However, awayfrom the active patching, the solutionsprovide management only through theuse of paper work-orders that needprinting, executing and updating at thedesktop. Active/Intelligent PatchSolutions are only focused on the cableand patching element of the DCIMrequirement and are therefore of littleuse to anyone except the patchingteams. A true DCIM solution willencompass this cable patching elementalong with the rack space, power,cooling, ports and all the associatedenvironmental metrics.

For a DCIM solution to add anyvalue, it is imperative that the integrityof the data is kept to a maximum. Inorder to achieve this, the solution mustbe simple to operate, foolproof anddrive rigour in the process. Forexample, the Cormant-CS handhelddevice displays and updates work-orders in real time whilst in the datacentre. The final step of any work-orderis to scan a barcode on the newlyadded asset and on the location of thatasset, fully updating the database andeliminating any paper trail and/ormanual updates to multiple databases.

In order to provide the mostefficient, rigorous and complete DCIM

solution, Corning has partnered withCormant-CS by fully integratingCorning’s data centre solution andcabling processes into the Cormant-CSdatabase and software. This ensures abest-of-breed physical infrastructuresolution supported by a best-of-breedDCIM software and managementsolution.

As an example of how the two areworking together, Corning’s PretiumEDGE modular high-performancecabling solutions are designed toprovide unequalled rack density andease-of-access to speed up installationby up to 35%, reducing MAC costs by25% and improving cabling ROI by upto 50%. These benefits can then bemultiplied when combined with aDCIM solution, such as Cormant-CS,which improves the overall data centreproductivity and asset utilisation bybetween 20% and 50%. There is noneed for low-density active/intelligentpatching systems with theirmanagement overhead, sensors,flashing lights, proprietary cords andhigher price tags.

With asset tracking of advancecabling solutions through standardbarcode labels, the intelligence truly isin the software. This results in fasterand easier DCIM deployment, whichsaves time and money for today’s agiledata centre environment, providing aholistic approach to managing theincreasing complexity of cabling, ITequipment, space, power and cooling.

DCIM:saving you time and money

Keith Sullivan, marketing

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POWER

The recent Global Power RentalMarket 2012 – 2016 report fromTechnavio forecasts the industry togrow at a compound annual growthrate of 17 per cent over that period .

It also states that one of the key factors in thismarket growth is the increasing demand forelectricity.

Originally built upon a niche market, theglobal temporary power industry is stillrelatively new and a good proportion of thegeneral power industry is still unaware of theflexibility that it offers to the wider market-place. Although Crestchic is well established inthe power generation arena from themanufacture of loadbanks, temporary power isan area that still shows great potential and it isimportant that the industry keeps abreast ofthe benefits of products like multi-taptransformers in order to revolutionise powergeneration.

We are seeing the regional andinternational temporary power business as themain driver behind the sales of our step-uptransformers, mostly where companies requirea multi megawatt (MW) temporary powerstation at short notice. These can be providedby rental operators supplying reciprocatinghigh-speed diesel and gas generators. Initially,industry leaders were tapping into areas wherelocal energy providers were unable to supplypower of the scale required or even at all, forexample natural disasters or the London 2012Olympics.

Where is the demand?Take, for example, Africa where there is an

insatiable, unstoppable demand for power. Acontinent which contains some of the fastestgrowing economies however, transmissionand distribution generation capacity isgenerally under-developed and under-invested. Building multi-megawatt (MW)power stations can take years to design, buildand commission – the type of power thattemporary rental power stations can provide inless than eight weeks. There is a vast growth inpopulation but this is not married with thepace of utility infrastructure development.

Another area creating demand for packagedportable transformers is the mining industry,predominantly located in remote areas andaway from the main electricity grid. It is anindustry that is built upon commodity pricesand is very energy intensive. There is anurgency to get mines up and running due tothe fluctuation in commodity prices which iswhy there is so much demand for temporarypower companies which can get the sitesonline so quickly.

Emergency breakdowns are also a growingmarket area, where typical failure of oldinstalled sub-stations may occur and especiallyin the extractive and refining oil and gasindustries where plants need to be up andrunning quickly again to avoid costlydowntime.

Built of steelCrestchic’s oil-filled transformers are built

with significant strengthening in the oil tanksand are more robust for the punishingenvironments of the portable rental marketwhich we sell into. This could be anywherefrom the Middle East, Africa, or even offshoreoil and gas.

Customers in this market-place havesignificant demands and the packagedtransformers need to be highly robust dueto the harsh rental environment. However,along with this they need to be easilytransportable. It is extremely common forold shipping containers to be re-used forthis purpose, as they are readily available atlow cost. However, recycled shippingcontainers are not necessarily the mostrobust solution, because cutting holes in theexisting containers weakens the steel andgeneral structural integrity. Bymanufacturing containers that are bespokein design and engineered to be portable,Crestchic ensures that they are as strongand safe as possible. Using cross-sectionedsteel and additional steel in the buildprocess ensures a minimum lifespan of 10years. Furthermore the structural integrity isrecognised by the Lloyds Register QualityAssurance (LRQA).

Paul Brickman of Crestchic explains how the thriving Genset market is boosting sales of packaged transformers on a

local and international level

The veins of the packagedtransformer

The sole reason for packaging portabletransformers is to ensure accessibility andflexibility. This means no time is wasteddealing with several suppliers to obtain thevarious components such as the transformeritself, switchgear, ancillary electrical items andenclosures. There are also no costs for on-siteassembly and little to no civil engineering isrequired.

If an organisation is generating electricitybetween 400 – 480 Volts (V) at 50 to 60 Hertz(Hz), transformers step-up from this to a rangeof voltages typically anywhere between 3.3kVV and 36kV with multiple voltage taps availableat a range of voltages in between, dependingon the customer’s location in the world.Essentially this creates the capability ofgenerating significant amounts electricity at alow voltage and which is then easilyintroduced onto medium/high voltage gridsystems.

Inside the container sit various componentssuch as the input isolators, cooling fans andextraction, voltage tap selection andmedium/low voltage switchgear arrangement.Everything is kept in separate compartmentsto accommodate the main transformer andABB Safe Plus medium voltage switchgear,another important feature of the packagedtransformer. Crestchic operates from two tofour MVA in a 10 foot container and up toeight MVA in a 20 foot container. The voltagerange covers a multitude of internationalstandard grids and industrial applications atrelevant frequencies – they have to be globalbecause customers use them all over theworld which allows them to work in broadspectrum of countries. Some people refer tothem as packaged substations.

It is important that the general powermarket is able to differentiate betweenpackaged transformers and traditionaltransformers. The most obvious benefit beingthat it is a flexible distribution of power thatcan go anywhere and, all in all, we are seeingthis solution become more common acrossthe globe.

The full PACKAGE

Crestchic’s oil-filledtransformers are

built with significantstrengthening in the

oil tanks and aremore robust for the

punishingenvironments of the

portable rentalmarket which we

sell into. This couldbe anywhere from

the Middle East,Africa, or even

offshore oil and gas.


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MANAGEMENT


Idon’t know about you but I thinkthis little acronym, DCIM, ishaving a bit of an identity crisis.Think back just a few years andthe closest you would come to

DCIM was the memory card in yourdigital camera – it was the folder withall your photos in (Digital CameraIMage). Then along came Gartner’sDavid Cappuccio who used the samefour-letter acronym to mean somethingcompletely different – Data CentreInfrastructure Management.

In this new data centre guise, DCIMwas defined to cover tools that monitor,measure, manage and/or control datacentre use and energy consumption ofall IT-related equipment (such asservers, storage and network switches),and facilities infrastructure componentssuch as power distribution units (PDUs)and computer room air conditioners(CRACs). So far so good but thenpeople started to include assetmanagement and space planning,what-ifs and modelling and thingsbegan to get a little messy. Add in tothe mix some major marketing moneyfrom a few with particular features to

promote and you have the situation oftoday: DCIM is what you want it to be.Whilst this flexibility may seem veryattractive, it can also appear veryconfusing to customers and, ironically,to vendors, too!

Does this matter? I think it is one ofthe key reasons why the adoption rateof DCIM has been much slower thanpredicted by analysts during the lastfew years. Other key reasons are theoverhyping of capabilities of many ofthe products on the market combinedwith pricing that seems designed to putbuyers off. In an effort to get a betterunderstanding of how DCIM isperceived in the wild, so to speak, Ihave spoken to data centre managersand vendors, participated in andreviewed discussions on fora such asLinkedIn and read numerous articles onthe subject. I discovered somecommon threads and these are someof the comments and thoughts Igathered from those encounters:-

• DCIM is more of a platform than aproduct

• most DCIM products cannot doeverything and most people cannotafford to buy everything up frontparticularly when it takes such a longtime to implement

• once understood and accepted,DCIM will become invaluable……..but

• DCIM never lived up to what theytold us it would do so we had to goback to manual record keeping

• current DCIM products arecomplex and expensive with insufficientthought given to the user – the datacentre manager

• the Holy Grail is an intelligentdashboard which shows exceptionconditions only and through which onecan get at all the information associatedwith a particular piece of kit, frommanuals to maintenance records

• reporting tools should have

enough analytics such that staff can bemore proactive than reactive

• DCIM tools need to be modularWhilst the market waits for the

perfect product to come along, theconsensus among users seems to bethat the best place for most data centremanagers to start is with monitoring. Itis rare indeed to speak to a data centreor facilities manager who does notthink that automated metering andmonitoring of power, cooling andenvironmentals is a good idea. Manywant to see this information down tothe rack and circuit level and somewant to go further and are interested inmonitoring at the power strip outletand ICT device level. Yet few haveimplemented much or any of this evenwhen they have the meteringinfrastructure in situ.

Talk to the same data centremanagers about what their majorconcerns are and availability andcapacity are to the fore. Talk aboutpain points and typically they includelack of time, lack of visibility, lack oftools and, for some, too many tools tobe helpful. As for business issues,inability to meet clients’ needs forreporting on actual power consumedaccurately and automatically andpreferably through a client portal is acommon one for colocation

DCIM IS DEAD, long live............Philip Petersen, CEO, AdInfa

says that DCIM is having an

identity crisis

MANAGEMENT

companies; for corporates, it is often aboutcost management and social responsibilityreporting.

Given these kinds of demands from themarket and the increasingly high profile ofdata centres generally, why has the adoptionrate of DCIM of whatever flavour been soslow to date? Few, if any vendors offer acomplete, homogenous solution despite the

marketing and advertising claims. DCIM isoften perceived as complex, confusing andcostly with long deployment cycles. This toxiccombination is stifling adoption and causingmany who have been considering whatDCIM might do for their data centre to putthe decision off or drop it down the prioritylist because making the business case for it isdeemed too hard. When the byzantine and

expensive suites are bought they often takemonths to implement and customize andrequire a lot of training in how to use them;the problem is that when the trained staffmove on 6 months later, the use of the suitedeclines because others don’t have theknowhow. Thus another pricey piece ofshelfware is born! That outcome is not inanyone’s interest.

Forget about acronyms and labels andfocus on what is important for your businessand your data centre. As is true for so manythings, keep it simple, or as simple aspossible, to begin with. Start with somethingdefinable and bounded that can deliverdemonstrable, deliverable benefits quickly.This usually means automated metering andmonitoring matched with information flowsthat are matched to the levels of detail suitedto your particular business. Such anapproach can provide critical intelligenceabout your infrastructure and identifyopportunities for optimization, particularly inpower and cooling which are the big driversof data centre operating costs. Mostimportantly it can deliver rapid return oninvestment (RoI).

No, “DCIM is not dead, it’s just resting”, asthe old gag went.

this information to help it be retrieved in thefuture.

They also need to think about the future: ifwe store a file today and, even if we have it ona tape in 15 years’ time, how will anyoneaccess it? Will we still have that version of theapplication to open what was saved? Thisthinking requires data retention type policiesand standardising the way organisations havestored the data [ideally looking at openstandards to ensure the data will be accessiblein the future]. Again, adding metadata cancertainly help to get something useful out ofthe data in the future.

As an aside, creating an ILM strategy is agood opportunity to set privacy policies ondata access at a high strategic level. Once youhave decided on your requirements, there aresolutions out there that can help to enforcethese.

InfrastructureOnce the ILM strategy has been written and

agreed, it’s often the case that additionalhardware or software will be needed to helpimplement it. If an organisation needs a simpleILM solution, then there are options for bothsoftware and hardware plug and playappliances. Hardware appliances that offerperformance tiering at a hardware (block) levelcould also be placed behind a softwaresolution, which may offer some benefitsdepending on the workload [especially if theworkload isn’t fully understood]. Iforganisations are looking at longer-termstorage then the strategy is likely to demandmultiple types of hardware and software tobuild a workable solution that could supportall user requirements.

The really exciting aspect about ILM projectsis the opportunity to get the most out of anorganisation’s data – now and in the future.Once the business understands what its high-level requirements are then it is a good timeto speak to specialised providers who can workwith them to decide the best way forward.

INFORMATION LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT


Get it right and InformationLifecycle Management [ILM] willensure the intelligent movementof data between grades ofstorage based on a number of

factors including age, type and size of data;and access requirement. In doing so, ILMreduces storage infrastructure costs, ensuresfast access to data and increases staffproductivity.

Think of it like buying a vehicle for specificjourneys. These days with fuel costs so highwouldn’t it be great to have access to differenttypes of car depending on the journey beingmade - a fuel efficient car for the motorway, anelectric car for the city, maybe even amotorbike for traffic-heavy journeys? But whenwould you buy the vehicles, up front or piece-meal? How would you decide which vehicles touse, and when? Would you opt for the fastestcar for every journey even if you knew better?

In the HPC and big data world, we are in asituation where tape is very cheap forelectricity and capacity demand, but it iscompletely inadequate for day-to-day dataretrieval (for most workloads). At the otherend of the spectrum, Solid State Drives [SSDs]are excellent at both small files and sequentialthroughput, but very expensive per terabyte.Somewhere in between these two extremes,there is Serial Attached SCSI [SAS] and thenNearline SAS [NL-SAS].

The vehicles to store our data are plentiful,but an ILM strategy is needed to ensure best,most appropriate use. Get it wrong and ILMcould make an unstructured storage setupworse.

Creating a strategyGenerally speaking, it is usually the storage

experts within the IT team who set the ILMstrategy, but they aren’t always best suited tounderstanding exactly what everyone in theorganisation is using their data for. Ideally,creation of a strategy would be collaborationbetween the users and the IT team to ensurethat the ILM policies are created to everyone’sbenefit.

Once strategy ownership and contributorsare agreed, it’s time to understand the currentand desired lifecycle. Practically speaking, topull the strategy together, a simple whiteboardsession can help. For a larger project, I wouldrecommend creating focus group tounderstand everyone’s requirementscomprising of a cross-sections of participantssuch as data users, management and IT.

Whichever method is used, the ‘ILM team’needs to understand what data they havestored, where they have stored it, and who inthe organisation has stored it. Look at allavailable sources - project information,databases with records related to projects, dataextracts, etc. Metadata should be added to all

Strategic CHOICEAndy Dean, pre-sales manager at OCF says that Information Lifecycle Management will save you money, but do

you have the strategy to take advantage?

it is usually thestorage experts

within the IT teamwho set the ILM

strategy, but theyaren’t always best

suited tounderstanding

exactly whateveryone in theorganisation is

using their data for.

SOFTWARE


Energy consumption in datacenters is gaining crucialrelevance along the lines of itssignificant growth globally andmore and more efforts are being

devoted in the industry to improve theefficiency with which data centers are run.This in turn is a combination of theefficiency of the data center physicalinfrastructure as well as the computationalefficiency, and this last component can gaindramatic improvements thanks to state ofthe art innovation in Intelligent WorkloadManagement (IWM). In fact, especially invirtualized data centers the consolidation ofthe workloads is a great way to increasecomputational efficiency, since it allows theapplications to always be clustered in fewerand more efficient hosts. New andinnovative techniques that address dynamicworkload consolidation based on self-organizing processes and on thedistribution of the decisions are coming tomarket. For example the one devised andimplemented at Italy’s ICAR-CNR andPolitecnico di Torino and then productizedand brought to market by Eco4Cloud,yielding several key advantages such ashigher efficiency, energy and cost savingsbetween 20% and 60%, better informedcapacity planning, improved quality of

Boosting EFFICIENCYservice, high scalability.

A good PUE value is not enough toensure the overall efficiency of a data center,because this metric does not consider theactual utilization of computational resources,so the physical efficiency of the data centershould be combined with the efficiency inusing its computational resources. In fact thePUE index is useful to measure the relativeefficiency of the physical infrastructure, butdoes not relate to the total energyconsumption or the computational efficiency,strictly related to the workload distributionamong hosts.

There are several ways to optimize theuse of physical hosts hence increasing thecomputational efficiency of a data center. Forexample, some applications are CPUintensive while others are memory intensive:hardware requirements are clearly differentin the two cases. The option of leveragingthe proper choice of hardware, however, isonly available at the capacity planning stage,when the data center is firstly designed anddeveloped, or when new machines areacquired.

Workload consolidation is a powerfulmeans offered by Virtualization to achieveremarkable energy and cost savings at anytime during normal data center operation. Allvirtualization platforms (for example

Roberto Mircoli, CEO, Eco4Cloud, says that you can boost energy efficiency in data centres through intelligent

workload management

VMWare, Microsoft Hyper-V, KVM) allowseveral Virtual Machines (VMs) to be hostedby the same physical host, and provideprimitives to move a VM from one host toanother in a short time and without serviceinterruption. The objective of consolidation isto cluster the maximum number of VMs ontothe minimum number of physical hosts, sothat the unneeded hosts can either be putinto a low power state (leading to energysaving and OpEx reduction), or switched offand devoted to the execution of incrementalworkload or additional services (leading toCapEx savings, thanks to thereduced/postponed need for acquiringadditional physical hosts).

The graphs show an example ofworkload consolidation. Beforeconsolidation (left), the workload isdistributed to 8 hosts whose resourceutilization is between 20% and 50%. Afterconsolidation (right), the same VMs areredistributed so that 4 hosts take all theworkload, with resource usage between70% and 90%, while the other hosts arehibernated in order to save energy.

In modern data centers a scalablestrategy to Intelligent WorkloadManagement is to distribute the intelligenceinstead of centralizing it in a single point,while switching from deterministicalgorithms to self-organizing solutions thatare able to adapt to the dynamic nature ofthe problem. A bio-inspired strategy of thiskind was proposed by a research projectcarried out by the Institute for HighPerformance Computing and Networking ofthe Italian National Research Council (ICAR-CNR) and by the Politecnico di Torino whichled to relevant patents and the spin-off ofEco4Cloud. Deployments in differentscenarios have yielded tangible benefits interms of DC efficiency and 20-60%reduction of related energy bill, refinedcapacity management, improved SLAs.

There are severalways to optimize the

use of physicalhosts hence

increasing thecomputational

efficiency of a datacenter. For example,

some applicationsare CPU intensive

while others arememory intensive:

hardwarerequirements are

clearly different inthe two cases.

Example of hosts usage before consolidation (left) and after consolidation (right). In this simplecase consolidation allows 50% of the hosts to be hibernated.

SOFTWARE


Software defined networking is thenew buzz word in the networkingand data centre industry. But whatare the technology and businessbenefits it can deliver and should

your data centre manager be looking at thistechnology now? Jean Turgeon, head ofnetworking and chief technologist at Avayaoutlines what CIOs should know about theimpact of this technology on the data centre,before their data centre manager comesknocking on their door.

Leaps in the use of social media coupledwith the omnipresence of mobile technologymean that we are all consuming more andmore bandwidth, using numerousapplications and storing ever increasingamounts of data on our devices and in thecloud. Today’s employees work from a hostof different locations, on a range of differentdevices, creating an always accessible culture

Improving the speed of business withAN SDN-ENABLED DATA CENTRE

that - as all CIOs and IT Directors are (oftenpainfully) aware - puts the data centre at theheart of most organisations’ IT operations.Consequently, businesses need to ensure thattheir data centres are robust, yet able tosupport new services, quickly. This is whereSoftware Defined Networking (SDN) comes in.

The basicsThe main goal of SDN is to reduce the

complexity, eliminate propriety solutions, allowthe fast deployment of business criticalapplications and establish quick and easy adds,moves and changes. SDN works in thenetwork infrastructure to separate the part ofthe network responsible for routing traffic fromthe part that actually carries the traffic. Thismeans the data that is being carried isseparate to the control traffic, ensuring that theinfrastructure is more dynamic. As such itshould give data centre managers far greater

Jean Turgeon, head of networking and chief technologist at Avaya looks at the need for speed in the data centre

control and simplify technology management.SDN should respond to changing businessspeeds, while also providing the efficienciesand the security requirements that a modernenterprise needs. So far so technical, but whatdoes this actually mean from a businessperspective?

AutomationAutomation-related time, cost and accuracy

efficiencies are by far the biggest benefits thatSDN is predicted to deliver to the data centre.The applications running on any data centreserver are subject to access or policy controls.Typically, every router and switch on a networkhas software pre-installed that controls what itdoes. For example, the CEO might have accessto everything, but the receptionist may onlyhave access to documents that do not containany financial information. In a traditional datacentre, each element of these policies needs

WINTER 2014 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT 27

SOFTWARE

to be manually configured on each router andswitch. SDN automation is likely to allow datacentre managers to deploy a ‘configure once,roll-out across all locations approach’ withchanges made via a centralised managementconsole - saving time and costs and improvingaccuracy. However the real benefit shouldcome with the deployment of newapplications. The configuration is applied tothe network and not just the interfaces, so anychanges are also applied at the network level.SDN promises to provide the CIO with thecapability to deploy applications much morequickly than conventional mechanisms, whilstretaining total control.

Cloud-readyCloud adoption, by businesses of all sizes,

shows no signs of abating. SDN could offerconsiderable benefits to data centressupporting public cloud apps by using in-builtintelligence in the routing layer of the datacentre to choose the optimal configuration.Typically, data centres hosting applicationswithin a public cloud environment have tomanually provision the required resources,often resulting in configuration errors anddelays. SDN should eliminate this provisioning,reducing cost, saving time and improving theaccuracy of network changes.

The need for speedBusiness in the 21st century moves at a

much faster pace than ever before. Reflectingthis, the data centre also needs to be morenimble and able to provide services morequickly. SDN has the potential to play a keyrole in delivering this speed, thanks to theautomation it provides based upon acentralised view and not a list of interfaces:changes can be made in near real-time acrossthe network as a whole. Services can beautomatically provisioned and if issues dooccur, SDN technology should intelligently andinstantly re-route the services much morequickly than an engineer could.

While the network needs to be as agile asthe business it supports, recent research fromAvaya reveals that, because of the timenetwork changes take, companies wait almosta month (27 days) before they are able tomake a significant improvement to a businesssystem. At an average of 10 changes a year,businesses can wait up to nine months forimprovements that can help their companygrow, increase employee and salesproductivity and improve business analysis.Bottom line, network complexity affectsmargins and decreases the ability of IT to

provide the company with a competitive edge.By reducing complexity, SDN promises todramatically reduce the network waiting game,helping to speed up and improve businessperformance.

A new way of thinkingHowever, perhaps the biggest benefit of

SDN for both networks and data centres, willbe a fresh mindset. Since SDN separates thecontrol function from the rest of the datacentre, the technology enables higher levelmanagement of the data centre environment,allowing a more holistic view of the datacentre. This should give data centre managersthe opportunity to think in a completelydifferent way about their data centre.

Recently I had a new kitchen installed.When I was planning it with my wife Iassumed that the sink would be in the corner,because that is where the plumbing comesinto the room. However, my wife wanted thesink in an island in the middle of the kitchenbecause there it would be equidistant betweenthe fridge and the stove. While I defined myrequest by previous parameters andconstraints, my wife defined her request byuse and flexibility. Similarly in an SDNenvironment, data centre managers should nolonger be constrained by the plumbing andinstead can concentrate on the services thedata centre delivers. With SDN, software isexpected to simply become a toolset and thedata centre manager can move to focus onsolving business problems, not overlaying asoftware vision on top of them.

The role of the CIOToday, SDN is still in its infancy with very

few businesses currently running fully SDN-enabled data centres, but this is changingrapidly. Most data centres already deploysome elements of SDN, for example almost allmodern enterprise-class switches deploy SDNtechnology, while fabric-enabled nextgeneration networking solutions alreadydeliver many of the expected benefits of SDN.According to IDC the SDN market will beworth more than $3.7bn within two years.

Many data centre managers want to movetowards greater SDN enablement but areunsure of where to start, and are thereforeoften reticent when it comes to discussingmigration with their CIOs. I would urge CIOsand IT Directors who want to take advantageof the increased agility and reduced costs thatSDN promises, to raise the topic with theirdata centre teams. Together they can startbuilding the business case for the technology

now. Planning now can help CIOs understandtheir business goals and map their path toachieving them. With the network an essentialmeans to achieving your business strategy, anevolutionary approach is almost certainly thebest way forward. Today is the time to startcomparing current costs with the efficienciesyou would gain from a software-definedmodel and demonstrating the compellingbenefits of the SDN approach.

6 key questions CIOs should asktheir data centre managers

1. “Do you know what our business strategyis?” To be able to deliver the applications andinfrastructure for the business, the CIO needsto fully understand the business strategy – ifyou do not, you are more likely to become abusiness ‘blocker’ than an enabler. You thenneed to ensure that the data centre managerunderstands this strategy too.

2. “How much time does your teamcurrently spend updating the networkconfiguration?” Hand in hand with this questiongoes, “How long does it take to provide newservices?” and “What percentage of errors andservice issues have been due to mis-configuration in the past year?” There is likelyto be considerable cost associated with manualfirewall configurations, router updates etc., thiswill form a basis of your business case.

3. “What is your current performance: cost:power ratio?” “How might this change withgreater SDN deployment?” Power vs.performance vs. cost is becoming a keyindustry measure for SDN and shouldtherefore be part your business case.

4. “What are the key network managementtools you propose to use?” Integrated networkmanagement tools remain essential fordiagnosing the causes of network problems –unfortunately they often seem to beoverlooked!

5. “How interoperable is your SDN vision?”A solution where SDN is fully integrated intothe physical network fabric provided by asingle, proprietary-standards vendor, is unlikelyto offer the same long-term benefits andflexibility as an interoperable solution. Usingopen standards-based products provides aneasy-to-deploy, flexible solution that will workwith any physical network infrastructure.

6. “How is your SDN deployment going toimpact the design of the data centre?” If yourdata centre team can convince you that theyare building the best data centre combinationof servers, storage and networks, then yourwork in creating the business case will begreatly reduced.

Cloud adoption, bybusinesses of allsizes, shows no

signs of abating.SDN could offer

considerablebenefits to data

centres supportingpublic cloud apps by

using in-builtintelligence in the

routing layer of thedata centre to

choose the optimalconfiguration.Typically, data

centres hostingapplications within a

public cloudenvironment have to

manually provisionthe required

resources, oftenresulting in

configuration errorsand delays.

POWER

Rising energy costs combined withincreasingly stringent industrystandards and regulatoryrequirements are driving buildingowners and infrastructure managers

to apply the latest thinking – and technologysolutions – to improve their green credentialswhilst maintaining control of operating costs.

Socomec’s New Modulys GP2.0 deliversunrivalled flexibility and solving some of thegreatest challenges in terms of redundancyand future availability. Because the system ismodular – and the cabinet is free fromelectronic components – potential failuremodes have been eliminated and end-of-lifecriticality ceases to be an issue. Furthermore,the system also allows for the easy integrationof future modules. Rather than overspecify –and overspend - in order to guarantee that asystem is futureproof, the Modulys rangemeans that facilities and IT managers can nowscale as and when they need to.

Additional redundancy can be achievedby introducing one more battery and powermodules – so there is no need to duplicatethe system hardware to achieve redundancy.With no single point of failure – and zerorisk of fault propogation – the Modulys istotally resilient and guarantees optimum

power availability.”With real-time hot swap functionality,

module maintenance is simple, fast and safe –avoiding any risk of downtime as the meantime to repair is reduced to a minimum.

Highly AdaptableThe Modulys range has been engineered to

be highly adaptable; based on a modular,rack-mounting system, it has been designed towork with hot/cold aisle arrangements. Easyto integrate within existing IT infrastructure, theModulys is also easy to position and assemblethanks to its light, empty cabinets andindependent modules.

In addition, the range offers powerscalability up to 600kW, making it ideal forunscheduled site upgrades or incrementalpower evolutions. 3 parallel systems can beconfigured horizontally to achieve the required600kW. The installed power of a single systemcan be increased up to 200kW by addingpower modules in increments of 25kW.

Achieving the desired power scaling issimple: the units feature a redundantarchitecture employing parallel Plug-Inmodules. When a new power or batterymodule is plugged in, the systemautomatically self-configures to bring the

Socomec says that its Modulys GP2.0 with in-built flexibility can futureproof your business

new capacity online.

Unbeatable Energy EfficiencyUPS manufacturer, Socomec, is at the

forefront of the development of critical powersystems, and is committed to supporting datacentres in the pursuit of more energy efficientbuildings and driving down the total cost ofownership.(TCO)

The Modulys GP2.0 is the latest addition tothe Socomec Green Power 2.0 range of UPSproducts. These transformer-less units -combine unbeatable energy efficiency at 96%with unity power to provide the ultimate“future-proof” critical power solution.

Boosting the Bottom LineWith a combined focus on performance

and efficiency, energy costs, operatingexpenditure and the environmental impact areminimised and uptime is maximised –throughout the equipment lifecycle.

The deployment of Socomec’s GP 2.0 UPScan deliver 12% saving compared to otherUPS solutions, when comparing the TCO over10 years.

Also boosting the bottom line, The CarbonTrust’s ECA scheme means that with purchasesof new Socomec equipment, a business canwrite-off 100% of the cost against taxableprofits in the first year after the investment ismade. Manufactured in Europe to exactingstandards and stringent specifications,Socomec’s product performance and lifecyclesupport are unrivalled.

Andrew Wilkinson, regional managingdirector of Socomec comments; “We investheavily in research and development to createcritical power systems that minimise TCOthroughout the product’s life-cycle. Thisenables our customers to deliver savings thatare sustainable, providing a long-termcontribution to the profitability of theirbusinesses.”

Wilkinson concludes; “In order to addressthe most important industry challenges – oftoday and tomorrow - the latest productdevelopments require a specialized and inter-disciplinary approach to provide highperformance, reliable and cost-effective powersolutions that are flexible enough to be scaledto meet the rapidly changing demands of datacentres.”

Futureproof YOUR BUSINESSThe Modulys range

has beenengineered to behighly adaptable;

based on a modular,rack-mounting

system, it has beendesigned to work

with hot/cold aislearrangements.


COOLING


Intelligent Containment is an innovativemethod of controlling airflow that allowsyou to operate your data centre at thehigher end of the recommendedASHRAE scale. Air is supplied at the

higher end of the temperature range andairflow volume is controlled automatically.Additionally, hot and cold air are completelyisolated and prevented from mixing. Thisapproach differs from traditional cooling as itstabilises the intake air temperature to withina few degrees of the supply temperatureacross all measured points in the data centre.Furthermore by segregating the supply fromthe return, higher return temperatures areachieved. Higher return temperatures meanshigher CRAC efficiency.

Key to making this solution work is thesoftware embedded within the IntelligentContainment system. Air pressure inside thecabinet is monitored and checked against theair pressure of the room. This pressuredifferential information is routed to controlsoftware, which then converts that informationinto commands to increase or decreaseaggregate supply fan speed, dependent on theserver load.

Intelligent containment can be deployed intwo ways; in a row-based or rack-basedconfiguration. The Row-Based solution offersthe option to begin with a small number ofintelligent containment units spread across thetop of multiple cabinets. This allows for the

addition of new cabinets and units as growthor density increases. The intelligentcontainment software will increase or decreasethe fan speed synchronously with the ITequipment load.

Rack-based solutions are ideally intendedfor isolated cabinets with higher densities –generally 15kW to 30kW (see illustration 2).The intelligent containment system, in a rack-based configuration has been shown to be anideal solution for all types of blade servers.Rack based solutions are also ideal where adiverse mix of cabinet makes and models exist.

Both row and rack-based systems havebeen deployed jointly successfully in the samefacility. The flexibility and scalability of theintelligent solution makes it ideal for all facilitytypes: small, medium, enterprise andcolocation.

Benefits of Intelligent ContainmentIntelligent containment solutions offer a

number of advantages:• The system calculates how much air the

servers are using. This data, on how muchsupply air is being consumed, is fed via aDCIM solution, such as Environet by Geist,back to the CRAC units. This is then thecontrol point for the CRACs on how much toproduce – balancing the needs of the serverswith the supply of the CRACs. The end resultis even greater facility control and loweroperating costs by eliminating the oversupply

of air that is a common inefficiency in datacentres.

• Intelligent containment eliminates theneed for the servers to force air through a“passive chimney”.

• Because the hot exhaust is sent straight tothe drop ceiling or return plenum, there is noneed for technicians to work in an oppressivelyhot environment associated with hot aislecontainment.

• The use of free cooling can be extendedas all heat is captured at source and is notallowed to mix with the supply air causinglocalised hot spots. This allows for highersupply temperatures, as recommended byASHRAE, that are associated with freecooling.

• There is no loss of data centre floor spaceassociated with In-row coolers. In-row systemstypically require half a cabinet of space forcooling units for every few cabinets of serversand rear-door heat exchangers take up aislespace resulting in fewer aisles in your datacentre.

• No additional power or plumbing forcooling or condensation is required. And,higher return temperatures means you canregain lost cooling capacity.

• Intelligent containment is scalable forfuture growth. For adding additional cabinetsor increasing IT load, the modularity of thesystem allows for both. Thus allowing you tooperate only the CRACS necessary for propercooling.

SummaryIntelligent containment is a highly

innovative, scalable efficient and cost effectivemeans of complete airflow control. It can beretrofitted to most data centre environments.By increasing return temperatures it increasesCRAC efficiency that, in turn, can increasecapacity and can reduce the number of CRACsneeded. Fewer CRACs running lowersoperating costs and increases redundancy.

For new builds, it can lower infrastructurecosts by using only the CRACs needed.Additional cooling can be added when neededand a raised floor is not necessary.

The key to costing an intelligentcontainment installation is to weigh up thecapital costs against savings of on-goingoperational costs. That is where IntelligentContainment makes the most impact. Byaccurately controlling airflow, installationswhere this system has been retrospectivelydeployed have recorded savings of up to 40%on cooling costs. Now you have to agree -that’s intelligent!

INTELLIGENTcontainmentDave Wilson, global marketing director for Geist explores the

process of intelligent containment as the means for controlling

airflow in a Data Centre environment.

Both row and rack-based systems have

been deployedjointly successfullyin the same facility.

The flexibility andscalability of the

intelligent solutionmakes it ideal for allfacility types: Small,Medium, Enterprise

and Colocation.


CASE STUDY

Iceotope servers offer full-time, freecooling for hostile environments, cloudservices and HPC environments. Itsliquid-cooled server platform has beenmodelled and engineered to ensure it

harvests as much heat from electronics aspossible in the most efficient way. As a result,organisations can reduce data centre coolingcosts by up to 97%, ICT power load by up to20% and overall ICT infrastructure costs by upto 50%. This case study looks at howIceotope used Romonet’s Software Suite andprofessional services to analyse and prove theperformance and benefits of its technologycompared to traditional, air-cooled servers.With this proof, Iceotope was able to attract$10 million in funding to continue developingits technology.

ChallengeAs a technology start-up, Iceotope needed

to attract further investment in order to keepdeveloping its technology and improve on theefficiency and sustainability benefits it alreadyprovides. In order to invest, potential partnersneed to be certain that Iceotope’s technologycould fulfil its potential. In particular, Iceotopeneeded to demonstrate that it providedsuperior energy and cost efficiency comparedto high-density air-cooled systems commonlyused in High-Performance Computing datacentres.

However, providing real-world examples

Cool runnings

that could demonstrate this was a difficult task.As a start-up, Iceotope did not have customersusing its technology inside a production datacentre, which would demonstrate the potentialof its technology. Even if it had, there wouldstill be obstacles: real data centre operatorsmay be unwilling to offer their precise energyuse for comparison in such a way while, evenif a willing customer was available, differencesin performance in production data centrescould be attributed to factors beyond thecooling technology used.

The alternative was creating multiple test-bed infrastructures to demonstrate the savingsIceotope’s technology could create. Yet thiswas prohibitively expensive and impractical. Itwas clear that Iceotope needed another way toshow its potential.

SolutionIceotope decided that it needed an accurate

simulation of how its technology wouldcompare to traditional air-cooling systems inorder to prove its potential to would-beinvestors and partners. It therefore approachedRomonet, as it knew that Romonet’s expertisein modelling and predicting data centreperformance and costs would give the mostaccurate picture possible. “We knew we haddeveloped a great product, we just needed theproof-points. Romonet are quite simply thebest at what they do, so they wereautomatically our first choice,” said Peter

Hopton, Iceotope founder and CEO. Romonet used its Software Suite, based on

its patent pending predictive data centremodelling technology, to simulate data centreenergy use and costs using both Iceotope’stechnology and a number of traditional air-based cooling technologies. They alsosimulated a traditional hot/cold aisle datacentre cooling system to provide a suitable‘baseline’. Romonet also simulated rack exitdoor cooling systems and in-row coolingsystems. Romonet then delivered acomprehensive report analysing the cost overtime of each technology and showing exactlyhow the simulation had been created, inorder to demonstrate the validity of itsresults.

BenefitsIn Romonet’s simulation, Iceotope’s

technology was shown to produce cost savingsmore than three times greater than those ofthe next most efficient air-cooling method,cutting the cost of the scenario data centre by32%. Armed with this proof of concept,Iceotope could demonstrate the validity andpotential profitability of its technology toinvestors and partners that its technologycould provide significant savings to customers.

Outcome Thanks to Romonet’s report, Iceotope has

been able secure funding to continue itsdevelopment: most recently a $10 millioninvestment in January 2014 from bodiesincluding Aster Capital and Ombu Group, withstrategic sponsorship from Schneider Electric(acting through Aster Capital); one of theworld’s largest engineering technologycompanies. Iceotope has used this investmentto continue developing and refining itstechnology for large scale deliveries in 2015, toensure it will provide the greatest possiblebenefit to the industry.

ConclusionIn order to demonstrate the potential of its

liquid-cooling system and attract investment,Iceotope needed proof that it couldsignificantly outperform conventional coolingsystems. Iceotope contacted Romonet tosimulate the performance of its technology inthe data centre environment, compared withtoday’s most efficient air-cooling systems.Romonet’s simulation both validatedIceotope’s claims and gave it a vital proofpoint that was used to attract and secureinvestment, most recently $10 million inJanuary 2014.

Romonet used itsSoftware Suite,

based on its patentpending predictive

data centremodelling

technology, tosimulate data centre

energy use andcosts using both

Iceotope’stechnology and a

number oftraditional air-based

coolingtechnologies.

Romonet has provided in-depth engineering analysis and

TCO life cycle to help Iceotope secure funding from strategic

technology investor.

Why EcoCooling?

• 90% less energy than

air conditioning

• No refrigerants

• Low carbon

• New build and retro fit

• ROI in under a year

• Over 200 installations

in the UK

• ASHRAE compliant

conditions

• Achieve PUE's lower

than 1.1

• 90% less energy than

air conditioning

• No refrigerants

• Low carbon

• New build and retro fit

• ROI in under a year

• Over 200 installations

in the UK

• ASHRAE compliant

conditions

• Achieve PUE's lower

than 1.1

Evaporative Cooling

from EcoCooling

SAVE UP TO 90% ON COOLING COSTS WITH EVAPORATIVE COOLING

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EcoCooling Ltd

@EcoCooling1

MANAGEMENT


The more servers you have, the morechallenging it becomes to monitor everyoperational aspect of your servers andswitches, as well as cooling and powerequipment and any other linked IT hardware.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging can,however, provide a solution for inventory automationas well as ultra-fast and accurate core monitoring andfeedback.

Today, DC operators face the challenge ofmaintaining extremely high levels of availability, whilstsignificantly improving efficiencies and lowering costs.DCIM (Data centre infrastructure management) plays avital role in this. One of the key elements of DCIM ismonitoring, whereby data is collected from sensors,meters and management systems. Once collected, thisdata needs to be collated, normalized, analyzed andpresented in an immediately understandable format.

What’s more, as DC tasks increasingly move toservice models, and especially the cloud, infrastructureand hard/software changes in the data center need tobe communicated to internal and external partiesproviding the service, instantly and in an error-proof,automated manner. Seamless, semi-automatedprocesses need to be introduced which bridgetraditional technology and management divides.

Making your DC’s rack-based assets morevisible

Besides providing alerts, DCIM is essential togenerating performance data which can serve as thebasis for improvements and enhancements and can befed into a datacenter asset management tool. Thiscentralized system can store detailed information aboutthe physical equipment as well as operational andworkflow data and, in many cases, track changes, suchas deployment and movement of physical assets.Linking change management to an asset managementsystem means information is always up to date.

Manually managed infrastructure data typically has a10% error rate and 20-40% of ports in a network areforgotten over time. It also takes a great deal of stafftime. An automated solution continuously monitors eachconnection in one or more data centers or localnetworks and a (remote) central server records thecabling status. This type of AIM-based solution offersfunctions for management, analysis and planning ofcabling and network cabinets and can halve network

monitoring and management costs. Updates areautomatically generated when new devices areintegrated or changes are made. Unused patch panelsand ports in active equipment are immediately detected.Data can be traced in real time with a PC orsmartphone, locating faulty connections within seconds.

A holistic approach to DCIMAnother important responsibility of datacenter

managers is cabling and connectivity management.DCIM software solutions are already catering to thisrequirement, for example by using a software controllayer to map and monitor cabling assets and physicalconnections in real time. This ‘intelligent physical layermanagement’ IPLM complements existing IT networkmanagement and monitoring products. Any disturbanceor inefficiency can be found almost instantly andremedied. Audits also become significantly faster andeasier, as does inventory maintenance.

Integrating cable management into DCIM improvesuptime and enables fast and efficient reaction. It allows‘drilling down’ to individual links between specific racksand other equipment, including switches, routers,firewalls and network devices. In data centerinfrastructure, cabling is often one of the key costpoints, despite the fact that it is not as visible ashardware components. Proper connectivitymanagement is essential to accommodating growth andoffering flexibility. If cabling doesn’t seem to be workingproperly, having an extensive history of moves, addsand changes can prevent extensive field research andtesting.

This allows a more proactive approach toinfrastructure management, showing up potentialgrowth areas and difficulties. Problems andimprovement areas can be examined and solutionsproposed before they are actually physically carried outon site. You can visualize patch panel cablemanagement from remote locations, for example. Whenselecting a cable management and documentationsolution, it’s definitely worth checking whether it fits inwith current or future DCIM requirements.

Tagging solutionA data center can easily contain 10,000 individual

assets. Once a service ticket has been issued, amaintenance tech might easily spend a day locating afaulty asset or link. Introducing RFID on DC assets to

help automate IT inventory tracking tasks, looking ateverything from racks and servers to individual bladesinside a chassis. The status and location of assets can bedynamically monitored, along with parameters such astemperature and humidity. During relocations, each datacenter asset can be tracked separately. RFID is a mature,proven technology which also helps reduce securityrisks. For critical IT systems, this translates to significantlyenhanced reliability, efficiency and effectiveness. DCIMtools leveraging RFID use updates more effectively.Maintenance and warranty information can also beincluded in RFID tags, allowing asset-specific monitoringof warranties (with expiry dates) SLAs or depreciation.

Another huge advantage is the fact that this way ofworking eliminates time-consuming and often error-prone manual checking, processing and data entry. Inrecent years, barcodes have been used to monitor DCinfrastructure. However, these are often difficult toaccess and read, as they’re obstructed by cables andrack components. RFID reads 100% of all equipmentand even internal components easily and accurately.Barcodes tend to be more vulnerable and scanningintroduces errors, especially wherever reading conditionsare less than idea. Furthermore, barcodes are read-onlyand easily replicated, whereas RFID tags can bemodified and used to trigger events, can be encryptedand aren’t easily copied. They can also send alertswhenever assets are moved from their designatedlocation.

Keeping an eye on cablingIn short, an integrated DCIM solution incorporating

cabling parameters offers automated, end-to-end, real-time, on-demand physical asset inventory andmanagement for your data centers at the touch of abutton. This can support your risk-mitigation,compliance, business, capacity planning and securityneeds whilst makes error-prone, time consumingmanual work obsolete. Audit that once required foldersfull of spreadsheets and took weeks to complete cannow be performed in hours.

Any upfront investment can typically be earned backin a year or so. Apart from drastically reducing the timespent on creating inventories, capacity is freed up tospend on core tasks, which actually contribute to thebottom line. Management reporting improvessignificantly, as does documentation on which strategicchoices and hardware purchases are based.

AUTOMATIC choiceDr. Thomas Wellinger, market manager data centre R&M, says that automated asset and cabling infrastructure

management can be achieved without hassle

. Company Headquarters . Holsteiner Chaussee 283 . 22457 Hamburg . [email protected]

Near you all over the world: with sixteen subsidiaries, six production sites and sales and service partners in more than 120 countries.

www.stulz.com

D AT A C E N T R E C O O L I N G S O L U T I O N SS A L E S / S U P P O R T / S E R V I C E / S PA R E S

STULZ UK Ltd . First Quarter . Blenheim Road . Epsom . Surrey . KT19 9QN01372 749666 . [email protected] . www.stulz.com

STORAGE


In keeping with Moore’s Law, the last 40years have seen conventional Flashmemory reduce substantially in size,with the number of internal cellsroughly doubling every two years.

Originally, in the 1990s, the first NANDflash storage was developed on a basicdesign rule of 120nanometers. Now, as aresult of continued reductions in size, thisdesign rule had been shrunk down to a mere10nanometer-class, allowing manufacturers tofit 64 times more cells into the same storage.As it stands, a typical 1x nanometer 128Gb3Gb Multi-level cell device currently containsaround 43 billion NAND cells (enough tostore 16Gb). These cells are organised into atwo-dimensional planar structure, with eachrow of cells forced together in an attempt tominimise the size of the final memory device.

While Moore’s Law is often seen as aninevitable part of technological advancement,such advancements do not happen on theirown. As the size of technology decreases,engineers are faced with entirely new andoften unseen challenges that need to beovercome.

In the case of NAND Flash Memory, thesechallenges first became apparent whenimproved manufacturing process technologyproceeded beyond the 10 nanometers - class

Overcoming MOORE’S LAW

limit. As the size of these devices decreased,more Flash cells were forced closer and closertogether within smaller spaces. At this point, itbecame increasingly apparent that engineersmay one day be faced with a potential “scalinglimit” - a point at which Moore’s Law is met byinherent physical limitations.

Over the last 10 years, many people havebegun to wonder whether such a scaling limithas finally been reached. The most commonmanifestation of this limit has taken the formof cell-to-cell interference. With 43 billion cellscrammed into an ever-smaller space, the gapbetween each individual cell has had todecrease. As a result of this decrease, cells willoften begin to interfere with one another’sbehaviours, ultimately leading to long-term celldamage and even data corruption.

Previously, when memory products havehad a design rule of 30 nanometers or more,such interference was easily controlled throughthe design. As the design rule becomessmaller however, the probability of datacorruption dramatically increases. Additionally,as well as impacting upon cell function, theshrinking of NAND cells also makes it moredifficult to find an appropriate light source forthe photolithography process.

As an example, the light source for a40nanometers class design rule can be used

Thomas Arenz, head of MI, SBD and marketing communications EMEA at Samsung Semiconductor looks at the

creation of 3D V-NANDto inscribe photo mask patterning on a NANDwafer without any issue. Once the designapproaches 1x nanometer however, this lightsource cannot penetrate the smaller pattern.As a result, the development of an adequatelight source for 1x nanometer patterningrequires huge investment in new equipment.

Introducing 3D-VNANDAt Samsung, we spent the last 10 years (as

well as building a new Fab in excess of $11billion) looking for an innovative way toaddress this problem. Either we needed to finda new way of designing our memory products,or we had to accept the possibility that agenuine scaling limit had finally been reached.

The most significant roadblock was clear:there were only so many cells that could becontained within the existing planar structure.As such, we looked to develop an entirely newconcept for cell arrangement – switchinghorizontal rows to vertical columns. Byadopting the concept of “layers” instead ofnanometers, we were able to avoid squeezingmore cells into the same horizontal space.Instead, we would build on top of the existingplanar structure in a new vertical direction –thus V (vertical) NAND.

In its simplest form, this concept originallystarted out as nothing more than an analogycomparing living in a house with living in anapartment building. Through this analogy, theadvantages of layering vertically grewincreasingly clear. Whereas a two-story homewould only house four people, the firstapartment block meant that hundreds morepeople could be housed within the exact samelandmass. At the same time, this did notnecessarily involve the people moving closertogether and ultimately interfering within oneanother’s daily lives. Going upwards solved theproblems of going outward.

By applying this analogy, Samsung was ableto create the theoretical concept for a verticallylayered, three-dimensional V-NAND structure.

At Samsung, wespent the last 10years (as well as

building a new Fabin excess of $11

billion) looking foran innovative way to

address thisproblem. Either we

needed to find anew way of

designing ourmemory products,

or we had to acceptthe possibility that a

genuine scaling limithad finally been

reached.


STORAGE

While the first successful attempts at building this structure only succeeded in stacking 24vertical layers, this has already increased to 32 and will continue to grow for years tocome without encouraging interference.

By significantly reducing the risk of interference, 3D V-NAND can dramatically improvethe endurance of each individual cell. In the case of write-intensive applications, this canresult in as much as a 5x improvement in the longevity of a device. This could alsoinclude a 100% increase in write speed. For read-centric devices on the other hand, theimprovement could be as high as 10x the longevity. In all of these cases the end userwould benefit from lower energy consumption, reduced maintenance costs and anincrease in storage capacity within the same physical space.

The ChallengesWhile the analogy of switching from a house to an apartment may make 3D VNAND

sound like an extremely simplistic transition, it is one that has taken almost 10 years and300 patents to get this far.

The creation of 3D V-NAND faced a series of significant challenges, one of the biggestwas the decision which material to use when developing the technology. Whereastraditional NAND technology is produced using conductors (through which charges canmove freely), the vertical layering of V-NAND technology requires the use of an insulator.Such insulators are much closer to solids, meaning that any charges will struggle to movethrough them at the necessary pace.

In an effort to overcome this problem, Samsung researched an 8-year old technologyknown as Charge Trap Flash (CTF). By reapplying its cylinder-shared architecture, we wereable to develop a system in which electrical charges are temporarily placed in a siliconnitride-holding chamber. This chamber then acted as an alternative to traditional floatinggames, being released as required at the necessary speed.

While attempting to solve such challenges did not come cheap, the complexity of 3DV-NAND has allowed Samsung to remain the only V-NAND supplier on the market today.Through the rise of big data, Samsung Semiconductor believes that this investment willsoon demonstrate its full economic potential. The data-centre industry is beginning torealise that it cannot go on indefinitely increasing the number of storage servers withouteventually running out of physical space. Sooner or later this expansion will have to stop,either as a result of corporate budgets, energy consumption regulations, or simply a sheerlack of available storage space. The only option is to increase capacity without having toincrease the size of storage devices.

This is the true challenge of the data centre marketplace, and it is a challenge that 3DV-NAND is ultimately helping to address.

MANAGEMENT


For much of the 1990s andearly 2000s, data centerprofessionals spent themajority of their time satisfyingthe needs of their users by

pulling various hardware and softwaretechnologies together and keepingthem running for mission-criticalapplications. Interoperability was alwaysin question and the expertise to mixvendors and solutions became highlysought-after.

Beginning in 2008 with the bankingcrisis, a significant level of economicstress was experienced which affectedall industries across the globe. This fiscalpressure was felt by InformationTechnologies (IT) and was happeningironically at the same time as ITinfrastructures were becoming evenmore critical in nature due to the rapidadoption of mobile and always-connected user style of computing. Thisdrove a required cost-based model ofcomputing which became a forcingfunction for IT professionals to thinkabout efficiency as a primary metric oftheir success.

In response, all types of efficiency-oriented projects were undertaken. We,the IT professionals, have gone fromusing racks of individual power hungryservers to using low power servers, andeven multi-core blade server chassis.We initially were using servers deployedwith a single operating system and overthe years replaced each of those with asmany as 20 virtualized operatingsystems per server. Not to mention the

variable-speed drives in our CRAC unitsand hot or cold containment aisles thatreduce cooling costs. We have done anamazing job at squeezing our coststructure using basic tangibletechnologies that are simply better atdoing the same type of computing thatwe all practiced for years.

That brings us to 2014 where wecontinue to need to look for ways tooptimize the data center even more.The simple “low-hanging fruit” hasalready been harvested, so what next?The answer is, Data CenterInfrastructure Management or DCIM.DCIM allows you to create a baseline orsolid understanding of what you haveand why you have it. It enables you tocorrelate your actual workload handlingto the specific servers that are doing thework, and in turn correlate those serversto the power they are consuming.DCIM goes further by allowing you toadd into the computing model thebusiness value and organizationalalignment of each component in thedata center, and ultimately DCIM allowsyou to look for ways to align thedemand for computing with the actualsupply of it.

While DCIM has been discussed formany years, as an emerging technologyit has been on the periphery of ourvision. Many IT professionals have beenaware of it, but have been focused onthe more easily executed efficiencyprojects and hence have not been ableto explore the application of DCIM totheir own data centers. Well, this month

the world's leading informationtechnology research and advisory firmGartner released their DCIM “MagicQuadrant” which is used to benchmarkcritical capabilities needed in forwardthinking computing environments. Theintroduction of Gartner’s DCIM MagicQuadrant underscores the critical needto deploy DCIM today. Remember, themajority of the ‘easy’ optimization hasalready been done, so DCIM is part ofthe next phase of optimization.

So what capabilities does DCIM bringto your table? It brings deepunderstanding of your data center,down to the physical components.Every patch cable, every server. DCIMoffers insight to why each device is inproduction, who owns it, how muchpower it is consuming, what businessfunction it is providing and even when itshould be replaced. DCIM enables thesmooth management of change,whether remedial or planned, andsupports technology refresh initiatives. Ithas been said by the industry’s brightestanalysts that DCIM provides the mostsignificant opportunity to optimize adata center’s efficiency.

DCIM is here now, and many of thelargest and most successfulorganizations in the world are alreadyinvolved in evaluations or deployments.Your data center is likely your single-most expensive corporate asset, so theaddition of a strategic approach tomanaging all of its change would bewell worth your time to begin this nextchapter.

DATA CENTRE OPTIMIZATION: It’s time to deploy DCIM software!

Mark Harris, VP of data

centre strategy for Nlyte

Software says it’s time to

invest in DCIM

ENERGY EFFICENCY


Energy efficiency has been on thebusiness agenda for a long time.However, organisations will all differas to how far up their own agenda itis and to what degree their

organisations are actually energy efficient. Technology vendors have made it easier for

organisations to be more efficient as all newproducts should come with information onenergy usage. The government too has alsoplayed its part in persuading businesses totake energy efficiency more seriously withlarge organisations needing to report on theirenergy usage and meet certain carbon targets.

For an organisation to become truly energyefficient however, it needs to start thinkingabout the ways in which it uses IT and how itcan be employed to reduce growing energyconsumption and costs; it’s time to start usingIT intelligently.

Lights left on, desks powered up when notin use, inefficient use of office space and theHVAC running when no-one is in the office are

common daily occurrences in organisationsthroughout the UK. These practices are all anenormous drain on power and are needlesslywasting expensive energy.

Leaving chargers plugged in or the lights onare just lazy habits that we’re all guilty of andrequire a user to take responsibility forswitching them off. Let’s look at the equipmenton most office workers’ desks as an example:there’s usually a monitor, a phone, aworkstation and all these devices still consumepower when the desk isn’t in use. If you addup evenings, weekends, working days out ofthe office and holidays, this is a significantamount of energy that is being wasted.

Intelligent booking systems can help solvethis issue by only powering up a desk when itis in use. When the user comes into the officethey can swipe in to book a desk and thedesk’s equipment will power up automatically,and then when they come to leave and swipeout, everything will power down. This systemsignificantly reduces day-to-day power

consumption in the office environment anddoesn’t rely on the user to switch anything off.

Giving employees the ability to book theirown seat in the office allows for desks to beused when and where they are needed.Potentially, on a quiet day when manyemployees are out of the office, any staff thatdo need a desk on that day could just occupyone floor, meaning that power to the parts ofthe office building can be turned off for thatday.

Even the office lighting can be programmedto work intelligently. Intelligent lighting canoffer real energy savings to businesses and canhelp ensure the lights are on only whenneeded. For example, if an office worker wantsto come into the office out-of-hours, the canswipe in and only the areas of the buildingwhere they need to go will light up. Lights canalso ‘daylight harvest’ and respond to theambient light conditions so if it’s brightoutside, full lighting isn’t required in the office.

The data centre is perhaps the biggestculprit when it comes to energy usage andanalyst group Forrester claims that they areresponsible for 45% of all IT energyconsumption. Controlling energy consumptionin the data centre is therefore imperative, butfor many owners understanding how andwhere to measure energy usage is thechallenge.

RFID energy management systems offer anintelligent solution to this issue. These systemsuse tags or wireless sensors to monitorenvironmental conditions, such as temperatureand humidity, at various locations within thedata centre and then relay the data to readers.Software then interprets the information andidentifies any problem areas so steps can betaken to improve efficiencies and reducepower consumption.

Sensors can be used on the front of servercabinets to ensure supply temperatures arewithin the recommended range. Air pressuresensors can be used to identify low-pressureareas that may be causing hot spots. Installingenvironmental sensors at the correct locationas well as fully integrating and utilising theinformation produced by these sensors canhelp to deliver real energy efficiencies to thedata centre.

Although it is a great power consumer, ITshould instead to be viewed as a solution tobetter control our working environments andas an aid to reducing power consumptionwhere it really matters. Only when we cantruly embrace the intelligence that IT candeliver will it have a real impact on ourorganisations.

DRIVINGenergy efficencyMatt Salter, sales director at Redstone considers how using

IT intelligently can have a real impact on energy efficiency…

The data centre isperhaps the biggest

culprit when itcomes to energy

usage and analystgroup Forrester

claims that they areresponsible for 45%

of all IT energyconsumption.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY


Alot of effort is put in to theenvironmental credentials of datacentres at the design stage.Ultimately they have to be asefficient as possible to lower

running costs, and that means thinkingcarefully about layout, cooling, lighting andhardware. Everyone gives themselves a pat onthe back when the site goes live, and rightly so,but keeping a data centre performant from anenvironmental perspective has to be a front-of-mind and on going exercise. The right coolingparameters at go live is just the start of thecycle.

ISO 50001, introduced in 2011, is thelegislation that demands the search forcontinuous improvements in energy efficiency,and was developed by experts from more than60 countries. It targets large companies,compelling them to sign up and demonstratetheir energy efficiency improvements year onyear. You can’t realistically achieve this withoutenvironmental monitoring – its critical for everyorganisation and data centre: you can’timprove what you can’t measure.

There are a vast number of monitoringsystems and software options available, mostof them ‘off the shelf’. This is not the place tomake any recommendations on software, but

there is a very clear trend that we have noticed,and that is the attractiveness of open sourcesolutions. It has nothing to do with cost,customers find the use of open standards thatfuture-proof monitoring, and the ways in whichmany of these packages can be tailored to theenvironment, a very powerful combination.

The reach of ISO 50001 will be extended tocover smaller businesses. So, with theimportance of monitoring looming, how cancompanies start to make inroads intoimproving their energy efficiency in the datacentre?

It is not just computer hardware andsoftware that is always evolving to improve theenergy efficiency and utilisation of the estate.Technology throughout the data centre is doingthe same, and if incorporated can only have apositive impact on a company’s overall energyefficiency rating.

All good and well for those building a newdata centre with state of the art energyefficiency products and facilities, but for thoselooking at an existing DC facility – what optionsare there to cut energy straight from thebottom line?

LED lightingLED lighting is more efficient and needs

replacing less often than conventional lighting.It is more expensive to install, but just ashomes across the UK are finding it can make asignificant differences to your bills when youconsider that on average a DC will have 50-60bulbs.

Plug Fan/EC motorsCustomers can make parts of existing air

conditioning systems rather than going throughexpense of a complete replacement. Anexample, replacing drive belt systems withmuch improved Electronically CommutatedFans. The variable speed of these units,reduces wear and tear because they areelectronically managed. They can immediatelybring energy savings of up to 45%, meaningthey pay for themselves in no time.

Blanking plates and Airconditioning

Air-conditioning along with UPS use themost energy within the DC, so it stands toreason that any energy savings on these areaswill assist. The mixing of hot and cold air withinthe AC environments leads directly toinefficiency, so making every effort to keepthese separate is important. Blanking plates canbe used to seal off the hot/cold areas and areeasily retro-fitted.

Many companies have started to reclaimheat from air conditioning and are alsolooking to use solar energy, which althoughnot suitable for powering a data centre, canbe used for general office lighting etc, in orderto off-set any energy usage within the datacentre.

Brush Strips!So, how do you improve data centre energy

by up to 63%?? Install brush strips to your datacentre to seal cable openings. A basicimprovement that according to Gartner’s 11Best Practices on saving energy in a data centreis currently Number 1. A vast amount of moneyis spent in cooling data centres, which withoutbrush strips is largely wasted as cooled air islost through unsealed cable openings.

The point we are trying to make here is thatsimple changes, and relatively smallinvestments can make a huge difference toenergy efficiency and consumption in the datacentre. As the biggest consumers of energy formany companies, this helps them makeincremental and significant progress on the ISO50001 submissions. But remember tomeasure, this will help you prove the value ofthese investments and gain budget for evenmore improvements.

COSTINGthe Earth?Secure IT looks at driving greater efficiency in the data centre

Air-conditioningalong with UPS use

the most energywithin the DC, so it

stands to reasonthat any energy

savings on theseareas will assist.The mixing of hot

and cold air withinthe AC environments

leads directly toinefficiency, so

making every effortto keep these

separate isimportant. Blankingplates can be used

to seal off thehot/cold areas and

are easily retro-fitted.

To advertise here please call Paul Lane on 0207 348 5259Pro

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