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Weekly UpdatesData centers are large, important investments that, when properly designed, built, and operated, are an integral part of the business strategy driving the success of any enterprise. Yet the central focus of organizations is often the acquisition and deployment of the IT architecture equipment and systems with little thought given to the structure and space in which it is to be housed, serviced, and maintained.
This invariably leads to facility infrastructure problems such as thermal "hot spots", lack of UPS (uninterruptible power supply) rack power, lack of redundancy, system overloading and other issues that threaten or prevent the realization of the return on the investment in the IT systems.
The solution is to understand fully the capacity of the data center to support 'mission critical loads" (the IT infrastructure), the availability ("uptime" potential) of the data center, and the condition of the key facility components and systems. Management then can make informed decisions based on facts, which leads to better direction of resources to close the known gaps between "what is" and "what should be" in systems reliability.
Good management decisions rest on knowing:
* What you have
* What it can, and can't do
* Where investment gives the greatest returns
A well designed facility infrastructure assessment provides the facts needed for informed decision making, which minimizes waste in the form of misdirected investment, unrealized investment returns, and over and under-sizing the facility infrastructure systems needed to support the IT infrastructure.
The problem
Many data center managers and operations directors do not know the capacity, utilization, or the availability of their data centers. This leads to the inability to:
* Support a change in the business strategy
* Optimize the IT architecture with equipment refreshes, or through consolidation and virtualization
* Meet corporate mandates for efficiency
* Realize the return on investment (ROI) as used in justifying upgrade projects
Missing any one of these business drivers can range from, in personal terms, "a career changing event" or, in business terms, a lost opportunity to contribute significantly to the success in achieving a business strategy.
The solution
Supporting a change in the business environment:
A well-designed and executed assessment supports the ability to respond to a change in the business environment. IT processing, systems, and software are now an integral part of company offerings, either in distinct products (that is, the software driving your digital camera), or services (that is, on-line real time quotes from your car insurance company). The speed of business today is approaching real time, and change is the constant, not the exception. The ability to react to changes in the business environment quickly and effectively is not only a competitive advantage, but is required in this day and age. Understanding your capacity and utilization levels helps you understand your margin, which is the resources a data center manager needs to redirect and re-deploy to effectively manage change.
Optimizing the IT architecture
Let's face it; the cost of computing has gone down markedly. More bytes of processing can be obtained per dollar invested than ever before. With this drop in actual processing costs has come a concurrent increase in the thirst of companies for more processing capacity as the software applications become key to business products and business efficiency. Instead of seeing a reduction in the size of IT platforms due to increased processing capacity in ever-smaller footprints, the number of platforms and systems has increased to meet business demands. This has lead to large amounts of equipment with very low utilization levels (10-20% is not uncommon), which means a lot of equipment is being used ineffectively and inefficiently. The solution has been to consolidate the applications on servers to drive up the utilization through "virtualization" and to refresh technology through new equipment deployments that drive up processing capacity more efficiently. Knowing the ability of a given data center or data center space to support these consolidation and optimization efforts is key to realizing the value of the investment and attaining the project goals. A well designed and executed assessment will identify both the strengths of a data center facility infrastructure that can support the optimization project, and the gaps that must be closed as part of the project to insure success.
Meeting mandates for efficiency
Going green is not just good business in the 21st century; it is becoming a corporate and government mandate. Environmental or energy efficiency is as equally important as knowing how the data center can provide the flexibility to respond to changing business directions.
Efficiency in a data center is ultimately the ratio of the electrical power being delivered to a data center at the utility service, to the electricity needed to run the IT infrastructure systems and platforms. This is where the real "work" of a data center is being performed.
Knowing what the utility capacity is through a power survey and how much of that is being used for just the IT equipment facilitates the ability to identify the systems that should be targets for efficiency improvement. If, for example, an assessment finds that the UPS system is significantly oversized for the size of the data center IT equipment load, and there are multiple UPS modules in the system supplying redundancy, the analysis of the data gathered in the survey might suggest shutting down one redundant module to achieve a higher efficiency. This simple step may be counter-intuitive, but the management decision to do so would be supported by the facts discovered and analyzed in the assessment.
Realizing return on investment (ROI) in projects
Sound business practices drive good investment decisions. IT systems and software represent a significant allocation of company resources. Investments in projects to improve, upgrade, or consolidate almost always have a predicted return on investment (ROI) that justifies the management decision to approve the project. Frequently, the projects focus on one aspect, such as just the IT server investment, or the software upgrade, without considering the data center as an end-to-end information processing tool. Investments have typically been justified and made on partial information, which can result in and unrealized return on the investment when the new equipment or systems cannot be supported adequately by the facility infrastructure.
The result is equipment that operates in a degraded mode because it is too hot (not enough cooling capacity), or insignificant redundancy (no dual power source for dual cord loads), or insufficient space (no rack space that fits manufacturer's requirements).
Due to the unforeseen constraints, the result is loss of anticipated processing capacity, or additional investment to upgrade the facility infrastructure to meet the needs of the equipment, both of which act to drive down the ROI. A well designed and executed assessment provides the information for an accurate ROI because it will identify all the factors that need to be addressed in the investment to fully realize the anticipated benefit (return).
Elements of a good assessment
Assessments are targeted to a multitude of concerns: IT architecture, software, electrical power, cooling, security, maintenance practices, and so on. They all have common elements which should be clear when their scopes of work (SOW's) are presented for consideration in purchasing or conducting an assessment service. These elements, all of which should be in the assessment report are:
* Survey
* Analysis
* Recommendations
Survey
A survey may take many forms but is essentially a review of information, systems, or site conditions to establish known, valid facts on which to base the analysis and recommendations necessary for sound management decision making. This may involve a high-level review of existing site documentation, equipment specifications, software capabilities, facility, or IT infrastructure systems. It is frequently conducted on site, though some surveys can be done remotely given the power of the internet and digital information processing (that is, a survey of a facility building control system through remote access link).
The results of the survey are the "findings" which are the facts that are objective and generally agreed to on which the analysis will be performed.
Analysis
Once the survey establishes the facts, they can be held up to the scrutiny of interpretation. As with any human endeavor, this is where variances are encountered since a useful analysis relies on the expertise and experience of the person or persons looking at the facts and drawing conclusions. Validity of the analysis is only assured if it is based on facts and an objective study by a qualified and experienced professional. The expertise to do this is often found 'in-house" (the staff and management of the data center) or can be outsourced to a qualified consultant, but in either case the implications of the facts as discovered in the survey must be understood and articulated in a useful manner. Through this process, gaps are discovered, qualified, and quantified, as well as assets and attributes that may be leveraged to close the gaps.
Recommendations
An analysis leads to identification of gaps, and the action plans to close the gaps constitute the recommendation phase of a good assessment. How extensive the recommendations are is dictated by the scope of work of the assessment. This may range from high level recommendations that provide global guidance for strategy making by management, to detailed gap remediation on a rack by rack deployment for IT service personnel. It may include, if specified in the scope of work, a matrix of actions that range from easiest to most difficult to implement, and cost to implement with attendant ROI calculations.
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