by Jeff Clark, Data Center Journal
View the original article at datacenterjournal.com.
Now that the holidays are over and the minds of many are moving from gifts and celebrations to the responsibilities of the new year, data center budgeting and how to save precious funds is one area of focus. The economy remains shaky, energy prices are likely to continue rising and demand for data center and IT services shows no signs of slackening. Although each company has its own unique priorities for its IT infrastructure, the following are a number of critical areas that are worth reviewing for the year ahead.
Areas for Data Center Budgeting
Beware—but don’t ignore—the cloud. It’s been a growing blip on the IT radar for some years now: the cloud. Proponents tout its ostensible benefits, such as reduced capital expenses and overall cost savings. Some questions exist as to whether you can really save money by moving to the cloud, but many companies can benefit by relying on the cloud to some extent (meaning some level of cloud use between complete reliance on in-house IT and complete outsourcing to the cloud). A variety of cloud services are available, and you don’t need to jump in wholesale—try cloud storage for a portion of your data, for instance. When you’re data center budgeting, don’t just assume that you’re going to save money by switching to the cloud—leave a little leeway for initial costs, the learning curve and so forth.
Energy will cost you. If you own or operate a data center and are privy to utility bills, then you don’t need to be told that you’ll probably be spending more on energy in 2012 compared with previous years. With the cost of energy rising (likely through a combination of inflation and growing demand) and demand for IT services on the rise generally, you should plan to cough up more funds to your utility company. You may be able to take some steps to increase your energy efficiency and thereby take a bite out of cost increases this year, but if, like most companies, you’ll be expanding your IT infrastructure, plan to pay higher operating costs as you grow.
Supporting infrastructure can save you money in the long term. You’ve probably heard the adage “work smarter, not harder.” It applies to the data center as well, and one way to work smarter is to implement a system that monitors and collects data on your facility. Data center infrastructure management (DCIM), for instance, is a hot topic in the industry; DCIM equipment and software allows you to better govern and protect your resources, often through a “single pane of glass,” in addition to remote access. But this approach isn’t free—you’ll need to purchase, install and learn to use it. Consider leaving room for DCIM when data center budgeting, facility monitoring and data analytics; if these systems are implemented properly, you can quickly recover your capital costs and create room in your budget for other priorities.
You need to pay to secure your IT resources. Unfortunately, people are out to get you (and your data center). And, also unfortunate is the fact that you must spend money to protect yourself from malicious parties. Your data center budget should reflect the importance of security to keeping your facility running and to protecting your (and your customers’) data. There’s no single fix for all your security problems: it’s an ongoing conflict as malware becomes more complicated in response to better security measures, and so on. Your budget should always allocate sufficient funds to both implement and maintain the necessary security measures: firewalls, anti-malware and site security, for instance. If your company is high profile or if you are keeping highly sensitive information, you’ll need to give security greater leeway when data center budgeting. Even if your company is not so high profile and you could care less if someone saw your data, however, you still need to protect yourself from malware that could damage or destroy your equipment.
Maintenance is worth the cost. Data center maintenance—like security—is one of those things you hate to spend money on (sort of like insurance), as it doesn’t give you more infrastructure to serve your customers, it provides no real business return and it just seems (when things are running smoothly) to be a waste of time and funds. But when a server or backup generator fails because you didn’t maintain it properly, you quickly realize the benefits of maintenance. The losses that mount in the wake of a facility outage can quickly exceed the relatively minor maintenance costs that would likely have prevented the failure. Let your budget reflect the importance of a smoothly running data center: leave sufficient room for maintenance, whether using in-house or contracted personnel. Much of maintenance is a matter of employee time rather than company funds, but if you value uptime, you should allocate a reasonable portion of your fiscal pie to keeping your data center operating correctly and efficiently.
Saving Money in the Data Center
Maybe your budget doesn’t leave room for everything you want to fit into it. All is not lost—you can take steps in a number of areas to make more room by increasing efficiency and otherwise saving money. The following are a few suggestions.
Keep on consolidating. Maybe you’ve already disposed of an unused (or highly underutilized) server or two already. Great. But don’t stop there. Keep an eye out for equipment that serves no purpose other than to consume space and energy, and when you find it, get rid of it with prejudice (or, at least, unplug it). If you have multiple data centers that could better function as fewer (or even one) data centers, consider shuffling operations to use fewer resources. Here, DCIM and resource monitoring can help you determine what parts of your facility are underperforming.
Virtualize. Virtualization has probably reached the “dead horse” stage, but it can still be an effective strategy for increasing efficiency (and making room for consolidation) when implemented properly. It requires an initial investment and should not be done haphazardly (and, depending on your area of business, it may be more or less effective), but the return on investment can create significant room in your budget.
Turn up the thermostat. This is another one that you may be sick of hearing about, but don’t ignore it. You may be able to save tremendously by simply adjusting the thermostat to reduce your cooling burden; another option (possibly in tandem with higher operating temperatures) is free cooling. Care is, of course, required in implementing this strategy, but when you turn up your thermostat, you are automatically reducing your energy bill. If you need help in this area, check out ASHRAE’s website.
For goodness sake, clean up a bit. You probably hate cleaning—most people do. But it can do wonders in your data center. Not only does removing clutter and contaminants (like dust) aid in airflow and protect electronic equipment, it creates an environment more amenable to employee productivity and respect. If things look good and are in order, folks are more likely to take care of them than if they are surrounded by junk and covered in dust and old coffee rings. Seeing the benefits in your ledger may be a little difficult, but they’ll be there.
Data center budgeting and saving money go hand in hand. Depending on your business and what you’ve already accomplished in your facility, some of these suggestions may be more relevant than others. Whatever the case, keep your eyes open for opportunities to save money in your data center—your budget will thank you.
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It’s that time of year! As the new year begins, it’s time to step back from the daily grind and plan for 2012. One high-level challenge for data center managers is the use of floor space, and this new report from Gartner Research can help you meet that challenge.
Data center floor space is costly. When you have to upgrade or renovate a data center to meet growing IT needs, it is a very expensive proposition. Consequently, when you maximize the use of your existing data center floor space, you can avoid costly and time-consuming upgrades to your entire facility.
But what are the best practices? What are the most effective techniques to maximize your existing data center floor space? How do you measure and project your capacity? How much savings in floor space can you achieve?
A new report by Gartner addresses these questions. Based on their research, Gartner has developed four key recommendations for maximizing the use of your existing data center floor space. The report also describes the range of savings you can expect.
The complimentary report is available courtesy of nlyte Software, makers of Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software. Read the full report here.
At the Gartner Conference earlier this month, Jay Pultz presented on how DCIM is a necessary component within the data center. With a current penetration at 5% and expected to grow to 60% penetration by 2015, why not start your search before the rush. Pultz outlined what to specifically look for in a DCIM solution. Here is a sample of his points:
- Input: gathers all data on asset location and energy consumption to measure and monitor power and temperature at key points throughout the data center
- Process: the ability to analyze and summarize trends. This includes visually modeling current and future state of the data center.
- Output: provides analysis at several levels of detail
- Control: provide workflow instructions for every move add or change to the appropriate personnel.
Tell us what you are looking for in a DCIM solution in the comments below.
Rob Neave, co-founder and VP of IT and sustainability at nlyte Software, offers his view on the UK government’s league table designed as part of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme
by Penny Jones
On the face of it, a government initiative aimed at improving energy efficiency and cutting emissions in large public and private sector organisations sounds like a programme that all types of self-respecting enterprises should be on board with. But the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme has been the subject of much controversy since its inception in 2008 – especially when the ‘green’ revenue recycling aspect of the scheme was scrapped in favour of a basic tax in 2010.
After the Environment Agency’s long-awaited CRC league table release early November, many organizations are now starting to question whether the league table really is a beneficial way to showcase progress in the energy management arena, or if it has in fact descended into a catalogue of irrelevant and misleading information. Murmours from various corners of the data center industry would suggest the latter, that it is simply distracting businesses from the main aim of the CRC – to become more energy efficient entities.
Based solely on approved Early Action Metrics, as opposed to real energy savings, it is difficult to discern exactly how green the 2,106 enterprises featured really are. What’s more, under the new carbon tax structure, rankings do not take into account the fact that some organizations may have already started to improve their energy efficiency through major IT investment, for example, that has not yet had a chance to be measured.
Yes, the league table concept makes a commendable effort to bring the UK’s energy intensive organisations together and work towards a greener environment, but the format is not only complicated, it attempts to compare apples with oranges given the range of companies it plots. In ranking these enterprises against each other – all of which have entirely different business objectives, from hospitals to multi-nationals – the energy credentials mean very different things, and correspondingly muddy the water when it comes to genuine energy efficiency.
What is clear from the results is the need for organizations to adopt a more proactive strategy from the outset when it comes to improving their carbon footprints – targeting energy within the business that is wasted unnecessarily is the key here. The data center can represent a significant proportion of an organization’s carbon footprint with its power thirsty hardware and rampant over provisioning, which means businesses need to wise up and deal with the most energy intensive aspect of their IT infrastructure sooner rather than later.
The downfall of many organizations is a basic lack of understanding when it comes to the make-up of their facilities. Simply knowing what assets are located where is a constant challenge, let alone understanding the inter-dependencies within the data centre itself. Data center professionals are still struggling to reduce energy usage across the data center environment at a fundamental level, while maintaining business continuity levels and preventing escalating cost to stay in line with higher corporate objectives.
The answer lies with an effective data center infrastructure management (DCIM) strategy – an organizational culture that can unite environmental sustainability, business reliability, and cost savings in the face of this new legislation. By investing in technology that can allocate all power, cooling, and space specifically to each individual asset in real time, companies can streamline their data center ensuring assets use only the energy they need. The latest generation of DCIM software enables data center professionals to easily visualize, model, plan, control, report and predict energy usage, that enables data center and facilities management teams to regain control of their data center estate with a more granular level of insight – drilling right down to rack, server, application and even power socket levels.
With expanding data reserves and trends such as virtualization, the composition and requirements of the data center are also becoming extremely volatile. As these trends evolve, the situation will only deteriorate, forcing organizations into a corner which they will either have to pay a hefty sum to get out of – be it a financial penalty or an overdue technology investment – or find their reputations in tatters.
While the CRC rankings provide no real insight into the extent of the UK’s green crusade, they should nevertheless serve as a wake-up call for businesses to not only reassess the energy saving processes with their data center estate, but also the technology in place to support it – if indeed they have any. Without this kind of practical mindset, organizations risk a sizable dent on their reputation and another year at the bottom of the rankings. Why would any organization want to risk this, when complete DCIM tools are available today?
Reprinted from Datacenter Dynamics 6 December 2011. To view the article in its entirety, please visit: http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus/archive/2011/12/deal-data-center-or-stay-bottom-league
Here is a trend to consider: Construction companies are partnering with technology providers to provide more enhanced solutions and services to the owner community. Through these partnerships, intelligent controls and software platforms will give owners and operators more functionality throughout the lifecycle of a building.
For example, this week, Skanska USA Building, www.skanska.com, Stockholm, Sweden, announced a partnership with nlyte Software, www.nlyte.com, Menlo Park, Calif., a provider of DCIM (data center infrastructure management) software.
When constructing mission critical facilities and data centers for financial, pharmaceutical, broadcast, telecommunications, retail, and entertainment industries, Skanska will now integrate nlyte’s software into its data center intelligence platform. The nlyte DCIM solution provides predictive intelligence and controls to reduce risk and manage data centers more efficiently.
The end result will decrease business risk and expense caused by downtime and catastrophic failure, improve operational performance, and reduce the total cost of ownership.
Jakob Carnemark, senior vice president, Skanska, says as the need for data center capacity increases and ongoing management costs are at risk of rising, including this suite as part of the data center offering will help clients in the long run.
Through this partnership with a software provider, Skanska has developed a competitive advantage in the marketplace by providing owners with the technology to more effectively manage data centers…
Article taken from Constructech Magazine. Go here to read the full article.
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