Data Centre News - Oct 17

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data centre news

October 2017

Tickled Pink

Zenium and Eaton’s latest collaboration brightens up our day.

inside...

Opinion Special Feature Green IT

Why GDPR should be seen as an opportunity, not a threat.

Meet Me Room

Jon Lucas of Hyve talks business, kayaking and Cornwall

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contents WWW.DATACENTRENEWS.CO.UK

in this issue…

data centre news

October 2017

october 2017 04 Welcome

32 Hyperconvergence

Green sleeves.

Graham Jarvis of Trudy Darwin Consulting finds out whether hyperconvergence really is key to an enterprise’s data centre cloud strategy.

06 Industry news When it comes to security, are insiders really causing the most damage?

10 Centre of Attention Timothy Arnold of Six Degrees Group on why the humble data centre is the unsung hero of the digital age.

13 Meet Me Room Jon Lucas of Hyve talks business, kayaking and Cornwall.

16 Case Study Zenium and Eaton team up to bring us the pinkest data centre we’ve ever seen.

28 Case Study ONI helps bring the Science Museum Group’s IT strategy out of the dark age.

30 Thermal Imaging Andrew Baker of FLIR Systems, discusses what to watch out for when investing in thermal imaging.

34 GDPR Matt Smith of Software AG explains why GDPR should be viewed as an opportunity, not a threat.

36 Automation Leon Adato of SolarWinds tells us how to optimise automation and why failure to respect the process could spell disaster.

39 Projects and Agreements Huawei and Internet Matters team up to help improve online child safety.

44 Company Showcase The latest industry innovations, including Fluke’s new microsite designed to help support data centre personnel.

46 Final Thought Anurag Kahol of Bitglass discusses the security solutions available when it comes to the BYOD conundrum.

Tickled Pink

Zenium and Eaton’s latest collaboration brightens up our day.

inside...

Opinion Special Feature Green IT

Why GDPR should be seen as an opportunity, not a threat.

Meet Me Room

Jon Lucas of Hyve talks business, kayaking and Cornwall

SPECIAL FEATURE:

Green IT

18 Gisle Eckhoff of Digiplex on how the Nordics are where it’s at when it comes to sustainability.

20 Eric Schwartz of Equinix,

explains how we should be approaching sustainability.

23 Mattias Ganslandt of Multigrid discusses the benefits of adopting a GREEN strategy.

26 Chris Wellfair of Secure I.T.

Environments, explains how the EU Ecodesign directive impacts the data centre and why January 1 is a date to be mindful of.

October 2017 | 3

data centre news

Editor Claire Fletcher claire.fletcher@allthingsmedialtd.com

Group Advertisement Manager Kelly Byne – 01634 673163 kelly@allthingsmedialtd.com

Studio Manager Ben Bristow – 01634 673163 ben@allthingsmedialtd.com

Designer Jon Appleton jon@allthingsmedialtd.com

Business Support Administrator Carol Gylby – 01634 673163 carol@allthingsmedialtd.com

Managing Director David Kitchener – 01634 673163 david@allthingsmedialtd.com

Accounts 01634 673163 susan@allthingsmedialtd.com

Suite 14, 6-8 Revenge Road, Lordswood, Kent ME5 8UD T: +44 (0)1634 673163 F: +44 (0)1634 673173

The editor and publishers do not necessarily agree with the views expressed by contributors nor do they accept responsibility for any errors in the transmission of the subject matter in this publication. In all matters the editor’s decision is final. Editorial contributions to DCN are welcomed, and the editor reserves the right to alter or abridge text prior to publication. © Copyright 2017. All rights reserved.

4 | October 2017

W

hen it comes to the plethora of ways in which we damage the planet, forget the usual culprits: Failing to turn lights off, leaving the tap running while you brush your teeth, not recycling, commuting (let’s all just stop going to work, it will save the world.) What if I told you your last Facebook binge was just as culpable?

Well, not just Facebook, anything that involves data really.

We all quickly forget that even small data centres consume large amounts of energy. Operating a server farm, fans, consoles, monitors, lights, and cooling systems all day, every day, requires massive quantities of energy and we’d be foolish to think this wasn’t having an impact on the environment.

With this in mind, there is ever growing pressure for businesses to ensure their effect on the planet

Claire Fletcher, editor

is kept to a minimum. In relation to the data centre, this means ensuring all mechanical, lighting, electrical and computer systems are designed for maximum energy efficiency and minimum environmental impact.

But the technologies needed to be dubbed ‘environmentally friendly’ aren’t necessarily cheap. Is it really worth the upfront cost? Which are the most effective? What products should businesses actually be implementing? This month’s special feature homes in on ‘Green IT’, taking a detailed look at the various strategies available to help support sustainability.

As a side note, as well as all our regular features, we have a quirky case study feat. the only pink data centre I’ve ever seen.

Should you have any questions or opinions on the topics discussed please write to: claire.fletcher@ allthingsmedialtd.com.

@DCNMag www.datacentrenews.co.uk

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industry news

New Infoblox survey finds insider threats and ransomware are most feared

New McAfee report highlights global impact of changing data protection landscape

Infoblox has released results of a new study that identifies the top threats, risks and fears related to securing data assets and keeping networks secure. The survey, conducted by SANS and co-sponsored by Infoblox, found that ransomware, insider threats and denial of service are considered the top three threats organisations face when it comes to securing sensitive data.

According to the study, 78% of respondents report encountering two or more threats to their data in the past 12 months, while 12% actually encountered a breach, with 43% of those encountering exfiltration of sensitive data through encrypted channels.

User credentials and privileged account information, known as access data, represented the most common data types involved in these breaches, spotlighting the fact that privileged data is prized by attackers – proving more desirable to them than sensitive data being targeted for financial gain or destruction.

“This shows how highly attackers prize access data,” said Sean Tierney, director of threat intelligence at Infoblox. “It’s proving more desirable to them than sensitive data being targeted for financial gain or destruction because it opens the door to significantly more exploitation opportunities.”

The study also found that 59% of respondents are using manual processes to identify sensitive assets – ultimately leaving their networks prone to massively automated attacks.

McAfee has released a new report, ‘Do you know where your data is? Beyond GDPR: Data residency insights from around the world, which highlights businesses’ approach to data residency, management, and protection in light of global events, policies and the changing regulatory data protection landscape.

Based on a survey of 800 senior business decision-makers from across multiple industry sectors and eight countries, the report provides a comprehensive view of how organisations view 11 key data regulations from around the world, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will toughen and simplify laws protecting personal data for over 500m people residing in the European Union once implemented in May 2018.

The report shows that nearly half (48%) of organisations will migrate their data to a new location because of regulations like GDPR. A similar amount will migrate their data because of changing geopolitics or the approach to relevant policies in the United States. 70% of respondents believe the implementation of GDPR will make Europe a world leader in data protection; however, the United States remains the most popular data storage destination, preferred by nearly half of all organisations surveyed.

“It’s critical that businesses do everything they can to protect one of the world’s most valuable assets: data,” said Raj Samani, chief scientist and fellow at McAfee. “The good news is that businesses are finding that stricter data protection regulations benefit both consumers and their bottom line. However, many have short-term barriers to overcome to become compliant, for example, to reduce the time it takes to report a breach.”

For further information visit: www.infoblox.com

For further information visit: www.mcafee.com

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industry news

Virtus Data Centres unveils plans for London’s largest data centre campus Virtus Data Centres has announced plans for two new adjacent facilities on a single campus near Stockley Park, West London.

The new site will be amongst the most advanced in the UK and create London’s largest data centre campus.

The two buildings, on the secure eightacre campus, total 34,475m2. Known as Virtus LONDON5 and LONDON6, they are designed to deliver 40MW of IT load and have the secured power capacity to increase to 110MVA of incoming power from diverse grid connection points, future proofing expansion for customers.

The location of the campus is ideally situated: 16 miles from central London

on the main fibre routes from London to Slough, and seven miles from Slough, thus providing unrivalled hyper efficient, limitless metro fibre connected, flexible and massively scalable data centre space, within the M25.

Work has started to fit out space in LONDON5 for customers who have already committed and general availability is expected in early 2018.

These two new data centres will provide an additional 17,000NTM (net technical metres) of IT space and will increase Virtus’ portfolio in London to approximately 100MW across its six facilities in Slough, Hayes and Enfield, with the power to expand to circa 150MW on the various campuses.

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industry news

Environmental control to play key role in the data centre of the future Fresh forecasts from Occams Business Research & Consulting (OBRC) predict that the global data centre cooling market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.95% between 2016 and 2023.

Greg McCulloch, CEO of Aegis Data, gives examples of technologies that will ultimately depend on a data centre’s cooling capabilities, “AI, IoT, VR and AR – what all these technologies have in common is that they are predicted to grow in prominence over the next few years, and that they have complex and demanding data requirements.” In order to thrive in this age of exponentially growing data volumes, organisations are increasingly turning to high performance computing (HPC) services.

In relation to cooling, for a data centre to comfortably accommodate HPC it must be able to accommodate its superior processing power, which often involves concentrating more

computing power in higher density racks. This produces far more heat than the standard data centre configuration, meaning that efficiently cooling this space becomes far more important for supporting this technology.

Huge data centre providers are going to great lengths to minimise their cooling costs. For example, Facebook located a data centre in near-arctic Luleå,

northern Sweden. Greg commented, “You don’t need to have the vast resources of Facebook to access the kind of cooling efficiencies needed to support the everexpanding data requirements of new technologies. There are various other approaches available, including liquid or conductive cooling.”

For further information visit: www.aegisdata.net

‘Unintentional insiders’ could cause most damage to an organisation According to a new survey released by SANS Institute, organisations are so single-minded about defending against external attacks, that they are ignoring a threat with vastly greater potential for damage.

76% of security and IT professionals polled globally said the greatest potential for damage comes from a possible data breach involving employees or contractors trusted with insider access to sensitive data. 40% worry about insiders acting out of malice; 36% say the risk from insiders who are careless with security, or fooled by scams from outside, would do the greatest damage to reputations and bottom lines in the event of an attack. Only 23% predicted the most damage could be done by attackers from the outside.

An unintentional insider is defined as a user who is tricked into or manipulated into causing harm, or whose credentials have been stolen in phishing or other user-focused exploits,

8 | October 2017

designed to let attackers pose as legitimate users to access privileged information. A malicious insider, on the other hand, is someone who knowingly causes harm and damage to an organisation by stealing, damaging or disclosing information.

As organisations deploy the latest security tools and techniques to protect from ever creative and sophisticated outside attackers, cyber criminals are looking for easier targets. Users who already have access to an organisation’s most sensitive data, for example, and aren’t as hard to fool as security systems.

While security professionals clearly understand the risks that insider threats pose, very few seem to have any idea how much damage could be involved. 45% of respondents said the cost of a potential loss was ‘unknown’, while 33% said they had no specific estimate of cost.

For further information visit: www.sans.org

IN BRIEF

Fujitsu survey finds CFOs prefer long-term storage investments Data storage requirements for small and mid-size businesses are predicted to double over the next four years, according to a new Fujitsu study among senior finance professionals in small and medium sized businesses (SMEs). In turn, this high growth is causing widespread concern (76%) that high or unpredictable data growth will lead to escalating data storage and management costs.

With a keen eye on risk, issues of data availability, data protection and data security are front of mind for finance decision makers, who also expressed anxiety about the implications of an unexpected growth in data volumes. Top issues include the need to fund additional storage capacity and concerns about spiraling data management costs due to rapidly increasing data volumes.

Senior finance professionals are also acutely aware of the challenges that traditional disk and tape-based storage solutions and expressed frustration at factors such as systems hitting an expandability wall, leading to investment requests coming out of the blue; the waste of equipment which prematurely reaches end-of-life, and a high reliance on skilled IT staff and the challenges associated with maintaining these skills.

Looking forward, finance professionals outlined the key characteristics they expect to see in relation to new storage technology – highlighting three factors as most important: Automation to reduce reliance on manual skills to minimise both cost and risk; the ability to add capacity as demands increase, without replacing entire systems, and overall system flexibility to better deal with high and unpredictable data growth.

For further information visit: www.fujitsu.com

Insights from Colocation Buyers Delivered in New 451 Research Report Schneider Electric partnered with 451 Research to survey 450 end-user decision makers of colocation services in the United States, Australia, Europe and China across multiple geographies. Insights gathered from this survey are designed to serve as guidance to colocation providers as they make future business decisions.

Providers today are dealing with an ever-changing set of buyers, evolving customer demands and a growing list of emerging technology such as the Internet of Things (IoT), next-generation edge computing and cloud computing. Each of these categories pose both an opportunity and a threat to the colocation segment, and the survey results speak to how each is viewed by colocation end-users in terms of adoption and importance.

With 62% of those surveyed saying they have moved IT applications out from colocation data centres and into public cloud within the last two years, colocation providers must look to find ways to entice new and existing customers to consider colocation as a viable option for their business.

82% of respondents said it was either very or somewhat important that cloud services are hosted in the same data centre as their colocated IT infrastructure. Colocation providers can turn what may seem like a threat to the segment into an opportunity.

The conclusions of this analysis allow colocation providers to understand their target customer’s capacity and service requirements and make informed, prioritised choices around the latest technologies to provide visibility, transparency, redundancy, flexibility and cost reduction.

For further information visit: www.schneider-electric.com

industry news

Virtus Data Centres has again been recognised for its success in the UK and Europe. As testament to its continued growth, Virtus has risen to 15th place in The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100. The company has also been included in the second edition of the London Stock Exchange Group’s 1000 Companies to Inspire Europe report.

Nexsan has announced that Andy Hill has returned to Nexsan as VP of EMEA Sales. Andy has over 20 years of industry experience and has a long track record in driving significant expansion. He will be heading up Nexsan’s EMEA strategy, driving sales, extending partnerships, and accelerating the company’s momentum across the geography.

Schneider Electric has announced it has been ranked No.7 in Gartner’s 2017 Supply Chain Top15 for Europe.

This is the third year in a row that Schneider Electric has been among the top 10 in the Europe rankings.

TIBCO Software has entered into an agreement to acquire Cisco’s Data Virtualisation business, specifically Cisco Information Server, a solution that powers enterprise-scale data virtualisation, and associated consulting and support services.

This move strengthens TIBCO’s portfolio of analytics products, allowing businesses to get analytic solutions into production faster than alternatives, while continuing to adapt as data sources change from traditional databases and big data sources to cloud and IoT. Interoute has been revealed as the winner of the Cloud Integration Product of the Year and Best Software-Defined Product at this year’s Cloud Excellence Awards ceremony. The awards aim to identify the very best of the UK’s cloud industry and the Interoute Enterprise Digital Platform (EDP) was recognised for its ability to accelerate cloud adoption, deliver applications faster and offer greater security.

October 2017 | 9

centre of attention

Unsung Hero Not all heroes wear capes. Timothy Arnold, colo technology director at Six Degrees Group, discusses how the data centre is the unsung hero in our ever increasing age of data.

T

he volume of data we create is growing at a dramatic rate, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon; by 2025, IDC predicts that the ‘global datasphere’ will be 10x the size it is today, rising to 163 zettabytes.

The Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data are key drivers behind this explosive growth and healthcare, energy and manufacturing businesses – to name but a few – are utilising this huge increase in consumer and industry intelligence

10 | October 2017

to drive revenue and enrich customer experience.

To support this acceleration in data creation and to maximise the opportunities it generates, businesses of all sizes need to plan ahead and build flexibility and security into their IT estate. For most this means implementing a cloud solution, be it public, private or hybrid, to ‘host’ virtual infrastructure, or migrating onpremises equipment to a third party.

Ultimately, however, these cloud

and ‘off-premises’ solutions have to live somewhere; in data centres.

The growth of data and cloud across all industries – Gartner predicts that the public cloud market alone will grow by 18% in 2017 – combined with issues of data sovereignty and the impending GDPR legislation, means that it’s crucial for the ‘work horses’ – the data centre facilities – to be secure, resilient, scalable and agile. So, what does this actually mean?

centre of attention

protection and 24x7x365 monitoring of all cooling, power and business critical systems. The physical security of a facility plays a huge part in ensuring data is kept safe but it is also crucial that businesses and service providers have robust processes in place to mitigate the threat of any cyber-attack.

Providing cyber security can often be the more complex piece of the security puzzle, so companies should be proactive about it. ‘Tiering’ the data and applications that need to be protected, from the most business critical applications to the least, establishing a perimeter fence to keep opportunists out and implementing a disaster recovery plan should the fence be broken, are just a few things that should be considered when protecting data.

A good data centre provider will advise and empower tenants to ensure they have the right security measures in place.

Round-the-clock supervision Keeping data safe Cloud technology puts data centre technology on the front line and, despite several recent high profile security breaches, it seems an alarming number of companies only take the security of data seriously once it has been compromised. The Government recently announced that it will be investing almost £2bn into cyber security over the next five years and businesses of all sizes should follow its lead. With data breaches and hacking scandals on the rise – not to mention the occasional incident of human error – it is vital to take security seriously.

Data centre providers are responsible for all physical onsite security to keep customer infrastructure safe. This includes all personnel access to the facility, surveillance, fire and flood

Effective monitoring is essential to avoid disruption in a data centre (and avoiding disruption is key to keeping data secure!)

The biggest cause of downtime is power supply failures, whilst the highest profile is cyber-attacks.

But not all causes are so dramatic; overheating equipment, extreme weather and random acts such as animals breaking through cables can also be an issue. With the right monitoring set up however, all of these hazards can be easily avoided.

If there is an in-depth understanding of the data centre environment and a suitable level of real-time operational intelligence, as well as backup and recovery systems, downtime is much less likely.

Room to grow When considering cloud adoption, thanks to some clever advertising

“Providing cyber security can often be the more complex piece of the security puzzle, so companies should be proactive about it.”

campaigns from the likes of Apple, end-users (non-technical ones at least) tend to forget that the cloud-based services and resources reside in a physical location. As the cloud marketplace and data creation continue to grow, data centre facilities will continue to be in demand. They should therefore always be built with scalability in mind so they can cope with customers’ increasing data demands.

With scalability comes agility.

Data centres need to have the best network capabilities to ensure they can deal with bursts in traffic to the servers in the facility. Cost effective, fast and low latency connectivity to other data centers and to AWS, Azure and Google ensures that businesses can change and adapt to any situation.

A match made in heaven With all this in mind, it is becoming more and more apparent that there is a lack of industry-wide standards available to help guide businesses to the right facility that will meet their requirements.

This confusion should put pressure on data centre providers to ensure expectations and reality are aligned. The EN 56000 standards will go some way in creating clarity so that businesses are better informed and expectations can be managed.

As the data centre industry continues to grow, new providers will frequently become part of the marketplace, so due diligence and extended vetting should always be a top priority when investing in a third-party data centre.

With a new tech buzzword seemingly being created every other day, as an IT professional it can seem daunting to keep up and intimidating to be at the forefront of a new technology trend.

However, if you start with a solid data centre infrastructure there is a lot less to worry about.

October 2017 | 11

Reduce Operational Costs, Improve Capacity Utilization, and Lower Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)* Driven by explosive data processing growth, Data Centre Managers face multiple, competing demands: reducing operational costs, improving energy efficiency, and optimizing available capacity, while sustaining a low total cost of ownership.

To meet these demands while minimizing the risk to service levels, the available data centre space is often underutilized while being overprovisioned with excess power and cooling capacity regardless of actual IT equipment and space utilization. Today, a typical data centre consumes about 3-5kW per cabinet due to power and cooling concerns, while the available cabinet space can accommodate 15kW or more per cabinet if managed effectively.

As energy and construction costs continue to rise, over-provisioning and under-utilization are no longer sustainable. Energy costs related to cooling account for approximately 37% of the overall data centre power consumption and are one of the fastest rising data centre operational costs.

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meet me room

Jon Lucas, Hyve Jon Lucas along with his business partner Jake Madders, founded Hyve Managed Hosting in 2001. In his role as director, Jon places a high priority on the culture at Hyve, and encourages a relaxed working environment in order to get the most from its employees – even investing in company jet skis to take advantage of their proximity to the Brighton coast line! Jon has worked in the IT sector for nearly 20 years, and before founding Hyve, worked as a software developer for companies such as Barclays, M&C Saatchi and Goldman Sachs.

What were you doing before you joined Hyve and how did you first get involved in the industry?

I have always had an interest in gaming and this love for video games made me decide I wanted to learn how to make them myself.

It was because of this that I went to university to study Computing.

When I was there, though, I discovered I was more interested in the business side of things, rather than the games. After university, I started working in programming in London, but eventually got tired of the commuting. It was around this time that I met my business partner, and together we decided to set up Hyve.

Working for Hyve has given Jon more flexibility and time with his family

What are your company’s aims for the next 12 months?

Our biggest aim is to grow the turnover by another 50%, as we have been doing previously. We want to continue our growth by expanding the management team, and focus a lot more on marketing. Hyve is also looking into international expansion, as we are beginning to focus more on the US market.

In addition to earning a living, how else has your career created value in your life?

Working for Hyve has given me more flexibility and time with my family, something that is very important to me. Because I am self-employed, it means I can do more of my own things. Being able to employ people for my company also gives value; we have a family ethos at Hyve and that’s important.

Looking back on your career so far, is there anything you might have done differently?

I would have definitely gone full time on Hyve a lot earlier than I did. My business partner and I spent a lot of time working on it part time, and I believe we could have accelerated growth in our early days.

What, in your opinion, is the most important aspect of a successful data centre?

For me, it’s having no single point of failure. For example, if for some reason the power fails, there should always be a backup.

This goes for everything – if the bandwidth fails, there should be a backup provider.

October 2017 | 13

meet me room

What part of your job do you find the most challenging?

Going on holiday. Being able to disconnect from work and leave it behind for a week or so is something I find particularly challenging. It’s hard to release work and get the work/life balance right when you are self-employed.

Can you tell us about any projects you are currently working on?

Hyve recently started working with Persimmon Homes to help make their web presence successful.

Persimmon Homes had several outages on its public-facing website before they came to us. We are working with them to solve this problem and make sure their website is constantly running at 100%.

Cornwall, Jon’s favourite holiday spot

What are your hobbies/interests outside work?

Sailing, cycling – anything to do with the great outdoors, really. I recently bought a kayak so that’s currently my favourite hobby. I also love doing DIY, and of course watching a movie or playing video games with my family.

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14 | October 2017

If you could invite three guests, dead or alive, from history to dinner, who would they be and why?

Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Bill Gates, purely for the business advice, knowledge and experience they could share with me.

Where is your favourite holiday destination and why?

Cornwall. Without a doubt. You can get home without having to fly, and as I don’t really like flying this

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case study

A Touch Of Pink Ever seen a pink data centre container? No, neither have we. This quirky creation is brought to us by Zenium and Eaton, who joined forces to build a scalable, reliable, and energy efficient data centre for Zenium’s customers.

I

n 2016, Zenium began construction of a 4,300sqm site – dubbed London One. A purpose-built state-of-the-art facility, offering high specification technical space across two floors, in Slough, one of the premier sites for data centres in the UK. Zenium’s goal was threefold: To engineer a fully redundant power system designed to Uptime Institute Tier 3 guidelines; to create scalable data halls to meet customer requirements; and to achieve unprecedented levels of energy efficiency. These goals required a sophisticated power distribution and backup power system.

16 | October 2017

Backup Zenium turned to Eaton to advise on providing the backup power system. Zenium’s principal engineer, Mike Venables, explained, “Eaton served as a major project collaborator that listened to our challenges and proactively responded with solutions catered to our needs.”

To speed up the construction, Eaton came up with a graceful solution to prefabricate and containerise medium voltage power distribution units for outdoor installation. These had the advantage of fast deployment, as well as low total cost of ownership

and would enable Zenium to add more units as its data centre grows.

The containerised units were designed to work with Zenium’s incoming A and B power sources and facilitated connection with multiple emergency generators.

The factory-designed and integrated units arrived fully system-tested, requiring minimal assembly on-site and also contributed to on-site safety and effective operation.

An example of this is that the containers arrived factorypainted to conform to Zenium’s colour-coded site that sees all electrical system equipment

case study

coloured differently according to the incoming power source, which helps Zenium to simplify operation and maintenance on-site.

For reliable power distribution, the containers were equipped with Eaton’s Power Xpert FMX medium voltage switchgear, which provides reliable power protection, metering and distribution of electrical energy using only environmentally friendly technology and materials.

To further accelerate the project, the switchgear also featured software logic to enable control algorithms to be developed during the construction process.

Safety first As the containers are built to a compact footprint, the challenge for Eaton was to ensure that safety was enhanced as much as possible. In normal switchgear, gases caused by an internal arc are guided out by means of an extra arc duct. This requires extra space, additional building costs and is limited as to where it can be located. In contrast, Eaton’s Power Xpert FMX switchgear, features an integrated arc channel, with absorber, to help mitigate the impact of arc events. This frees up where it can be placed, making it an optimum and safe choice for tight spaces.

Alongside this, Eaton’s Power Xpert 9395P backup power systems were deployed for protection of the critical loads within the data halls. All the 9395P’s critical components employ redundant designs with control technology that provides advance warning of potential component failures to reduce unexpected outages.

The 9395Ps further simplify containment design by integrating airflow management and internal cooling fans. The units can also reduce the heat emitted from their electrical cables by up to 33%,

while redundancy in the power supply logic unit and cooling fans eliminates the need for additional wiring and cooling systems. The inherent cooling capabilities make Eaton’s backup power systems highly efficient and contribute to an ultra-low PUE, providing cost savings to Zenium that it can extend to its customers.

“We design all our data centres for improved operation at higher internal and external temperatures to reduce mechanical cooling requirements, energy consumption and overall cost for customers,” explained Mike. “The inherent airflow management capabilities of Eaton’s backup power systems paired with one of the highest temperature operating ranges in the industry compounded to greatly reduce the cost of running a large data centre.”

The containers arrived factory painted to conform to Zenium’s colour coded site

Scalable space saving To help Zenium and its customers easily accommodate future requirements, the 9395Ps are engineered with internal scalability modules. This technology enables the company to adapt to future changes in load demands and meet new requirements for higher reliability without requiring the purchase of additional backup power system components.

The factorydesigned and integrated units arrived fully system-tested, requiring minimal assembly on-site

By using Eaton’s containerised power distribution units, Zenium was able to preserve valuable data centre floor space while accelerating its project timeline through factory testing and simplified assembly upon delivery. And looking to the future, Zenium can quickly and easily expand its power protection system with inherent scalability while maintaining the health of each backup power system with assistance from Eaton service technicians.

“With Eaton’s help, we’ve created a data centre environment that can truly address each one of our customers’ unique requirements while pushing the boundaries of energy efficiency and reliability,” said Mike Venables. “It sounds like a simple task, but it isn’t typically accomplished with as much grace as we’ve managed with Eaton.”

October 2017 | 17

Green IT

The Green Race “The data centre is the heart of the Internet and as business and daily lives are digitalised, the heart must be fit. The trick is expanding, improving and innovating and at the same time achieving sustainability. In the Nordics, we are doing just that,” says CEO of DigiPlex, Gisle M. Eckhoff.

T

here weren’t many people in the industry 15 or 20 years ago, who saw the demand for data becoming this big, this fast. Companies that were born operating online, such as Amazon and eBay, were much more prepared, but essentially all companies developed a pressing and rising demand for data centre solutions.

Predictably, as this escalated, cost became a key concern.

Data centres are not only expensive to run, there are also significant costs in cooling them down. Due to the amount of

18 | October 2017

data they store and energy they consume, they can create excessive heat and therefore need to be cooled regularly. To house the data and use energy safely, a data centre is typically housed in a sturdy and secure building that stores servers, with enough space to also house large amounts of cooling equipment. The amount of energy consumption needed to house the data as well as cool the machines is costly to both the companies and the environment.

Today, data centres are responsible for 2% of the world’s annual CO2 emissions and 3%

of global power consumption, which is quickly increasing.

If we consider the macrodrivers, such as digitalisation, content consumption, Artificial Intelligence and IoT, this is just a fraction of the impact the data centre industry may come to have on our planet in the years to come.

Global data traffic will increase from 12.9GB per capita in 2016 to 35.5GB in 2021, according to Cisco. The result will be an estimated global electricity usage of 508 terawatts in 2021 from data centres alone, surpassing

Green IT

the yearly consumption of most countries. As an example, Japan has estimated that their data centres will consume all nationally produced power in 2030. This is an issue that cannot be ignored, whether from a societal or sustainability perspective.

Green is good So, what does a data centre company with facilities in Norway and Sweden have to offer in this context? Climate. Norway is a mountainous country and as the clouds from the North Atlantic hit these mountains, massive amounts of rain are effectively converted to green hydropower on its way back into the sea. This power is what fuels Nordic data centres.

The polar and temperate climate is ideal when cooling warm data centres, and the DigiPlex air-to-air cooling systems and evaporation technology is the most efficient data centre cooling solution in the world. From a sustainability perspective, this is good news for the planet.

As fibre access is improved on a global scale, the location of data centres is less and less important.

Not only the Nordic companies can benefit from their regions green offerings, but all companies worldwide can start taking steps towards a more sustainable data centre initiative.

Globally, data centres are moving towards becoming more environmentally friendly than they have ever been. However, they are still working on becoming 100% sustainable. Today, most Nordic data centres use only green hydropower. The rest of the data centre industry is still experimenting with running centres on a mix of solar, wind, and hydropower, plus wood chip and sawdust waste. There is still a way to go to compete with hydropower.

“Data centres are responsible for 2% of the world’s So what does it cost? annual CO2 Green is sometimes an expensive ordeal, however this is not the emissions case for Nordic data centres.

Based in one of the coldest and 3% of year-long climates in the world, global power Nordic centres can operate on consumption.” hydroelectricity. Which in the

Nordics, is far less expensive when compared to alternative power sources around the world, such as coal or oil. This allows centres to cool far more effectively and efficiently, while still constantly innovating to bringing the Power usage Effectiveness (PuE) down even further. Green means less power which again means less cost. In addition, the green Nordic power is extremely cheap as both taxation and production cost is very low.

70-75% of variable costs of operating a data centre is for power. Providers who put efficiency at the core of their design and use less power, are much more attractive. Today, the average data centre delivers a PuE of 1.8 or higher. DigiPlex has attained a PuE of 1.1 and the goal is to go even further.

The opportunity for savings in this space is compelling.

Based on the cost of power alone, DigiPlex has estimated

that a company deploying 12MW over 10 years with DigiPlex will save over $100m compared to an equivalent in the UK. In addition, there is a significant sustainability advantage. Despite DigiPlex’s significant energy requirements, its CO2 output is next to zero, largely due to its access to clean renewable energy in the Nordics. If DigiPlex’s power demands were met by coal, its total annual CO2 output would be 17.6 kilotons, the approximate annual output of 4,000 passenger cars.

Responsibility and complacency Businesses and the data centres supporting them will both need to take responsibility for their environmental footprint, and sooner than they think.

Organisations such as Greenpeace, with their Click and Clean campaign, are raising urgent awareness of the impact of ‘dirty data’. It’s not out of the question to assume that in the years to come, governments will be pressured to introduce penalties and tariffs on companies and data centres using dirty power, making complacency even more costly.

October 2017 | 19

Green IT

Stance On Sustainability When it comes to green data centres, Eric Schwartz, EMEA president at Equinix, explains how we should approach sustainability in order to maximise energy efficiency, whilst minimising our environmental footprint.

T

he topic of sustainability in the data centre industry has always been one of heated discussion. Let’s face it: Data centres are very energy intensive. Since the explosive growth of the Internet in the 2000s, the data centre market has continued to expand exponentially to keep up with demand. And with the advent of new data-intensive technologies such as cloud computing, driverless cars, high quality video streaming, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, the energy demands in the sector are only expected to increase.

When the typical consumer thinks of energy consumption, we think of charging our smartphones or keeping our lights and heating

20 | October 2017

turned on at home. We don’t immediately think of the energy consumption that takes place behind the scenes to process data, whether this be in the form of watching a movie over an Internet connection, processing a contactless card payment, or using an app across multiple devices.

However, the data processing that takes place behind the scenes that makes these technologies possible can require more energy than the more obvious power draws in our day-to-day lives. In recent years, it’s become easier than ever to consume vast quantities of data, and as internet traffic continues to grow, green business practices in the industry have become more important than ever.

Keeping consumption clean Energy consumption is an intrinsic part of our industry. Processing and moving data consumes power: There’s no changing that. However, progress needs to be made in maximising energy efficiency and reducing our dependence on nonrenewable sources.

Being green in the industry requires a balance between providing an efficient, reliable service that so many people, and businesses depend upon, and the need to move beyond reliance on non-renewable energy, even when there is sometimes no viable alternative in certain markets.

For Equinix, our promise to our customers is to provide continuous

Green IT

power under all circumstances, and we consistently deliver 99.9999% availability or better around the world. However, we have also realised that there is plenty of room to keep this promise while improving efficiency and deploying renewable energy technologies globally.

But how should the data centre industry approach sustainability?

For us, forward planning and investment in a solid foundation has been key. In the early 2000s, we were mindful of our choice in building materials and the energy efficiency of the components within each data centre, which has had a huge effect on minimising our environmental footprint in the long run. We continue to look for new partnerships such as our recent expansion with Bloom Energy to deploy fuel cells at 12 data centres in the Americas.

It is these type of relationships that we continue to build to show that Equinix is dedicated to ensuring that the advantages of our increasingly interconnected world come at the lowest possible impact to our environment, and the greatest benefit for the people and places around us.

It’s also important to understand that sustainability is not only a responsible move, but a necessary one to attract business and keep up with the competition. The cost of renewable power sources can be less volatile than power derived from nonrenewable sources such as coal, which improves predictability in a company’s business. Investment in technologies that maximise energy efficiency can also decrease energy consumption, reducing costs significantly in the long run.

Additionally, customers want to be affiliated with data centre providers that take this matter seriously. Customers often set carbon or renewable energy goals, and in recent years, environmental

stewardship has been weighted more heavily in the development of many companies’ brand identities.

Energy efficiency across Europe We’ve been quite busy recently in Europe with acquisitions in Spain, Portugal and Turkey. During these times of expansion, our goal of using 100% renewable energy for our global platform is more important than ever. From solar panels in Singapore to fuel cells in Silicon Valley, we’ve worked hard globally to make progress against this goal. We’ve made noteworthy strides in Europe, as our data centres in the region are operating at 81% renewable energy as of 2016, and our newest flagship data centre in the region, AM4 in Amsterdam, operates on 100% renewable energy thanks to state-of-the-art technologies incorporated into the building’s design. The same is true for our UK flagship, LD6.

Our International Business Exchanges (IBXs) in Amsterdam are great examples of how data centres can service many customers and regions with minimal environmental impact. Amsterdam is a critical interconnection point that services all of Europe within milliseconds – The Netherlands was ranked number one in DHL’s Global Connectedness

“Processing and moving data consumes power: There’s no changing that.”

Some of the sustainability measures in Equinix’s new flagship site in Amsterdam, including the use of moss as roof insulation, the application of solar panels, and heating the nearby university building with excess heat from the data centre

Index, and as the second largest interconnection market in Europe (behind only London) in our own Global Interconnection Index published earlier this year.

Equinix manages more than 14,000 fibre cross connects in Amsterdam alone. AM4 houses 4,200 IT cabinets across eight floors, all while operating on 100% green electricity from mixed hydro, solar and wind generation. Our Amsterdam data centres are also very energy efficient thanks to implementing new technologies into the build design of the IBXs – Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) uses groundwater to help chill air on the colocation floor, rooftops covered with plants and vegetation lower cooling costs and reduce storm water runoff, and photovoltaic solar systems reduce supplement power from the local grid.

While progress on environmental responsibility will require investment, hard work, and creativity, I remain optimistic on the future of the sustainable data centre. Most of the industry leaders are taking this matter very seriously, with many moving away from non-renewable energy.

As the data centre industry continues to grow to keep up with the growth in internet traffic, environmental responsibility needs to be made a priority as business decisions are made.

October 2017 | 21

Green IT

Green And Clean Dr Mattias Ganslandt, CEO and president of Multigrid discusses the benefits of adopting a GREEN strategy and the multiple ways in which data centre operators can do so in order to reap the rewards.

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ata centres offer critical infrastructure and energy supply to IT equipment and servers that are at the heart of the ongoing third, and the-soon-to-come fourth, industrial revolution.

With the increasing use of IT-as-a-Service follows environmental benefits, due to a more sustainable production of ICT services, combined with productivity gains in the wider economy. In addition, Greenpeace concluded in this year’s Clicking

22 | October 2017

Green report that the leadership by major internet companies has been a catalyst in driving a broader set of corporations to adopt 100% renewable goals.

Much focus with respect to sustainable computing has been on commitments to buy renewable energy under purchasing power agreements.

Data centres may, however, benefit strategically, commercially and financially from a more extensive and ambitious approach to green computing.

Beyond green power Data centres are large consumers of electricity and materials. Choices made in input markets have profound implications for carbon emissions. However, data centres are also large producers of waste heat and they have significant capacities for distributed storage and generation of electricity.

Choices made in output markets thus have additional implications for the environment.

Data centres may accordingly contribute to sustainability by

Green IT

applying a GREEN strategy: Grid services, Renewable inputs, Energy efficiency, Environmentally friendly materials, Net zero energy solutions.

First, data centres typically have capacities that are potentially valuable to the electrical grid. They have local generation capacity that automatically helps in stabilising the grid, as on-site production reduces the load on the grid if there is an unbalance. Taking this possibility one step further, the distributed excess capacity could further mitigate the problem by feeding the grid with electricity input. Moreover, batteries installed in UPS systems can serve as an energy storage which is a valuable complement to intermittent renewable power generation based on hydro, wind and solar energy.

Second, purchasing renewable electricity makes a significant difference to the carbon footprint

of computing. As large consumers of electricity, data centres have an impact on the supply of renewable electricity either by purchasing power from plants that would otherwise not have been built, or by purchasing power in markets where renewable power supply will expand as a market response thanks to supporting incentives and regulations.

Third, the ongoing structural change that is caused by the growth of IT-as-a-Service has significant implications for efficiency. Virtualisation and cloud services have reduced the number of dormant servers and increased utilisation many times. As a result, the same services can be provided with less energy and less inputs.

Fourth, inputs to data centres include not only electricity but also machinery and construction materials. Designing and building

data centres that use space efficiently make one contribution to green computing. Avoiding concrete and choosing recyclable materials and climate-friendly refrigerants make another.

Fifth, net zero is feasible. This is rather trivial from the perspective of physics as very little mechanical work is done by ICT-equipment.

Instead, essentially all electricity is transformed to heat. By harvesting and recycling - rather than rejecting - the heat, a data centre can close-the-loop and preserve energy, thus reaching a net zero energy outcome.

Motives and means Business objectives depend on circumstances. In Northern Europe, sustainable solutions tend to be commercially and financially motivated. Green computing October 2017 | 23

Green IT

Reaping the rewards of green computing

is, simply put, good business.

Data centres having a strategy to contribute to green computing have several advantages, including: A lower net cost of computing as a result of heat recovery and grid services that generate additional revenue; lower legal, regulatory and political risk in the European political context; a stronger local connection that expands the scope for legitimate growth over time thanks to positive synergies – such as grid services and heat recovery – that benefit the neighborhood or the municipality and also, a lower cost of green financing with investments in sustainable and environmentally friendly infrastructure. Last, but not least, greater demand from customers making conscious choices to offer end-users the attractiveness of ‘clicking green’ is also an advantage.

Practically implementing a strategy for green computing involves using multiple means.

The most critical is to choose a geography that has conditions and 24 | October 2017

regulations that are conducive to sustainable solutions. Particularly relevant in this context is the supply elasticity of renewable electricity, the value of heating and tax incentives for green and energy efficient solutions.

Related to the choice of geography is the more specific question of site selection.

Finding real estate that permits efficient greenfield design and net zero solutions involves finding appropriately zoned land in proximity of densely populated areas. Building hyperscale is a straightforward way to achieve efficiencies, both with respect to capital utilisation and contributions to fixed costs.

To be able to combine hyperscale with grid services and net zero solutions it is typically advantageous to be connected to multiple strong infrastructures.

Finally, energy efficient and sustainable solutions benefit from system optimisation, i.e. an integrated view of the value added chain of IT-as-a-Service.

“Data centres can contribute to sustainability by applying a green strategy.”

Stockholm offers an interesting commercial and technical test bed for green computing.

There are ongoing changes and upcoming possibilities in all areas of green computing discussed in this article.

First, the TSO – i.e. Swedish national grid operator SVK - is considering opening the market for the Frequency Containment Reserve allowing private companies to provide balancing services that would give them additional revenues from local energy storage and load management capabilities.

Second, large data centres have direct access to renewable energy generation with a forecasted expansion of wind power in Sweden of approximately 2,000MW during 2017-2020. The 9,133MW permitted, yet to be constructed, onshore wind power projects in Sweden gives further room for extensive renewable energy supply.

Third, an emerging market for highly efficient Stockholm-based hyperscale data centres can be seen with the forthcoming AWS cloud region and the forthcoming Multigrid wholesale region as well as the expanding Digiplex wholesale campus and Ericsson’s global ICT Centre.

Fourth, recent examples of changes that make buildings more sustainable include green roofs used to handle storm water and non-evaporative or closed-loop cooling to save potable water.

Finally, large scale heat recovery to the district energy network – marketed as ‘open district heating’ – gives a unique opportunity to turning waste heat into revenue while also reducing the carbon footprint of computing.

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Green IT

Eco Warriors Chris Wellfair, projects director at Secure I.T. Environments, explains how the EU Ecodesign directive impacts the data centre and why January 1 is a date to be mindful of.

H

eard of EU Directive 2009/125/EC? The EU Ecodesign directive, as it is better known, was first introduced in 2009 and defined a framework of mandatory requirements for products that use energy, or are related to the use of energy. Put simply, its aim is to ensure that when manufacturers are designing products, they consider the environmental impact

26 | October 2017

of those products, particularly in terms of energy use, but also recyclability, materials, water requirements, refrigerants and other pollutants. It affects products sold in all 28 member states of the EU, and regardless of how future Brexit negotiations unfold it will continue to impact the UK, as the government (at the time of writing) plans to roll existing EU legislation into UK law.

One example we have all encountered is the banning and gradual phase out of incandescent lamps, as they failed to meet the minimum standards. This alone has led to huge energy savings, but there are of course categories much closer to data centre design that have been impacted by the directive. Of the initial 10 product groups initially covered by the directive, the following all relate

Green IT

reaches the end of its useful life.

The directive forces equipment designers and manufacturers to think about the materials they use for products, and the level to which they can be recycled in the future.

This will mean that from this date it will be illegal across the EU to ship products that do not meet the new standards that have been laid out following the directive. When you order products from manufacturers it is their responsibility to ensure they are compliant, even if you order products before that deadline, they must comply if they are being shipped after. Stage two of the directive implementation will take place on January 1 2021, when the existing requirements placed on manufacturers will be tightened.

So, what does it mean for me?

to those in IT roles and have new minimum specifications: • Air conditioning and ventilation systems • Electric and fossil-fuelled heating equipment • Network, data processing and data storage equipment • Refrigeration and freezing equipment • Transformers January 1 2018 is when the compliance deadline kicks in – this is stage one of its implementation.

If you are in the process of designing or tendering a data centre project then it is important to consider how the technology you plan to use falls into the categories outlined above.

Remember, from January 1 2018, manufacturers are required to ship compliant technology, but not before! Whilst most designers and manufacturers will be scrambling to ensure they are ready ahead of time, some may still have old stock that they want to get rid of before the end of the year.

Whilst some may see that as an opportunity for a bargain, others could find themselves taking on equipment that a matter of weeks later will have had its specifications upgraded or been discontinued.

Ultimately the important thing to do is look at how the specifications of the equipment you intend to use are changing. Considering the overall lifetime of the equipment, if you are building your data centre in 2017, it may be worth upgrading to the new designs – energy efficiency savings alone may well offset any initial increase in costs.

And remember, it is not just about the initial costs.

Decommissioning hardware can be an expensive business when it

Innovation driven

“Regardless of how future Brexit negotiations unfold, the EU Ecodesign directive will continue to impact the UK.”

If you are mid-lifecycle on an existing data centre, then the directive could well be good news too. Whilst there is no direct requirement on you as an end-user under the directive, the framework is driving innovation within product designers and manufacturers that could be a compelling reason to think about making changes to your data centre infrastructure.

Additionally, if your company sells its data centre space, or trades on its corporately held green position, then you are going to need to consider the impact of not complying with the directive. In a tender, it is not unusual to be asked whether your company complies with a whole raft of environmental standards – from January 1 2018 it is possible that whilst not illegal your data centre falls short of Ecodesign directive minimum requirements.

Ecodesign opportunity The Ecodesign directive may have been around for a while, but the Tier 1 compliance date of January 1 2018 does mean a headache for some, especially manufacturers.

In the main, for those purchasing equipment, it should be viewed as an opportunity, especially if you take your energy efficiency and environmental responsibilities seriously. Make contact with the manufacturers of products in your data centre and find out about the changes they are making and how they might affect you.

You can learn more about the directive by visiting, http:// ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/ sustainability/ecodesign_en.

October 2017 | 27

case study

The Art Of Science The Science Museum Group (SMG) is a collection of British museums spread throughout the UK. With this in mind, inter-site collaboration was SMG’s next goal, to ensure effective communication between all systems.

This required significant developments to its IT strategy, so SMG turned to ONI to do just that.

Challenges Technology has always been key to SMG’s operations, but until recently, each museum in the group operated independent systems. With the group keen to increase workforce mobility and inter-site collaboration, it was apparent that development of the group’s ICT strategy was necessary.

Disparate telephone and email systems drove excessive 28 | October 2017

complexity and divergent working practices, duplicating support requirements, inflating maintenance costs and impacting collaboration, best practice sharing, and other dayto-day operations.

Meanwhile, shared systems relied on the Science Museum’s single data centre, with the result that outages disrupted the entire group.

To address the systems’ stability, capacity and performance issues, and enable the infrastructure to support group objectives, a new centrally driven approach to ICT was necessary. ICT needed to be moved to the heart of the business planning process with clear strategic focus on benefits and outcomes, and to be supported by coherent lifecycle planning and appropriate investment.

case study

Key Objectives

Benefits

• I mproved infrastructure resilience

• Reduced technology duplication, complexity and cost

•R educed technology duplication and complexity •F acilitation of hot desking, and remote and mobile working •R educed travel and internal communication costs • I ncreased collaboration across the group •S upport for a strategic, customer-centric, data led approach to ICT

Solution ONI recommended that SMG should move to a resilient communications infrastructure with common cloud telephony, email and contact centre solutions across the group, by implementing a cloud communications service running over a Wide Area Network.

Leveraging its Tier 3+ data centre facilities and extensive experience in the museum and gallery sector, ONI worked closely with SMG to specify, design, implement and support a one-stopshop solution for SMG’s 1,500 users, across the group’s seven UK sites.

Key systems were relocated to ONI’s cloud service, providing geographic and physical resilience, and ensuring 100% availability. The initial solution included a wide area network, managed, maintained and supported by ONI, which was implemented across all SMG sites.

This gave staff access to Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Active Directory, telephone and contact centre cloud services.

This infrastructure gives SMG a resilient, secure, scalable system, able to grow with the group. Intersite communication costs have been removed and the rationalised system portfolio is now managed

by ONI. By replacing multiple systems with a single managed service, ONI has enabled SMG to focus its ICT team on delivering other important technologies to the group.

As well as designing, deploying and implementing the solution, ONI managed all aspects of the project including the third parties involved. Support and service reviews help SMG realise maximum value and continual service improvements.

ONI also worked closely with SMG to help them understand and exploit cloud services, suggesting, for example, the use of instant messaging and presence technology to facilitate remote and homeworking. This has been key in helping SMG shape its cloud strategy, itself pivotal in the group’s over-all digital transformation strategy.

SMG continues to work in partnership with ONI to drive its transformation to cloud strategy forward. ONI is refreshing SMG’s existing local area network and increasing connectivity capacity into each site, enabling SMG to deliver Microsoft Office 365,

• Consistent user experience independent of location • Improved collaboration across the group • IT resources freed up for strategic, value-add activities

“ONI worked closely with SMG to help them understand and exploit cloud services.”

Azure and AWS services. This will facilitate a key strategic aim for SMG: Making ICT a business enabler, enabling the workforce to adopt a truly mobile and flexible way of working.

“ONI have exceptional engineering expertise. They’re knowledgeable, helpful and wanted to get stuck in and deliver.

As well as being delivered within budget, the project has been well received across SMG, elevating the perception of ICT across the business,” said Amadeep Rai, ICT development and project manager.

“ONI are a strategic partner; they’ve demonstrated themselves as highly capable and trustworthy.

That’s crucial as it allows SMG’s ICT team to focus on enabling and leading innovation and transformation, and delivering the high quality technology services essential to flexible modern working,” said Jason Oliver, head of ICT.

October 2017 | 29

Thermal imaging

Investing In Infrared Andrew Baker, sales director at FLIR Systems, discusses what to watch out for when investing in thermal imaging to detect faults within the data centre.

D

ata centre systems’ failures are costly, not just in terms of revenue loss, but also company reputation and shareholder value. So, it’s critical that any electrical fault is spotted in its infancy before it has the potential to compromise service.

A popular method for detecting these faults is thermal imaging. It’s a technology that has become mainstream in the last decade whose cost has fallen substantially thanks to its scope of application across many industry sectors. It is also the subject of continuous development, presenting prospective purchasers with a lot of choice.

The range now extends from pocket-sized models and infraredenabled smart phones to low cost

30 | October 2017

point-and-shoot troubleshooting cameras and high-end models with every function necessary for the professional thermographer. So how do you assess the best model for your needs?

Here are some important pointers to help ensure the scope of your thermal imaging camera matches the scope of your job.

Buy the best your budget allows Most thermal imaging cameras have fewer pixels than visible light cameras, so pay close attention to detection resolution. Higher resolution infrared cameras can measure smaller targets from farther away and create sharper thermal images, both of which

add up to more precise and reliable measurements.

Also, be aware of the difference between detector and display resolution. Some manufacturers will boast about a high-resolution LCD to mask their low-resolution detector when it’s the detector resolution that matters most.

For instance, LCD resolution may spec at 640 x 480, capable of displaying 307,200 pixels of image content. But if the IR detector pixel resolution is only 160 x 120, giving 19,200 measurement points, the greater display resolution accomplishes nothing as the quality of the thermal image and its measurement data are always determined by detector resolution.

Higher resolution thermal imaging not only provides more

Thermal imaging

accurate quantitative results, it can also be very effective in showing findings in finer details to others.

This can help speed the decisionmaking process for improvements and repairs.

As well as clarity of image for effective problem diagnosis, resolution is very important from a safety perspective too. For electrical inspection, there is no point in buying a low priced, low-resolution troubleshooting camera that can only give you a clear image when it’s six inches away from the target!

Accurate and repeatable results Consistency of measurement accuracy is a very important factor when determining the value of a camera. For best results, look for a model that meets or exceeds ±2% accuracy and ask your supplier for details of how they assure the manufacturing quality of the detector to guarantee this. That isn’t the only criteria, however.

In order to produce correct and repeatable results, your camera should include in-built tools for entering both values for emissivity – the measure of efficiency in which a surface emits thermal energy – and also reflected temperature. A

cabinet may be hot in the thermal image but its shiny surface could just be reflecting the heat from overhead lighting or indeed the body heat generated by the camera operator.

A model that gives you an easy way to input and adjust these parameters will produce the accurate temperature measurements you need in the field. Other helpful diagnostics to consider are multiple moveable spots and area boxes for isolating and annotating temperature measurements that can be saved as radiometric data and incorporated into reports.

Standard file formats Many thermal imaging cameras store images in a proprietary format that can only be read and analysed by specialised software.

Others have an optional JPEG storage capability that lacks temperature information. Clearly, the most useful is a format that offers standard JPEG with full temperature analysis embedded.

This allows you to email IR images without losing vital information.

Radiometric JPEGs can also be imported from Wi-Fi compatible cameras to select mobile devices using apps that allow further image

“As well as clarity of image for effective problem diagnosis, resolution is very important from a safety perspective too.”

editing, analysis and sharing. Also look out for models that allow you to stream MPEG 4 video via USB to computers and monitors. This is especially useful for capturing dynamic thermal activity where heating and cooling occurs rapidly and for recording motorised equipment or processes in motion.

Some cameras feature composite video output for cabling to digital recorders while others include HDMI outputs. And new mobile applications have also been developed that allow streaming video over Wi-Fi. All these capabilities help you share findings more effectively and enhance your infrared inspections and reports.

Software, study the options Today most thermal imaging cameras come with free software so you can perform basic image analysis and create simple reports.

Advanced software for more indepth and customisable reports is also available, allowing you to take full advantage of your camera’s capability and features.

Investigate these tailored software programmes thoroughly to see which makes the most sense for your needs.

And finally, don’t underestimate the importance of training. The best thermal imaging camera in the world is only valuable in the hands of a skilled operator.

October 2017 | 31

hyperconvergence

The Hype Graham Jarvis, business and technology journalist at Trudy Darwin Consulting, finds out whether hyperconvergence really is key to an enterprise’s data centre cloud strategy.

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endors often like to create a new name for an existing piece of technology that is essentially made up of the same components and fulfils the same functions.

This is because of factors such as the competitive pressure to keep customers interested: Application Service Provision is more commonly known today as the cloud, while converged infrastructure has led to hyperconverged infrastructure.

Moving to the cloud however, won’t necessarily deliver these benefits if done in isolation.

Organisations also need to look at their data centre operations and streamline how these are run.

There’s a need to rationalise your data centre as you move to cloud.

32 | October 2017

Cloud: Not for everyone Let’s face it, the cloud isn’t for everyone, but nevertheless it has its merits. Yet before you go and invest in new technology or move to it, you should examine whether your existing infrastructure is sufficient to do the job you need it for. Ask yourself questions, including: ‘The hyperconvergence story: what’s really important?’

In response to this, David Trossell, CEO and CTO of data acceleration vendor Bridgeworks, commented, “We’ve been shouldering traditional system architecture for more than 50 years now”. He explains that there have only been a few significant changes along the way. Apart from the likes of IBM, which has traditionally provided a one-stop shop, we still

purchase different parts of the system from different vendors.

This approach means customers can source parts for the most competitive price or which offer the best solution, from different vendors. However, the downside is the need to repeat the entire process of verifying compatibility, performance and so on.

Part of the story Anjan Srinivas, senior director, product management at Nutanix, agrees that hyperconvergence is only part of the story. He explains the history that led to this technological creation, “The origins of the name were due to the servers’ form factor used for such appliances in the early days. The story actually

hyperconvergence

hinges upon the maturity of software to take upon itself the intelligence to perform the functions of the whole infrastructure stack, all the way from storage, compute, networking and virtualisation to operations management, in a fault tolerant fashion.”

He adds, “So, it is fundamentally about intelligent software enabling data centre infrastructure to be invisible.

This allows companies to operate their environments with the same efficiency and simplicity of a cloud provider. Hyperconvergence then becomes strategic, as it can stitch together the public cloud and onpremise software-defined cloud, making the customer agile and well-positioned to select multiple consumption models.”

Cost-benefit analysis David nevertheless believes that it’s important to consider the short-term and long-term costs of moving to the cloud. You have to consider whether this is going to be a long-term or short-term process.

This is about whether it is cheaper to rent or buy, and about which option is most beneficial.

The problem is that although the cloud is often touted as being cheaper than a traditional in-house infrastructure, its utility rental model could make it far more expensive in the long-term: More than any the capital expenditure of owning and running your own systems.

“Sometimes, for example, it is cheaper to buy a car than to rent one”, he explains. The same principle applies to the cloud model.

For this reason, it isn’t always the perfect solution. Done correctly, hyperconvergence enables the data centre to build an IT infrastructure capable of matching public cloud services in terms of elements like on-demand scalability and ease of provisioning and management”, comments Anjan.

“Compared to public cloud services, it can also provide a much more secure platform for business-critical applications, as well as address the issues of data sovereignty and compliance. A hyperconverged platform can also work out more economical than the cloud, especially for predictable workloads running over a period.”

Silver linings

“Believing the hype about the cloud isn’t necessarily the way to go.”

“Not every cloud has a silver lining”, says David. He argues that believing the hype about the cloud isn’t necessarily the way to go. “You have to consider a number of factors such as hybrid cloud, keeping your databases locally, the effect of latency and how you control and administer the systems.”

He believes that there is much uncertainty to face, since the cloud computing industry expects the market to consolidate over the forthcoming years. This means there will be very few cloud players in the future. If this happens, cloud prices will rise and requests to cheapen the technology will be lost. There are also issues to address, such as remote latency and the interaction of databases with other applications.

Impact of latency David explains, “If your application is in the cloud and you are accessing it constantly, then you must take into account the effect of latency on the users’ productivity.

If most of your users are within HQ, this will affect it. With geographically dispersed users you don’t have to take this into account.

“If you have a database in the cloud and you are accessing it a lot, the latency will add up. It is sometimes better to hold your databases locally, while putting other applications into the cloud.

“Databases tend to access other databases, and so you have to look at the whole picture to take it all into account – including your network bandwidth to the cloud.”

Your existing infrastructure, within your data centre and outside of it, therefore must be part of this ‘bigger picture’. So, with regards to whether hyperconvergence and whether it’s the way to go, David advises you to analyse whether you’re still able to gain a return on investment (ROI) from your existing infrastructure.

“Think about whether it has a role in your cloud strategy”, he advises before adding, “With a hybrid cloud strategy can you downsize your data centre, saving on maintenance charges too. If you are going to go hyperconverged, then some training will be required.

If you are going to use your existing infrastructure, then you will already have some skillsets on-site.”

Data protection Last but not least, there is still a need to consider data protection, which often gets lost in the balancing act. The cloud can nevertheless be used for Backupas-a-service (BUaaS) and DisasterRecovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS), as part of a hybrid solution. Still, he stresses that you shouldn’t depend solely on the cloud and recommends storing data in multiple places.

This can be achieved with a solution, he claims, such as PORTrock IT, “If you decide to change over to the cloud, you need to be able to move your data around efficiently and at speed, as well as restore data if required. You need to keep it running to protect your business operations.”

Consider if there are other options which might serve your data centre needs better. That’s because some healthy skepticism can help us find the right answers and solutions.

October 2017 | 33

GPDR

Don’t Panic!

GDPR is coming, but have no fear, Matt Smith, CTO at Software AG explains why GDPR should be viewed as an opportunity, that could well open new doors for your business.

T

he EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force as of May 2018. One of the key aspects of this regulation is that all businesses will be required to implement data protection and reporting structures of EU citizens’ personal data. As the deadline quickly approaches, businesses should capitalise on the fantastic opportunity it presents to implement change and encourage innovation.

The new legislation is motivation for businesses to evaluate their current procedures and ensure that they are up to scratch.

34 | October 2017

GDPR compliance will be a challenge. Each and every business dealing with personal data will need to ensure all employees are onside and prepared for the changes to working practices and processes as a result of GDPR. One such change is that organisations with more than 250 employees will be required to appoint a data protection officer (DPO). The DPO will be key to driving progression within the business and be a champion for change. So, what can businesses do to ensure they are able to make the most out of the GDPR shake up?

Restructure your data operations One of the first places to start in preparation for GDPR is streamlining processes. With this in mind, many organisations have already turned to techniques and tools that encourage a more collaborative approach to storing and maintaining data.

Workflow tools help to guide people in their tasks, add rigor, deliver auditability and in the best examples, allow employees to directly feedback on the tools to ensure they work effectively.

Business process analysis technologies can be really

GPDR

drive all of the changes required ahead of the GDPR. Thanks to digital transformation, almost all businesses are software based and therefore reliant on data to provide detailed insights into customer purchasing habits.

Streamlining data management is not only an essential part of GDPR, but by getting smart about their data, businesses can make the most out of the information that is freely available to them.

This enables them to make better decisions about how they approach customers. Being the master of your data allows businesses to deliver a more targeted experience to customers through personalised communications and marketing.

Embrace the business opportunity

useful for GDPR compliance.

Humans are brilliant, but we make silly mistakes all too often.

Under GDPR, businesses quite literally cannot afford to make mistakes with sensitive data.

Not only are there stiff fines for non-compliance, but also the subsequent effect on a company’s reputation will have a marked effect on a company’s bottom line.

As the public has become more informed about the protection of their data, they see its protection as a human right. Companies must treat its protection as essential.

Tools alone will not be enough to

Compliance should not be seen as a one-off task, rather it’s a continuous part of conducting business. It is not a static, one-off problem that can be solved by ticking a box. Compliance must be seen as an integral part of an organisation’s every day process.

The DPO will be instrumental in encouraging people to conduct their business in a safe way, and in providing education and training to ensure they understand best practice. They will need to be given teeth in their organisations to mobilise the change needed. This might mean a seat on the board, or at least direct support from the C-suite. GDPR compliance is a companywide issue, it cannot be side-lined or overlooked by any part of an organisation.

In short, to make GDPR not just a question of compliance, but a real business opportunity, the DPO requires absolute transparency and cooperation. A cross company willingness to engage and see GDPR and Data Protection as positive can and should be seen as a real

opportunity to show your business’ competitive advantage. Indeed, in the words of Elizabeth Denham, UK information commissioner, “Get data protection right and you can see a real business benefit…It offers a pay-off down the line, not just in better legal compliance, but a competitive edge.”

“GDPR is a once in a decade opportunity to refresh working practices and invest in methods that digitise businesses working practice.”

How can I implement GDPR successfully?

GDPR is a once in a decade opportunity to refresh working practices and invest in methods that digitise businesses’ working practice. Make sure that you are skilled in business case creation or have access to someone that does.

Work hard to show that GDPR is the perfect ‘excuse’ to get those process and training projects off the ground and tie the work to programmes of transformation that deliver additional benefits.

Using GDPR as the jump-start cables can help you get projects that you know will benefit you, but previously had too big a corporate funding tax to get off the ground.

Ask for help! Use those around you and learn from their experience. By talking to your peers and joining in conversations around the subject, you’ll quickly learn what works and what doesn’t.

It is also important to share these learnings with the key stakeholders in your company to keep the conversations flowing.

As more and more data is becoming readily available as a result of our increasingly digital lives, businesses have a responsibility to ensure personal data is handled in a safe and appropriate manner. It’s important not to see GDPR as just a means for compliance, but instead, a favourable opportunity to ensure organisations’ data processes are in line with the new age. It will be the job of the DPO to drive this positive change for the benefit of each and every business.

October 2017 | 35

IT Automation

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Leon Adato, head geek at SolarWinds tells us how to optimise automation and why failure to respect the process could spell disaster.

W

hen used correctly, IT automation is a simple and effective means of significantly increasing both the productivity of your data centre, and the consistency of its output.

Automation and all of its wonderful time saving benefits are well documented, but it is also important to recognise and respect the skill level that is required for its successful application.

36 | October 2017

It is crucial for the implementer to have a fundamental understanding of the task or workload that is being automated. If this is not the case, then the operational efficiencies that can be realised

by IT automation will be compromised, issues will arise during the automation process, and the results that you were hoping to achieve will become a distant dream.

The grounds for automation Within the data centre, automation should be applied to systematic tasks that require consistency and regularity. In layman’s terms, a series of basic steps that should be followed to fulfil a single task. Such workflows can cover management actions, such as provisioning or reclaiming virtual resources, and include setting up profiles and configurations in a one-to-many

IT Automation

fashion. Yet regardless of the task in hand, automation should reflect best practice in your data centre in its simplest form. Now, we pause as you Google, ‘best practice.’

Prior to implementation, the reasoning for automation should be sound. If automation is applied to a process without a strong basis for doing so, there will be a far higher chance of issues occurring somewhere down the line. Basically, don’t try and

automate everything. This will result in more effort being spent on troubleshooting issues, and the time that was hoped to have been saved by the introduction of automation will have been lost ironic, right?

For the benefits and efficiencies of automation to be achieved, there must be a clear understanding of all interactions held within the data centre ecosystem. This also applies to an understanding of the behaviour of the application stack, from on-premises to cloud service providers, and the interdependencies of systems throughout the data centre.

When applying automation, there’s many things to consider.

Below are a few simple steps, but you can find an automation bible here with everything you need to know.

Identify your test machines first.

Whether that is lab gear set aside for the purpose or a few less-critical volunteers, set up your alert so that it only triggers for those machines.

Clarity is key. From the outset, it’s crucial to be clear on the goals that are to be achieved from automating a process. If no clear problems are going to be solved through automation, then it may not be the necessary solution.

Please don’t automate just for the sake of it.

Start on a small scale. “Do no harm to your production data centre environment” is a good rule to bear in mind.

Starting low-risk will allow you to automate the processes that have the greatest impact, with the least effort required. Success here will then pave the way for larger-scale initiatives.

Don’t get too smug. Keep automation as simple as possible to avoid any issues arising following implementation. This will also enable you to validate any changes to the process, and orchestrate changes into the workflow.

“For the benefits and efficiencies to be achieved, there must be a clear understanding of all interactions held within the data centre ecosystem.”

Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Always ensure that the validation of each step within the automation process is fully tested before implementation.

Ignore your urge to go and make a coffee. Stay vigilant and observe the automation process from start to finish to ensure the quality of each execution point. Remember, good automation is enabled by, and is a result of, good monitoring.

Put your detective hat on.

Gather the findings and analyse the results. From here, you can then identify areas within the process that require intervention for further optimisation.

Embrace the conversation. You can’t do this single handedly, you’re going to have to talk to and involve others. Automation needs to be collaborative to the point where everyone involved has agreed on everything from base functionality to message formatting.

Automation embodies the ‘do-more-with-less’ attitude that has become so popular with IT professionals (not necessarily through choice). However, it is easy to become complacent and completely trust that the automation will do its job, and produce the desired results. After all, why wouldn’t it?

I think we can all agree that the future of data centres is set to be defined by hybrid IT services, and if correctly implemented, automation will allow IT professionals the time to succeed in this new environment that will exist as a result.

To help ensure that the introduction of automation in your data centre goes as smoothly as possible, care should be taken in monitoring the automation process in a disciplined manner.

Ultimately, automation should be embraced, but it should also be treated with respect – like the desire to go for thirds at a Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet.

October 2017 | 37

22-23 November 2017 Industries Hall 4. RDS, Dublin

INFRASTRUCTURE. SERVICES. SOLUTIONS. DataCentres Ireland combines a dedicated exhibition and multi-streamed conference to address every aspect of planning, designing and operating your Datacentre, Server/Comms room and Digital storage solution - Whether internally, outsourced or in the Cloud.

Don’t Take our word for it “StepEx is to be congratulated for its commitment to the fast-growing data centre industry in Ireland, by holding its DataCentres Ireland forum in Dublin in each of the past 5 years.

In providing the comprehensive annual conference program and associated exhibition, this annual forum provides an ideal occasion for those of us involved with data centres, both directly and indirectly, to keep up to date with what is going on and to meet informally with like-minded professionals.

DataCentres Ireland is where you can get the latest in information, best practice, products, services and solutions that can help your business become more effective and efficient, whist remaining secure and resilient.

I have been a regular attendee and participant in DataCentres Ireland and look forward to the many networking opportunities that will arise during this year’s 2-day event in November”

DataCentres Ireland is FREE TO ATTEND and the largest and most complete event in the country.

Barry Rhodes, Chief Executive of INEX Ireland’s Internet Exchange

Sample of Speakers

Shane Nolan – IDA

Mark Acton

Tommy Fitzpatrick

Dennis Jennings

Tanya Duncan

Jerry Sweeney

Gary Watson

Emma Fryer

Paul Besley

Aoife Sexton

Conal Henry

For the full list of speakers visit: www.datacentres-ireland.com/speakers/

For the latest Information and to secure your Complementary Delegate Pass

Register Online @ datacentres-ireland.com

Projects & Agreements

A-Z Maps implements Scale Computing for on-premises management and disaster recovery Scale Computing has announced that A-Z Maps, the largest independent publisher of maps and atlases in the UK, has selected its HC3 platform and Single Node configuration for simplified onpremises management and disaster recovery.

A-Z Maps previously operated its IT environment on Dell servers and a Dell EqualLogic SAN. As the solution was reaching the end of its life span, A-Z maps saw this as an opportunity for a new solution with simplified management. After evaluating a number of different solutions, including HPE, SimpliVity, Pivot3, EMC and a Dell/Nutanix combination, A-Z Maps, with the help of partner, Bechtle, selected Scale Computing’s HC3 platform and Single Node configuration, which offered disaster recovery, high availability, cloning, replication and snapshots providing complete business continuity.

The HC3 platform automates the complexities associated with virtualisation. Combining storage, server and virtualisation into one appliance means IT teams have more time available to spend on value creating activities rather than daily infrastructure management. A-Z Maps also required a back-up and disaster recovery plan, which needed to be in place for its growing digital portfolio. To address this, A-Z Maps deployed a Scale Single Node configuration, designed specifically for back-up, which dramatically improved its disaster recovery ability.

For further information visit: www.scalecomputing.com and www.az.co.uk

CACI and DigitalXRAID combine to combat growing cyber-attack risk CACI has announced a new partnership with network security provider DigitalXRAID (DXR) to support businesses as they face growing risks from cyber attacks on their networks, such as the recent global ransomware attacks.

The partnership supplements CACI’s end-to-end business information technology services with DXR’s deep security expertise. This gives CACI’s customers enhanced security across its range of network services, reducing the risk of cyber attacks and other security lapses which can cause critical business losses.

Scott Goodwin, joint CEO at DigitalXRAID commented, “At a time when cyber attacks are becoming more commonplace, the partnership between DXR and CACI will help customers to discover and monitor their vulnerabilities, and remediate any issues through network and infrastructure solutions. The partnership with CACI will make customers more secure now and better able to adapt to changing security threats in the future.”

New capabilities from CACI and DXR range from assessment of how and why systems are vulnerable, through to services which manage cyber attacks and related security incidents. This includes network vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, web application testing, security incident event monitoring and security operations centres.

The services are available to large and medium sized enterprises across government and the public sector, and companies in sectors including financial services, telecommunications, utilities and transportation.

For further information visit: www.caci.co.uk

Nuvias Appointed a Pan-EMEA Distributor for Juniper Networks Nuvias has been appointed as a pan-EMEA distributor for Juniper Networks’ full range of networking, security, data centre and cloud solutions.

Nuvias will support Juniper’s continued growth plans for EMEA, particularly in the mid-to-high end enterprise market.

Nuvias has designed, together with Juniper, a full channel partner development and acceleration programme that complements Juniper’s existing channel programme. It will offer technical, sales and marketing training to help maximise the business opportunities in high growth markets such as cloud, Internet of Things (IoT) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) – areas where Juniper also invests.

Nuvias will work with Juniper to identify key vertical markets and geographies for partners and provide them with the skills to transform their customers’ data centres with Juniper’s next-generation networking and security platforms. Nuvias will focus on partner recruitment, accreditation and sales enablement, providing valueadded services such as solution events, training, lead generation, and campaign materials.

High performance network automation, SDN and intelligent, software-defined security will play a key role in organisations’ digital transformation strategies, and together Juniper Networks and Nuvias will help partners take advantage of the burgeoning opportunity.

For further information visit: www.nuvias.com and www.juniper.net October 2017 | 39

Projects & Agreements

Zwanenberg Food Group Selects Commvault for Data Management and Compliance Zwanenberg Food Group has implemented the Commvault Data Platform to provide backup and recovery to ensure improved speed of compliance with data management legislation and facilitate effective disaster recovery through email and file archiving functionality at the company headquarters in Almelo.

The other critical element was that Commvault provides extremely broad coverage for hypervisors and containers, delivering full integration with Zwanenberg’s recently implemented Nutanix AHV hypervisor, running on the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform. This enabled a significant decrease to back-up timescales and streamlined corporationwide data monitoring and management.

Zwanenberg Food Group has factories in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

The seven production sites in the Netherlands have on-premises data centres, making sure the facilities run flawlessly and autonomously.

Zwanenberg recently refreshed its entire IT infrastructure, with inclusion of a Nutanix AHV-based environment.

The Nutanix environment eliminated the need for tapes for long-term archiving at the company’s headquarters. This enabled all production sites to have automated snapshots delivered every two hours, stored locally and also sent to the headquarters in Almelo for compliance, DR, back-up and archiving purposes.

The Commvault Data Platform was the logical choice for Zwanenberg to provide full data management at its headquarters in Twentepoort, Almelo as a data management solution that is fully and immediately compatible with Nutanix AHV. For further information visit: www.commvault.com 40 | October 2017

Datanet and Axians Partner to Monitor and Manage Datanet’s Core Network With the rise in businesses using managed services, or third party suppliers, particularly when it comes to IT, cloud hosting and connectivity provider, Datanet, has called on Axians, to manage all network services for Datanet and its customers.

Datanet had been working with Axians for over three years providing access to server racks at its data centre, but with the increasing number of cyber threats Datanet has turned to Axians as a trusted network advisor to help monitor, manage and mitigate any risks.

Axians’ technical expertise and experience in network security and support allow Datanet to respond proactively, rather than reactively, to any network requirements and to offer a secure and high performing service to its customers. Axians created a bespoke managed services solution for Datanet, which was designed for its requirements, ensuring that any potential issues that the network faces are identified and acted on before there is any disruption to the service Datanet offers its customers.

In less than a month in partnership with Datanet, Axians had already identified and resolved two separate incidents, which although were minor in nature, might not have been discovered without Axians’ 24/7 support.

For further information visit: www.datanet.co.uk and www.axians.co.uk

Computacenter Joins Dataguise in Support of Sensitive Data Governance Initiatives Dataguise has welcomed Computacenter to the Dataguise partner community.

Computacenter has adopted Dataguise DgSecure software and will support enterprise clients globally with the solution’s powerful ability to detect, protect, monitor, and audit sensitive data. Under the terms of the partnership with Dataguise, the Dataguise software platform will be made available to Computacenter clients throughout the UK and Europe.

Computacenter has joined with Dataguise, adopting DgSecure in support of a wide range of data protection needs and mandates, including the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which threatens to levy severe fines upon companies not within compliance.

DgSecure provides a policy-driven approach to protecting sensitive information with consistent procedures across data stores for total security and compliance of data at the source, in-flight, and at rest. The solution is ideal for organisations seeking to access sensitive information for business analytics or other purposes as it provides the flexibility to allow business units sharing a data resource, such as a database or Hadoop cluster, to set their own policies for their data.

For further information visit: www.computacenter.com

Projects & Agreements

Colt Expands Nordic PrizmNet, Leveraging Verne Global’s Position as a Gateway to Financial Markets Verne Global, has announced that Colt has expanded its presence within its Icelandic data centre by adding Colt PrizmNet as part of its on-net offering.

Colt PrizmNet is a financial extranet that connects a global capital markets ecosystem of 85+ exchanges, venues and service providers and 10,000+ participants. It provides connectivity to all major venues, ensuring best execution and visibility into global markets – increasing algorithmic trading efficiency.

Adding access to Verne Global’s campus is designed to help clients with cost savings and the growing requirement for computationally intensive technologies such as high performance computing (HPC) and grid applications.

Iceland’s data privacy laws will also enable Colt’s financial customers to meet regulatory requirements for secure data storage and the ability to monitor and manage new cyber security risks.

In today’s highly competitive financial markets, firms are seeing an increasing demand for data and analytics that is driving the need for more compute resources and higher capital and operational costs.

Acxiom Announces Partnership with Data Compliant to help brands accelerate GDPR readiness

Pure Storage has announced a new pan-EMEA distributor agreement. The deal enables PNY Technologies to offer modern flash storage to its established high performance computing partner network.

As the EMEA distributor of NVIDIA enterprise products, PNY Technologies is engaged with an experienced and established partner network across the region. This has focused on the needs of customers operating in environments that demand high performance compute capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning and various scientific workloads, such as genomics.

Data is at the centre of the AI revolution. Large amounts of data must be delivered to GPUs at incredibly high speeds in order to train models faster and more accurately.

As the essential instrument for AI research, the NVIDIA DGX-1 is at the heart of many of the world’s most demanding deep learning and analytics environments. However, customers found that legacy storage solutions, architected with serial building blocks, failed to deliver in terms of performance and capability, demanded by AI workloads.

Pure Storage FlashBlade is the industry’s first data platform purpose-built for AI and modern analytics. In half a rack, it can offer 8 petabytes usable, 75GB/s read throughput, 25GB/s write throughput and 7.5M IOPS. Since general availability in January 2017, FlashBlade has gained traction among organisations innovating with emerging workloads, specifically modern analytics, AI and machine learning.

Acxiom has announced a partnership with Data Compliant to help businesses address the challenges and the pressing need to comply with the fast approaching EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). With more businesses looking for approaches and solutions to optimise their security and privacy preparations for GDPR, this unique partnership will deliver actionable, ‘Accelerated GDPR Readiness’ programmes for clients.

Acxiom brings to the partnership a strong foundation in the ethical, responsible and compliant use of customer data for omnichannel marketing and unparalleled expertise in client data management, marketing capability assessments, ethical data sourcing and curating its own highly effective data products for almost fifty years.

Data Compliant brings independence and in-depth policy expertise, assessment experience on business readiness for the new EU Regulation and deep experience embedding effective corporate data governance and accountability within an organisation.

Together, Acxiom’s experience and practical expertise in data management along with Data Compliant’s skillset and policy expertise will ensure that businesses have the right policies, procedures, technologies and tools needed to generate a combined practical and technical roadmap that helps accelerate and ensure GDPR readiness across an enterprise.

When it comes to GDPR there are a lot of questions that have not been answered and companies, therefore, need guidance on how to handle the risk and assess the full impact of GDPR across an entire business structure as this guidance evolves.

For further information visit: www.purestorage.com

For further information visit: www.acxiom.com

For further information visit: www.verneglobal.com

Pure Storage and PNY Technologies Partner to Bring AI and Modern Analytics to EMEA

October 2017 | 41

Projects & Agreements

Volta Data Centres and root6 join forces to power UK media industry Volta has partnered with technology supplier to the UK broadcast industry, root6, to offer state-of-theart technology support to the UK film, post-production and new media communities in central London. root6 needed a data centre in close proximity of Soho, where the majority of the media industry resides; they also needed a super resilient facility. With a history of zero outages and a unique location on two separate diverse power rings coming into its building, Volta quickly became an obvious partner for root6 to further develop its offering.

Soho-based broadcast studios and production houses now have a technology partner providing superresilient data centre services within a short distance from their office. root6’s experience working with firms such as Soho-based film production company ITN Productions, BFI (British Film Institute), New Yorkbased finishing house Final Frame, postproduction facility Edit 123 and postproduction facility 422.tv make it the perfect technology partner for any broadcast company.

Even though root6 has transferred its processing and IT equipment into Volta’s central London data centre, root6 technicians still maintain constant access when required. Moving its equipment to a hosted provider also provides the experience and knowledge for root6 to showcase to customers how this approach can be beneficial to their own business infrastructure.

For further information visit: www.voltadatacentres.com

Huawei Announces New Partnership with Internet Matters Huawei has announced a new partnership with independent not-for-profit organisation Internet Matters to improve online child safety.

Huawei intends to use its position as the world’s ICT leader and second largest manufacturer of smartphones to amplify Internet Matters’ internet safety message and provide support and resources for Internet Matters which gives UK parents, teachers and carers advice and guides about the latest issues.

This partnership forms part of Huawei’s STEM Skills and STEM Careers programme – helping to promote STEM education and digital skills.

The partnership was announced earlier this month at a House of Commons event celebrating the success of Huawei’s flagship CSR programme ‘Seeds for the future’ and the growing number of STEM graduates Huawei recruits into its UK business.

Internet Matters was set up in 2014 with government backing by the UK’s four biggest internet companies, BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, in the first industry coalition of its kind.

Since then it successfully launched a number of impactful campaigns on issues including cyberbullying, sexting, privacy, online grooming and inappropriate content, offering parents, carers and teachers practical, step-by-step advice on how to engage with children on these issues and setting up parental controls.

For further information visit: www.huawei.com and www.internetmatters.org

Equinix to Expand Into Spain and Portugal Through Acquisition of Itconic Equinix has announced that it has entered into an agreement with The Carlyle Group for the purchase of Itconic, a data centre, connectivity and cloud infrastructure solutions provider in Spain and Portugal, and CloudMas, an Itconic subsidiary that is focused on supporting enterprise adoption and use of cloud services.

Equinix will purchase the companies in an all-cash transaction totaling €215M or approximately $259M US dollars. The acquisition is expected to close in Q4 2017, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approval.

The acquisition of Itconic will further strengthen Equinix’s position in Europe and will extend its footprint into two new countries within the region. The acquisition will include five data centres in four metros, with two located in Madrid, one in Barcelona, one in Seville, and one in Lisbon, and adds approximately 322,000 gross sqft to the Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centerportfolio.

In addition, the CloudMas business brings a highly experienced team of technology professionals with deep expertise in hybrid cloud architectures and cloud adoption and migration strategies.

For further information visit: www.equinix.com

42 | October 2017

Projects & Agreements

ForeScout and CrowdStrike Align to Deliver Advanced Endpoint and Network Threat Protection ForeScout Technologies and CrowdStrike have announced a strategic alliance that will deliver comprehensive visibility, threat detection and security response for joint customers. Through this partnership, the two companies will monitor threats across endpoint and network tiers, share threat analytics and extend protection and policy control to unmanaged Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD), guest and IoT devices.

Modern enterprise networks are challenged with managing increasingly complex environments along with exponential growth in volume and diversity of devices.

The rise of network-connected devices has increased the attack surface, making it more challenging for organisations to prevent, detect and respond to cyber attacks. ForeScout and CrowdStrike will streamline and improve security operations for customers by leveraging ForeScout’s advanced device visibility and control capabilities combined with CrowdStrike’s AI-enabled threat analytics platform.

“Many security solutions fail to deliver accurate and meaningful threat insight, which is why organisations are constantly falling prey to cyber attacks,” said George Kurtz, co-founder and CEO, CrowdStrike.

“With real-time endpoint detection and response, combined with next-generation threat prevention and proactive threat hunting, organisations will be able to gain an advantage in today’s vast threat landscape. The alliance between ForeScout and CrowdStrike is a better-together approach that will transform how customers protect their network against today’s cybersecurity challenges and tomorrow’s threats.”

For further information visit: www.crowdstrike.com

Axial Systems Partners with GuardiCore to Address Gaps in Businesses’ Data Centre Security Axial Systems has announced that it is working in partnership with GuardiCore, which provides a single, scalable security solution that helps its customers protect critical workloads and applications through better visibility, micro-segmentation, breach detection and response. Axial has signed an agreement with its distributor partner, Securicom Global, to adopt GuardiCore, and is now actively engaging with its customers and prospects with the GuardiCore Centra Security Platform.

“East-west traffic, which is effectively how applications and systems within the data centre ‘talk to’ each other, is a neglected security area within many organisations,” said Mike Simmonds, managing director Axial Systems. “As such, it poses an acute risk to their data and their data centre security. Working with GuardiCore offered us an excellent means of addressing this issue for our customers.”

Additionally, GuardiCore Centra includes real-time detection and response featuring high interaction, dynamic deception. This enables the business to detect active breaches within the network, confine them to a secure location and then prioritise and investigate them in order to pinpoint compromised assets for accelerated mitigation and remediation.

For further information visit: www.axial.co.uk

Rackspace Announces Agreement to Acquire Datapipe Rackspace has announced that it signed an agreement to acquire Datapipe. This acquisition, the largest in Rackspace history, brings important new capabilities to Rackspace and will enable the company to better serve customers of all kinds, globally and at scale.

According to industry surveys, the vast majority of companies operate across three or more clouds today, and will do so for years to come. Customers have been asking Rackspace to rapidly expand its abilities in managing multiple clouds at scale, and with the acquisition of Datapipe, Rackspace will be able to meet this growing demand.

“Our customers are looking for help as they spread their applications across public and private clouds, managed hosting, and colocation, depending on the blend of performance, agility, control, security, and cost efficiency they’re seeking,” said Joe Eazor, CEO of Rackspace. “With the acquisition of Datapipe, we’re very pleased to expand the multi-cloud managed services we provide our customers, while also opening doors to new opportunities across the globe.”

Pending regulatory approvals, Rackspace’s acquisition of Datapipe is expected to close in Q4 2017. Rackspace will develop a comprehensive integration plan and will take great care to maintain and enhance the exceptional customer outcomes that both companies are known for. Rackspace looks forward to welcoming the talented employees from Datapipe.

For further information visit: www.rackspace.com

October 2017 | 43

company showcase SPONSORED STORIES FROM THE INDUSTRY

The STULZ WPAmini Keeps It Cool In Mission Critical Applications STULZ has announced the launch of the WPAmini chiller with integrated free cooling. It has been designed specifically for data centres with low cooling requirements and industrial chilling.

The compact chiller will deliver a cooling capacity up to 160kW in a very small space. The chillers are operated with two redundant refrigerant circuits to increase operational reliability. Both circuits are controlled on the basis of the required cooling capacity, so that the respective circuit is activated with maximum efficiency when minimal cooling is needed.

The WPAmini is equipped with maximum size aluminium microchannel condensers and four scroll compressors. The compressor operating time can be reduced to a minimum using the optional free cooling facility, which will considerably reduce power consumption, and operating costs.

Three operating modes are available in total: DX mode, free cooling mode and mixed mode.

In mixed mode, cooling capacity is generated by means of simultaneous free cooling and compressor cooling. This means that significant energy savings can be achieved even at moderate outdoor temperatures. Thanks to the technology, this latest innovation from STULZ can also run in extreme local climates.

For further information visit: www.stulz.de/en/stulz-explorer-range/ stulz-explorer-wpamini/

Fluke Establishes Microsite Resource To Support Data Centre Personnel To support the smooth running of data centres, Fluke has developed a web microsite specifically targeting those running and maintaining the infrastructure.

The site provides a range of downloadable information for data centre personnel.

Easy contact is made possible with an expert from Fluke who will be able to advise on the best Fluke tool to solve a problem.

The microsite offers downloadable content, including: ‘Data Center Solutions’ – showing a plan of a data centre and suggesting checks that should be made and suitable Fluke tools for carrying out those tasks.

‘Six essential tests to keep your UPS system running’ – describing the regular testing of individual battery cells as well as the UPS system as a whole.

‘Monitoring temperature, humidity and airflow in data centres’ – a US-based application article describing the use of a thermal imager and an airflow meter to monitor the true ambient conditions.

‘Detecting electrical unbalance and overloads’ – describing the use of a thermal imager, power quality and other electrical test tools to monitor and resolve issues.

For further information visit: www.fluke.co.uk/datacenters

44 | October 2017

company showcase SPONSORED STORIES FROM THE INDUSTRY

Rittal Exhibiting at DatacenterDynamics 2017 DatacenterDynamics Converged Europe Conference and Expo, at London’s Old Billingsgate, will bring together the world’s keenest minds to share their expertise with an international audience of senior ICT and datacentre professionals.

Rittal will be there to highlight solutions to diverse factors confronting companies who design, install and operate data centres, by providing efficient, flexible and scalable solutions that are prepared for the tasks of tomorrow.

The team will be offering a myriad of solutions to visitors, providing advice and expertise about the design and effective operation of data centres of all sizes.

Visitors can explore how to build-in energy efficiency, the value of modularity, and how to future-proof projects, whether this involves installing a few racks or several hundred servers.

Rittal’s senior team will also be speaking at this year’s conference, using real-life examples to explore how working at the edges of technology can be the catalyst for invention.

Rittal will be exhibiting and speaking at DatacenterDynamics Converged Europe Conference and Expo, November 7-8 2017, at Old Billingsgate London on Stand 20 and also on Stand 7 in the OCP area.

For further information visit: www.rittal.co.uk and www.friedhelm-loh-group.com

next issue

Next Time…

As well as its regular range of features and news items, the November issue of Data Centre News will contain major features on security.

To make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to advertise your products to this exclusive readership, call Kelly on 01634 673163 or email kelly@allthingsmedialtd.com

data centre news

October 2017 | 45

final thought

Mobility Mayhem The freedom to use your own device for work may seem like a convenience, but with great convenience comes great security risk. Anurag Kahol, CTO at Bitglass discusses the security solutions available when it comes to the mobile workforce.

T

he typical nine to five is no longer. Employees now get emails on their personal phones, have transatlantic business calls outside normal working hours and continue to work at home on laptops and mobiles over the weekend. The ability for employees to use their personal devices (BYOD) to access corporate information is great for productivity; they are no longer confined to getting everything done within a certain number of hours or within the company walls. However, if left unmanaged, accessing company data from a personal device can create a number of security implications.

No visibility equals vulnerability When an employee leaves the corporate network behind and accesses corporate email and files directly from their unsecured device, the organisation loses its traditional ability to protect corporate data as it would within the network.

This means that an employee could unintentionally upload a virus within a corporate document when out of the office, or bring an infected device to 46 | October 2017

work and enable it to permeate the company network.

Outside of work, IT teams have no visibility into employee activity when files are downloaded to a personal mobile device. This means that an employee could be sharing data in an inappropriate way, and the IT team would have no idea. What’s more, if an employee’s device is stolen, an unknown hacker could gain access to troves of corporate data, or even commit identity fraud and attempt to login to the employee’s email – all with the IT team being none the wiser.

So, what’s the solution?

Banning BYOD certainly isn’t the way forward. For employees who work from home, travel for business and need mobile access to corporate data, restrictions around the use of BYOD can be incredibly counterproductive and frustrating.

Such restrictions would be archaic in today’s connected world, and it’s likely that an annoyed employee would simply find ways to work around them.

Some organisations have turned to mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) in a bid to get a handle on corporate

data. These tools involve an agent being installed onto the employee device, giving IT teams total control and visibility of the endpoint.

Whilst this might sound appealing to the IT team, it’s a solution to be considered hesitantly, because many employees are wary of having such software on their personal device.

This is because the software agent on the device can track the person’s location, see which applications are installed and even see their browsing history and personal files and photos. Ultimately, many see MDM and MAM as an overly invasive means of securing BYOD.

final thought

A breach of privacy?

A recent study on the use of agentbased mobile security found that only 44% of employees would accept having MDM or MAM installed on their personal devices.

The report also found that the majority of employees choose not to enrol in their employer’s BYOD programme because of privacy concerns. Finding a balance between employee satisfaction and security used to be the conundrum of BYOD: IT teams could either see too much, or too little, of their employee’s daily activities.

The same study found that more than two thirds of employees

“Only 44% of employees would accept having MDM or MAM installed on their personal devices.”

said they would agree to a BYOD programme where the solution just protected company data and could not view, alter or delete private data, such as photos or apps. Such a solution would aim to offer the IT team complete visibility and control over corporate data on BYOD, without impacting employee privacy and productivity.

It is perhaps not so surprising that such ‘agentless’ mobile security solutions are quickly gaining adoption in the enterprise, with Gartner predicting that by 2018, “more than half of all bring your own device (BYOD) users that currently have an MDM agent

will be managed by an agentless solution.” Unlike the MDM/MAM alternative, security solutions that do not rely on a software agent installed on the device itself can be set up so that they only monitor corporate data.

If left unmanaged, BYOD policies can create a lot of risks to corporate data. Previously, IT teams have had to take an ‘all or nothing’ approach to how they manage BYOD, but the rise of these agentless solutions means that IT teams can finally establish a middle ground between data security and employee satisfaction.

October 2017 | 47

Data Centre News is a new digital news based title for data centre managers and IT professionals. In this rapidly evolving sector it’s vital that data centre professionals keep on top of the latest news, trends and solutions – from cooling to cloud computing, security to storage, DCN covers every aspect of the modern data centre.

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