Data Centre Management Spring 2015

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SHOW PREVIEW 2015

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INSIDE:

STORAGE SUPPLEMENT INTERVIEW WITH VMWARE EMEA CTO

THE DATA CENTRE OF 2015 DATA CENTRE WORLD AND CLOUD EXPO EUROPE PREVIEW

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DATAcentre MANAGEMENT EDITOR JOHN HATCHER j.hatcher@turretgroup.com 01923 437618 ADVERTISING PAUL LANE 0207 348 5259 p.lane@closerstillmedia.com CIRCULATION ELAINE PRENTICE 0844 334 6661 circulation @motivationmarketing.co.uk PRODUCTION CAROL BAIRD 01923 437619 c.baird@turretgroup.com

WELCOME

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his year’s Data Centre World, takes place on the 11-12 March 2015 at Excel in London.

The event promises to be bigger and better than ever and you can register at www.datacentreworld .com Data Centre World includes an exhibition of 300 leading international suppliers and over 200 data centre experts in a case-study led conference programme covering all the major technology and business issues from power,

cooling, heating and ventilation to security, risk management and virtualisation.

Even though the data centre industry is well established, it is still a rapidly changing one. In the news, Emerson research has spotted six trends that are set to occur in 2015, including convergence and integration. That’s why it’s more important than ever to stay up to date and Data Centre World will be a great place to do just that.

Enjoy the Show!

John Hatcher Editor

HEAD OF PORTFOLIO PHIL COOPER phil.cooper@closerstillmedia.com EXHIBITION SALES RABINDER AULAKH 0207 348 5770 rabinder.aulakh@ closerstillmedia.com

CONTENTS

4

News

4

Storage

24

DCM looks at all the news from across the industry, with news from home and abroad

An in-depth look at what’s happening in the storage market, with the rise of software defined storage prominent.

DCW 2015

Enclosures

12

A look at the world’s largest dedicated data centre event, which will held on the 11-12 March

38

Power Cloud

21

How Black Friday proved no problem to Pulsant and a step by step guide to evaluating your cloud requirements Produced by Turret Group on behalf of

12

Are your racks up to scratch?

40

How choosing the right UPS is vital plus how to reduce your PUE

Q&A

32

58

Campbell Williams, Six Degrees

Suite 17, Exhibition House, Addison Bridge Place London, W14 8XP Tel: +44 (0) 20 7348 5250

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ISSN: 1753-9897 Printed by: Stephens & George © Copyright CloserStill Ltd 2015. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced in any material form (including photocopying it or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd. Applications for the copyright owner's written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to info@turretgroup.com

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NEWS

NEWS IN BRIEF SIGNED UP Zopa has officially signed up for C4L’s Colocation and Connectivity services to ensure its customers’ data is safeguarded professionally, in accordance with data protection compliance.

Matt McGuire, Zopa’s CTO said: “We are very pleased with the service we have received from C4L and the solution they have created for us. Our customers’ data is extremely secure and in terms of our business, the private circuits will ensure open access efficiency between our office and Data Centres.”

WIND FARM Amazon Web Services has teamed with Pattern Energy Group LP (Pattern Development) to support the construction and operation of a 150 megawatt (MW) wind farm in Benton County, Indiana, called the Amazon Web Services Wind Farm (Fowler Ridge). This new wind farm is expected to start generating approximately 500,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of wind power annually as early as January 2016 – or the equivalent of that used by approximately 46,000 US homes1 in a year. The energy generated by Amazon Web Services Wind Farm (Fowler Ridge) will be used to help power both current and future AWS Cloud datacenters

Key trends identified DCIM Emerson Network Power has identified six data centre trends that will grow in importance in 2015 as data centre operators seek ways to respond to dynamic market conditions as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“To meet the increasing challenges around speed of deployment, scalability, security, manageability and efficiency, we’re seeing more advancements in data centre technology than ever before,” said Lal Karsanbhai, the newly appointed president for Emerson Network Power in Europe. “In such a fastchanging industry, innovations that help customers and end users shape and drive these trends are in high demand.”

1. Cloud comes of age Cloud computing has become established in the data centre ecosystem as most organisations already use some form of software-as-a-service (SaaS). Now cloud is poised to expand from that foothold and become an engine of innovation.

2. Integration extends its reach. Integrated systems were developed to help organisations deploy and scale applications faster while reducing risk and total costs. With rapid changes

in many markets being driven by innovation, digitisation and mobility, the need for speed that integration and convergence delivers is greater than ever.

3. Convergence goes macro. Technology systems aren’t the only things experiencing a convergence.

The telecommunications and IT industries are moving closer together as voice and data services are now routinely consumed on the same device.

In fact, more than half of the participants in the Data centre 2025 project predicted that at least 60 percent of telecommunications network facilities will be data centers by 2025, and 79 percent expect at least half of telecommunications companies to make colocation facilities part of their networks.

4. Software paves the way for more software.

Virtualisation marked one of the most significant trends in the data centre industry in the

last twenty years. The impact of this development will continue to drive change for the foreseeable future as virtualisation extends beyond computing to networking and storage. One of the key challenges in this virtual revolution is going to be hardware management.

5. The edge gets stronger. After years of consolidation and centralisation, IT organisations are turning their attention to the edge of the network to improve interactions with customers and applications.

6. Security becomes the new availability. Increasingly, data centre and facility managers will have to work with their IT security teams to audit the technology and software of data centre equipment to ensure security and evaluate the security practices of the contractors and service providers that have access to that equipment.

Continuous clean supply apgemini has selected Active Power’s CleanSource PowerHouse solution to provide complete continuous critical power protection to the facility’s IT infrastructure.

The multimillion dollar order for Capgemini’s Merlin data centre in Swindon, England, is made up of two CleanSource 625HD UPS systems; two continuously rated diesel engines; switchgear; and transformers, all installed in six purpose built enclosures. UK based SPIE is the general contractor and Active Power’s

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customer on the project. All equipment is scheduled for startup in the first quarter of 2015.

“Our intent from the beginning was to integrate conventional data centre requirements with aggressive sustainability and energy efficiency efforts in a complete modular design build,” said Paul

Feeney, technical design authority, Global Data Centers, at Capgemini. “We turned to Active Power again for its technical expertise and its ability to deliver a bespoke power solution that meets our clients’ requirements for availability and cost efficiency.”

launch in the spring Geist DCIM will launch Environet Asset this spring, giving users full control and visualisation of both the logical and physical data centre infrastructure.

This new offering allows efficient and cost effective data centre operation over all stages of device life cycles. By simplifying the process of asset management, Environet Asset empowers collection, organization, and visualisation of the information needed to manage assets, network connections, power connections, and space.

This versatile new software identifies available capacity and resourcefully employs work orders to manage the entire asset lifecycle. The enterprise visualisations provide easy navigation throughout the data centre, from the 3D site level down to each individual connection.

With convenient drag-anddrop functionality, connection mapping is simple and easy to configure. Dashboards and reporting provide real-time visuals within the data centre allowing users to make intelligent, proactive decisions within their data centre infrastructure.

WWW.THEstack.COM

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Smart Carbon Control

Where Data Meets Decision Making.

We collect and collate data from multiple management systems to provide key stakeholders with the information they require to achieve significant efficiency savings.

In order to make the right decisions, you need the correct information.

All too often, information resides in different management systems

Stand No. E34

making it difficult to access or assess and make decisions.

We collect, collate and aggregate data into a single database for Head Office

presentation through an intuitive and simple to use interface. Utilising this

Devonshire Business Centre,

level of business intelligence makes it easier for our customers to define,

Works Road, Letchworth,

manage and optimise all aspects of service delivery.

Hertfordshire, SG6 1GJ Midlands Office Blythe Valley Innovation Centre, Blythe Valley Park, Shirley, Solihull, West Midlands, B90 8AJ

Please visit stand No. E34 for a demonstration and

T: +44 (0)870 444 0700 E: info@smartcarboncontrol.com

further information about our systems and services.

www.smartcarboncontrol.com

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NEWS

NEWS IN BRIEF NEW SERVICE The Cordant Group has launched Cordant Services in a move designed to offer additional value and services to existing customers, whilst providing a strong foundation for an ambitious growth programme. It is supported by a multi-million pound investment in technology and infrastructure that will see the business offer a fully transparent solution and a strong collaborative approach to customer relationships.

Cordant Services will be headed up by chief executive Chris Kenneally with Jamie Reynolds as group commercial director, and will comprise of four divisions which will be closely aligned whilst retaining their individual specialist natures. All existing cleaning and security businesses will be rebranded as Cordant Cleaning and Cordant Security respectively, and there will be two brand new divisions, Cordant Technical and Cordant Specialist Services.

All distributed Eaton has launched Power Xpert CX, its latest IEC low voltage power assembly with ratings up to 5,500 A. The CX is a flexible, modular distribution centre that is manufactured to customer requirements and so is ideally suited for reliable power distribution and motor control functionality in commercial and industrial applications.

The CX’s flexibility means that systems with a minimal footprint can be built, using approaches such as multiple busbar configurations, quad-stacked air circuit breaker (ACB) sections, integrated distribution and motor control, and customisable cubicle shapes and line-ups. This advantage can be critical in applications such as data centres, where maximum space is required for revenue-earning equipment. Optimum flexibility is achieved with multiple possibilities for fixed, plug-in, removable or fully withdrawable functional units, with accessibility for front and/or rear access.

“Power Xpert CX offers a state of the art solution for power distribution and motor control in a single low voltage platform”, comments Paul Ryan, UK segment sales manager at Eaton. “Its mechanical and electrical design plus its systems automation possibilities ensure minimum downtime with excellent operator safety – and it delivers these features with a low total cost of ownership, due to its high functional density and low maintenance costs.”

FOODfor THOUGHT Franek Sodzawiczny CEO, Zenium Technology Partners

The data centre industry is not always seen as a hive of creativity and innovation by the outside world. However in the face of immense challenges caused by the explosion in data, the cloud and the need to support an ‘always on’ business culture, any misconceptions about lack of innovation couldn’t be further from the truth. At the heart of every architect, engineer, construction and maintenance professional is a critical thinker and problem-solver, determined to find the answer to any technical question that is posed.

In my view, this invaluable skillset, combined with blue-sky thinking, is going to become even more crucial going forward. In order to bring ground breaking data centre designs to market that address increasingly complex data centre conundrums, we will need to harness every drop of creative, problem-solving juice from across the data centre talent pool. And with restrictions on budgets, the game-changing innovations that we so desperately need will lie in the ability to combine ‘thinking outside of the box’ with knowing exactly what has to go in it.

Looking to the future, we will undoubtedly need to make a concerted effort to tap into the vast knowledge amongst our senior engineers and designers about what works (and equally what does not) in order to create flexible solutions. I’ve no objections to throwing away existing preconceptions and recommending bold solutions for every aspect of the industry – from finance, design and construction through to facilities and energy management - but it would be foolish to ignore those with proven track records.

We are also on the verge of a ‘skills gap’ so we are going to have to encourage new thinkers to come on board and partner with industry veterans in order to design and build data centers today that will withstand the business demands of tomorrow.

European investment iatel has announced investment in new services and infrastructure across five European countries. These enhancements to the network will be delivered in France (Marseille), Germany (Frankfurt), The Netherlands (Amsterdam), Italy (Milan) and Switzerland (Zurich) and will utilise Viatel’s existing 8,500 km high capacity fibre network infrastructure.

CEO of Viatel, Colm Piercy, said, “In recent months Viatel has embarked upon ambitious growth across the eight European markets in which we operate. This capital investment and the introduction of exciting new services in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland greatly enhances the IP capabilities of Viatel.”

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Perhaps if we all worked just a little bit harder to emphasise the creative side to the industry, we would not only be able to attract the best new talent to the industry, we would also be able to look past the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the data centre and refocus on innovation. After all, this sector thrives just as much on leadingedge thinking as it does on leading-edge delivery.

Register now for DCW 2015 at www.datacentreworld.com WWW.THEstack.COM

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NEWS

NEWS IN BRIEF NEW SYSTEM Excel Networking Solutions has launched a new range of pre-terminated fibre systems under the Excelerator brand name.

Where time is limited on site pre-terminated copper and fibre solutions offer the perfect solution and can save up to 75% of the installation time. The products are fully tested before being delivered, traceable and are backed with the 25 year warranty when installed by an accredited partner.

The fibre pre-terminated solutions are available in different options: Distribution cables; Breakout cables and Mini Breakout cables.

ACCREDITED Sudlows says that regional technical manager, John Rippingale has successfully completed the Uptime Institute Accredited Tier Designer (ATD) qualification.

John who operates from the the Middle East office in Dubai, is a highly respected technical data centre specialist with over 6 years’ experience in designing, consulting and building energy efficient data centre projects.

Skills gap revealed Independent research commissioned by Zenium Technology Partners has given a clear indication that the skills gap facing the data centre sector will continue to be a critical business concern going in to 2015.

“Given the size of the industry, the skills gap is more of a crisis than a minor concern,” said Franek Sodzawiczny, founder and CEO at Zenium Technology Partners.

“Data is driving every business today and the increasing demands for real-time access to it in order to stay competitive means that systems need to be running effectively and efficiently 24x7.

Quite simply, you need the very best people supporting these infrastructures as failures can be catastrophic.”

The research - entitled ‘Motivation to Modernise’ – found that 93% of IT professionals were aware that a growing data centre skills gap still exists, and 64% said it will have a detrimental impact on their business within the next 12 years. However, despite the rising level of awareness around this issue, just 29% have moved to put measures in place to deal with it and 6% of respondents felt the skills gap was “nothing to worry about”.

Perhaps the most telling finding was that those who are

more likely to migrate to new facilities owned by their company in the next 5 years were most concerned about the detrimental impact (87%) of the skills gap, whilst those outsourcing to a third party were less troubled (65%).

Interestingly, a recent IT Skills Gap study by CompTIA also found that 93% of UK executives rate data center management skills as important whist 40% of UK executives expressed concern about possible skills gaps in that area.

Volta selected

Making the grade

euNetworks Group Limited has selected Volta Data Centre to join its dc connect service, providing instant and scalable high bandwidth data connectivity across London, with onward connectivity to 250 data centres in Europe.

Kevin Dean, chief marketing officer of euNetworks, says, “Teaming with Volta for our dc connect service was a natural development for us in the London market. Volta is a growing business and is working to target the key customer sectors that we have identified with a real need for this service. We are happy to be working with Volta; and its connectivity and cloud infrastructure is critically important to businesses as it enables the agility and flexibility our customers seek.”

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igSolv invited a class of A-level computing students from City Academy Norwich, the specialist digital technology and English school to see its state-of-the-art data centre on Barnard Road, Norwich.

Commenting on the visit, Alex Rabbetts, CEO MigSolv said: “I’m thrilled to be hosting a visit from one of the area’s top-performing technology schools and hope the experience will be invaluable to the students. As well as providing a fascinating tour of The Gatehouse, students will also get the opportunity to understand the relevance of the data centre, which plays a pivotal role in our digital lives.”

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Fast delivery message DEAC has undertaken research into its services over the last 12 months to discover how fast it is able to deliver its key services.

The results show that DEAC is able to provide seven of its key services to customers just one hour after agreeing a deal.

Andris Gailtis, DEAC CEO, explains, “As one of the fastest growing IT companies ranked among the most powerful Cloud providers in Northern Europe, we understand that modern businesses demand a reliable superfast service that supports sustainable growth.

Our research has shown that we have an advantage of being able to deliver and implement solutions faster than other data centres in Western Europe, often at a lower price point.

What’s more is that we can provide these superfast data centre services alongside one of the best customer service experiences in the region.”

The seven most popular key services that DEAC provides in one hour are: * Rack rent - Rack setup * Cabling between racks UTV or Optic fibre cables * In-Stock server rental Server setup in rack, access handover to customer * Cloud setup - Setup of CPU, RAM, HDD, IP * IP Transit - Internet uptime setup or Internet bandwidth expansion * MPLS Layer2 - Setup between LON, FRA, AMS, RIX, MSK Internet exchange points * Customer Support Delivering excellent customer service

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NEWS

NEWS IN BRIEF SALES UP Excel Networking Solutions, has reported that the sales and the number of distributors and customers across EMEA, has continued to grow at an impressive rate.

To support this growth Excel has recently added three new language sites in Polish, Turkish and German, which are as a result of the expansion and acceptance of the brand in those particular areas and adds to the French, Spanish and Italian sites that are already available.

During 2014 many new products were launched across Europe which included the Environ range of Racks and Open Frames, Intelligent PDUs and PreTerminated solutions all of which have helped to provide new revenue streams for the distributors and installers.

BAGGED JAG Keysource has been named as preferred supplier for a new external modular data centre for Jaguar Land Rover at its site in Wolverhampton.

The IT facility, which will deliver 1100 square feet of data centre space, will host storage data and processing power for the systems driving Jaguar Land Rover’s new Engine Manufacturing Centre.

Key trends under the microscope 451 Research has outlined the key trends that it expects to dominate the IT industry agenda over the coming year: Containers, Convergence, Cloud Security, Closets, Crowd Workers and Coexistence. These “6 Cs of 2015” represent just a few of the disruptive trends that will be published in 451 Research’s 2015 Preview Reports.

The 6 Cs for 2015 are: 1) Containers – There is an explosion of activity around Docker and containerization leading 451 analysts to anticipate disruption in IT departments in 2015 as they start to use Docker. While containerization technology has existed for years, Docker is a more modern, lightweight form that is widely viewed as a next-generation virtualization technology. 451 analysts believe Docker will be adopted by large enterprises to work alongside, as well as replace, traditional VMs because of its management and efficiency advantages.

2) Convergence – One of

the most hotly debated areas in IT is the evolution of integrated platforms. Hyperconvergence has exploded, and we will see the first signs of meaningful adoption in 2015.

3) Cloud Security – Security spending is up again. In 2015, mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, venture capital and private equity funding will continue at or near record levels.

4) Closets – Demand for data and processing continues exponentially. But as the debate about Net Neutrality demonstrates, there are many technical and commercial constraints involved in accessing or delivering data

Undersea connectivity Telstra has launched new 100 gigabits per second (100G Wavelength) connectivity across multiple ultra-long haul submarine cable routes globally.

Darrin Webb, chief operating officer, Telstra Global Enterprise & Services, said Telstra’s 100G Wavelength service was designed to scale smartly and would also help deliver the connectivity and capacity needed to support market demand for larger bandwidth applications, including High Definition video services and emerging Ultra High Definition Television.

“As the volume of data generated and consumed worldwide continues to increase exponentially, it’s critical the infrastructure responsible for delivering it can

10 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

cater to this need. Our job, as a trusted network partner, is to adapt and ensure there is capacity where it is required most by our customers.

“However the move to 100G is much more than just raw capacity. Alongside enhanced efficiency, 100G can help customers reduce operational expenditure and simplify network maintenance thanks to the service’s ability to consolidate bandwidths. It is also flexible enough to meet the requirements of most cable companies by offering landing station and point of presence options too.”

over wide-area and public networks. Part of the solution may lie with the micromodular datacenter – the next generation of server closet.

These small datacenters bring processing and storage near the point of use and are delivered as complete, selfcontained products.

5) Crowd Workers – The structure of the workforce and the way people work is changing at a faster pace than companies’ abilities to effectively manage that change.

6) Coexistence – The data management landscape is changing. Gone are the days when IT ruled data, metering it out to data scientists and

analysts for reporting and analysis projects. The rise of self-service data-preparation tools from a crop of startups is putting data management directly into the hands of analysts.

“While the 6 Cs are some of the more interesting trends, we have identified many others that will impact the way many do business in 2015 and beyond.” states Brett Azuma, SVP of research, 451 Research.

“Our analysis includes an assessment of the market impact, who stands to gain from these trends and most importantly, recommendations on how to capitalize on them.”

Agreement reached Mayflex has formed an agreement to distribute the ISONAS range of access control products. Unlike traditional panelbased or IP-panel systems, ISONAS delivers the one proven access control solution that offers network-based, “Pure IP” to the door technology.

Founded in 1999, ISONAS is the first access control company to design and manufacture a cutting-edge, IPto-the-door solution that eliminates needless complexity, including inconvenient control panels, separate power supply, and dedicated hard-wiring.

Gary Harmer, director of sales - security at Mayflex commented, “We are delighted to welcome ISONAS on board.

Their access control products are an excellent addition to our already comprehensive IP electronic security portfolio.

ISONAS is revolutionising access control with one simple

solution and Mayflex are more than happy to be part of this.

This significant addition gives installers yet another great reason to source their complete security solution from Mayflex.”

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DCW PREVIEW

DCW and Cloud Expo Europe: BIGGER AND BETTER To register for your free ticket to attend BOTH Data Centre World and Cloud Expo Europe 2015 follow: www.datacentreworld.com/dcm

I

n less than a month the world’s largest cloud and data centre event opens its doors at London Excel. Data Centre Management is owned by the organisers of both Cloud Expo Europe and Data Centre World, and given the event organisers sit in the same building as us, it seemed an opportune moment to ask what you can expect from their 2015 events.

Putting an event of this scale together involves a large group of people. Between Cloud Expo Europe and Data Centre World there will be over 12,000 attendees and nearly 500 speakers in 15 separate conference theatres. There will also be over 450 international suppliers offering everything from cloud based analytics packages, to the latest in efficient cooling systems for data centres.

To give you an idea of what to expect at these two events, Data Centre Management spoke to two of the key figures who will help bring these shows to life. Here they share their

12 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

thoughts on what to expect on the 11th and 12th of March.

Katarina Micuchova – Conference Producer – Data Centre World & Cloud Expo Europe “There are other cloud and data centre events out there and whilst they aren’t as large, to ensure we continue growing at this kind of rate, we need to ensure we have the very best speakers. People will attend events to network and to look at the latest technologies available but inevitably they want to learn something.

“This means we need to ensure a mix of excellent speakers and highly varied conference theatres. It’s also very important for a tech event that we change with the times. With Data Centre World this year there is an increased focus on PUE ratings and the CCA agreement as data centres look to save money through energy efficiency. On that note we have Paul Slater who is the lead architect for Microsoft’s Modern Data

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DCW PREVIEW

Centre Initiative talking about sustainable strategies.

“Our keynote theatre includes some amazing speakers such as Tomas Kadlec, Group IT Director at Tesco who’ll be asking whether cloud and the data centre compete or are complimentary. We’ve also got Mark Howell from Ford Motor Company who looks at the pros and cons of traditional, modular and colocation data centres.

“With Cloud Expo Europe we’re launching a whole new stream around the Internet of Things and we’re hosting the Open Cloud Developer Park.

“Tony Singleton, Director of G-Cloud will be presenting on how the digital market place and G-Cloud are helping make public services more efficient.

“On the security side we have the VP & CTO of Box, Justin Somaini talking about ‘The New Security Model’. Paulo Balboni, founding partner of ICT Legal Consulting and the Scientific Director of the European Privacy Association will be speaking and we even have the Head of IT for Greenpeace!

“Other top names include: Krishnam Subramanian, Director of Openshift Strategy at RedHat, Gavin Starks – CEO of the Open Data Institute, Bernard Golden, VP Strategy for ActiveState Software and author of Virtualization for Dummies, Joe Weinman – Author of Cloudonomics, and Sam Johnston,

Director of Cloud and IT Services at Equinix.

“Our speakers are the bedrock of these events. I’m the conference producer so I should say that, but each year when you look at our feedback forms from visitors they tend to agree.”

Sophie Baker – Marketing Manager – Data Centre World & Cloud Expo Europe “One of the biggest challenges with annual technology events is keeping up to date. We get loyal visitors who will attend these shows year on year. They attend because they know it’s a great networking opportunity and they can meet many of their contemporaries all in one place. These people are a marketers dream – we know they’ll continue to attend and they are always our biggest advocates.

“Whatever we do however we know that some of these people will move on each year.

They might retire or move out of the industry - this is to be expected. What we never want to see is people turn to us and say, ‘’I’ve been for the last three years and it’s always exactly the same, I’ve got everything I could out of attending so I won’t go anymore’’.

“As such we really focus on what we can bring in that will ensure these events will always have something new. Last year we had over 12,000 visitors through the doors at Cloud Expo Europe and Data Centre World. In

2013 we had 9,000 visitors at both events and in 2012 there were around 7,000 visitors. I strongly believe this growth is based around new offerings that we add each year.

“With Cloud Expo Europe we have always had a security stream but we felt we really needed to step this up in 2015. As such we’ve partnered with the Cloud Security Alliance to assist us with our security content as we look to what consistently polls as the greatest barrier to cloud adoption.

“We have also introduced an Internet of Things theatre this year, as technology professional’s future-proof, to ensure they’re ready for a world of 28 billion connected devices by 2020* (Gartner Research).

“There will be our first ever Hackathon at this year’s Cloud Expo Europe whilst meanwhile at Data Centre World we’ve introduced our Energy Efficiency and Cost Management theatre.

“Another key focus for this year has been on ensuring that our content is targeted to particular verticals, on the basis that what may be of interest to a data centre manager working for a financial services company, will often be different from what is of interest to a data centre manager working for a retailer.

“We hope we’ve remained true to what made these events so successful in the past whilst also ensuring that there are good reasons for new attendees to join us.

“I wouldn’t be a good marketer if at this stage I didn’t point out, that in this issue of Data Centre Management, there are two leaflets with a more in-depth view of what is going on. It also has details of how to register!

I very much hope to see you there.”

Sophie Baker

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DCW PREVIEW

STANDING out This year’s Data Centre World on the 11-12 March at ExCel, London, promises to be bigger and bolder than ever.

Co-located with Cloud Expo over the two days you will have the chance to hear from over 200 world class speakers, plus over 300 global suppliers of data centre technologies & services giving you a wealth of knowledge and expertise to take away with you. To register go to www.datacentreworld.com AMPS A major attraction in attending events like Data Centre World is the opportunity to meet inspiring experts and trustworthy suppliers. Out of the 300 exhibitors looking to catch your attention this year, 15 are members of AMPS – the trade association representing the UK’s leading manufacturers of power generating systems.

From within the AMPS membership you will find companies who are relied upon globally to design, commission, manufacture and maintain emergency backup, standby, UPS and prime power for demanding and critical applications.

Riello UPS Riello UPS is gearing up to unveil a new UPS product and has announced details of a competition to coincide with the launch.

The pre-launch competition can be entered by visiting a dedicated Riello UPS website www.riellocompetition.co.uk and correctly guessing the answer to this question: ‘If the new Riello UPS is configured as an N+1 redundant UPS, what is the power density (in KW’s) achieved per square meter (m2)?’

The top prize includes the latest Mac book pro laptop, with two runner up prizes of Apple iPad minis. Deadline for entries is March 7th 2015.

The new product from Riello UPS offers the maximum in availability, scalability, reliability and serviceability whilst also providing high efficiency, low cost of ownership and high power density, making it ideal for the data centre market where space is at a premium.

Finning Data Centre World 2015 will see the launch of Finning UK and Ireland’s distribution agreement with BASELAYER, a provider of modular data centre infrastructure.

By partnering with BASELAYER, Finning can now distribute data centre modular technology wherever and whenever customers need it, indoors or outdoors, on or off the utility grid.

Visitors to stand C50 at the show can learn more about the BASELAYER data centre modules, which are built using lean manufacturing principles and integrated with a robust data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) tool to deliver visibility and control. This combination enables companies to deploy a data centre at any location and analyse performance metrics across the entire infrastructure and IT equipment.

Airedale Airedale International, returns to this year’s Data Centre World with more innovations in cooling and a number of award wins under its belt.

The Aireflow indirect fresh air free-cooling adiabatic air handling unit (100-440kW) delivers huge free-cooling potential and, being an indirect system, eliminates the

14 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

risk of contaminated air entering the data centre.

Live demonstrations of the ACIS Building Management System (BMS) controls software are always a draw for visitors to Airedale’s stand. ACIS provides a highly graphical, simple-to-use tool to manage cooling and other building services, from any manufacturer, in a single, integrated system.

Trend Control Systems Trend Control Systems is getting set to take part in Data Centre World 2015. As well as showcasing some of its latest innovations, Trend experts will also be on Stand D102 to talk about how it can make today’s data centres more resilient, compliant and sustainable.

This will be the third successive year that Trend has exhibited at Data Centre World and the company is also a Gold Sponsor of this year’s event. Trend’s focus this time will be on highlighting how its innovative Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) based technology can help data centres operate more effectively and maintain the high levels of uptime and energy efficiency that owners, operators and their customers expect.

Eaton Power management company Eaton will explore how all data centres, from the smallest to the largest, can successfully combine optimum performance with maximum reliability. Visitors to the Eaton stand (G95) will find out how a coherent physical and power infrastructure, made up of elements that work harmoniously together, can help them improve data centre energy efficiency, avoid downtime and ensure their facility is scalable and future-proof.

“Though IT installations range in size from a small computer room with a single rack and a handful of servers, to purpose-built data centres covering acres, their business demands are very similar,” explains Paul Ryan, segment sales manager for Eaton UK. “Efficiency, reliability and flexibility are key and so at DCW London, our data centre industry experts will be on hand to discuss visitors’ specific applications and explain how to address these needs by using the right infrastructure.”

Also on the Eaton stand will be the company’s latest end-to-end power solutions for data centres of all sizes.

These include products for reliable management of the power from the incoming utility, like the Power Xpert CX low voltage switchgear and Power Xpert Busbar systems, to the rack outlet such as the Power Xpert 9395P UPSs, new generation of ePDUs and DRS IT rack systems. Also on show will be the company’s energy efficient Crompack LED lighting and visitors will be able to find out more about Eaton’s solutions for protecting the building itself and the workers inside it, for example fire detection, signalling and emergency lighting products.

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DCW PREVIEW

DCW 2015 exhibitor list 21st Century Transport 2Bm 4Energy Abb Acal Bfi UK Active Power Solutions Ltd Adler And Allan Adva Optical Networking Ltd Advanced Battery Care Aermec Af Switchgear Aggreko Air@Work Airedale International Airsys (UK) Limited Ait Part Nership AMI Ltd Arc:Mc Asetek Aten UK Ltd Austin Hughes Europe Avk-Seg ANIXTER Azteq Bender Bil Group Blue Helix Bluebox Bradbury Group Brand-Rex Bryland Fire Protection Bti Computer Systems UK Burnell Controls Kent Cable Management Warehouse Cablelines Pronet Cablenet Training Services Carel UK Ltd Cellcare Technologies Chartwell Controls Chenbro Micom Co Ltd CMS Plc Codelocks Computacables Ltd Concurrent Thinking Condair Cool Centric Cool-Therm Corning Crestchic Ltd Dale Power Solutions Datacentre Uk Data Centre Alliance DCN & NCN Datacenterpeople Limited Daxten

A80 B50 C104 C30a F102 F92 C85 G112 F12 B96 F68 G110 G60a C32 D99A C105 G90a E10 E55 D98 A110 B85 C99 F14 G78 C100 D60 B98 F118 D99B E100 H40 G64 G98 F40b E105 F96 A92 C102 H91 G32 G15 E99 G100 C60 E94 G75a D60 B22 C55 C90 H95 G111 A94 F70a

16 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

Deif (UK) Ltd Deister Electronic Draka Durapipe E&I Engineering E1E10 Eaton Electric Ltd Eaton-Williams Ecocooling Edp Europe Limited/Upsite Eh Europe Gmbh Elbagate Eltek Power Ltd Emerson Network Power Energyst Rental Solutions Enlogic Systems Europe Eol It Services E-Tec Power Euro Recycling Eurodiesel Uk Excool Fel Valves Filtertechnik Ltd Finning UK Firecheck Contracts Flow Battery Ltd Fluke Fnt Gmbh Fuel Storage Solutions Fujifilm Fujikura Europe Future Facilities Fw Thorpe Gamatronic Gatwick Hose Services Ge Energy Gea Heat Exchangers Geist Global Gen-X IT ltd Great Lakes Gromtec Hellermann Tyron Hillstone Products Ltd Hitzinger Hs Jackson & Son (Fencing) Ltd Honeywell (FAAST) Huber + Suhner Ag Icee Managed Services Ltd ICEOTOPE Idac Solutions Ideal Industries Ltd Innovative Research Ins Sudlows Interserve Support Services Ipu group/Durapipe

A90 F58 D50 C92 D67 B02 G95 G25 D40 B72 F10 E40 C42 C71 B11 C22 G83 G102 F52 D02 B40 F30 D15 C50 H82 G03 C30 E50 D10 D105 H80 F90 A98 F22 H30 C80 D99 C20 E95 H84 F96a G30 G22 F30a E94a G96 F80 C02 A115 F61 C40 A55 G50 E90 C92

It Construct E92 The ITAD Works H10 Ite Projects G10 Jaeggi Hybridtechnologie Ag E22 Janitza H92 Joyce Solutions Company B08 Keysource C45 Kingspan G75 Kvm Choice D95 Lanode Limited B09 Ledbury Welding & Engineering E30 Legrand D60 Livingston Ltd H85 Lorica Insurance Brokers F116 Mafi Mushkila Ltd G104 Mardix D45 Mcquay UK G99 Mds Battery Ltd H20 Migration Solutions Ltd B100 Mills Ltd F20 Minitran B90 Minkels D65 Mitie B104 Mk Battery C08 Modulan Gmbh G85 Molex B94 Mtu Onsite Energy C65 Munters G80 Ndsl H22 Networks Centre Ltd G55 Neutron Fire Technologies E98 Nj Froment & Co Ltd B10 Nobel Fire Systems G02 Norland Managed Services E101 Oil Tank Supplies E12 On365 Ltd E93 Optex- (Europe) Limited H45 Ortronics D60 P.S Electrical Services B92 Panduit B70 PDI B102 Pentair Schroff UK F32 Pfs Ltd F50 Phoenix Datacom G86(A) Piller Uk Ltd E20 Power Control (PCL) D55 Power Electrics (Bristol) Ltd G20 Powershield Ltd F16 Prism Enclosures C70 Prism Power B94a Prisma Services C04 Prolabs A100 Psiber G84 Puffin Solutions Ltd C82 Raritan UK F110

Red Engineering Ltd B95 Rees Power Systems A10 Refrion Srl C98 Relocom A50 Rentaload E96 Rf Code F98 Riello Ups Ltd G40 Rittal B60 Rle Technologies Schneider Electric D80 Scolmore International E32 Sematron Uk Ltd G105 Semper Holdings Ltd C15 Server Fortress H47 Server Technology G86 Shenton Global Llp D08 Silver Fox Limited F95 Siemens Switzerland VIP Lounge/drink Smart Carbon E34 Socomec G70 Solid Systems Computer Services B20 Splice Group F65 Stagwood Industries H50 Stay Online G16 Structure Source Ltd F94 Stulz Uk Ltd B80 Sunspeed Transport Services A60 Surelock Mcgill D118 Swale/Siemon F40a Synapsys D110 Technimove F02 Thamesgate Interiors Ltd E02 The Ups Company F94a ThermOzone Ltd B106 TMC Italia S.p.A. - Cast Resin Transformers F70 Trend Control Systems Ltd D102 Tsi C86 Tyco Fire Protection Products F72 UK Power News C52 U Systems/Aqua Cooling Solutions E80 Uninterruptible Power Supplies Ltd D100 Upsite Technologies B72 Vattenfall H100 Veris Industries H32 Vincent Byrne Consulting Ltd H96 Wasp Pfs Ltd H90 Wbps F82 Weatherite Group D90 WESCO B20 Wetac E04 Xceed Group H110 Yuasa Battery Sales UKLtd C10 Zpas B30

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DCW PREVIEW

Cloud Expo exhibitor list Active State Adapt Services Ltd Adaptec by PMC Advanced Industial Computer Europe BV Airwatch Limited Arista Networks Arista Networks Aruba S.p.Aautotask Asigra Inc. Aspera, an IBM company Attix5 Autotask (UK) Ltd Avnet Technology Solutions Big Technology Ltd BitTitan Blancco UK Blue Box Group BMIT Limited Boston Ltd Britannic Technologies Canonical Ltd Centrify Corporation Cisco Claranet Ltd Cloud Industry Forum Cloudian, Inc. CloudWeavers Cohesive Flexible Technologies ComputeNext Connected Data ConnectWise Connexions 4 London Cristie Software Custodian DC Ltd Data4 Group Databarracks Ltd DataCentred Datto Inc Datum Datacentres DEAC Digital Networks UK Ltd Digital Realty Dimension Data Network Services Ltd Easynet EDGECORE NETWORKS CORPORATIONS EQUINIX Essential Net eSynergy Exponential-e Fusion-io Ltd

18 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

152 850 214 762 745 645 1110 822 622 221 874 230 010 150 031 OS - 5 172 112 670 OS - 1 142 1025 832 1000 650 ON - 1 310 524 824 1065 730 134 052 830 1010 OS - 3 250 710 430 210 720 1160 130 IP - 1 335 060 772 330 840

Genesys Giacom World Networks Ltd Hammer Henderson Scott HGST & Western Digital Company Hybrid Logic Ltd Hydro 66 Hyve IMI Publishing inContact IncuBus Ventures Infinity SDC Limited Ingram Micro Inok Systems Inovem Ltd Interoute Communications Ltd Interxion Iomart Group Jelastic Kana Kaseya International (UK) Ltd Kemp Technologies Ltd Kingston Technology Europe Co LLP Lantronix LETN Solutions LIMA Networks LOADBALANCER LogicNow Mainstream Masergy Melissa Data Corp.

Mellanox Technologies Molten Technologies MpStor Ltd Mural Consulting Inc NaviSite Europe Ltd Netskope Newton IT Nexenta NIL D.O.O NIMBLE STORAGE UK LIMITED NTT Europe Ltd OKTA OpenCloud Solutions S.L. Opengear Ltd OpenNebula OW2 Plan B Disaster Recovery Ltd Promise Technology PULSANT Ltd

1121 662 360 640 642 472 1012 552 870 145 120 734 810 131 665 1050 522 220 600 1067 240 770 512 050 1130 252 202 660 570 1070 470 370 546 OS-7 1030 860 140 700 1140 1133 610 1060 ON - 2 742 ON - 3 244 365 435

Pure Storage QLogic United Kingdom RapidFireTools Rausch Netzwerktechnik GmbH Safe Host Sandisk Corporation Savvis ScienceLogic Selection Services Ltd Siaras Inc. SixSq SĂ€RE Skyhigh Networks SMS Passcode S/A Softlayer, Dutch Holdings B.V SolidFire Inc Soonr Spiceworks Europe SSE Telecoms Stratoscale Stratoscale SunGard Availability Services Surf Telecoms Plc SUSE Tata Communications (UK) Limited Techgate Plc Teleena Holding B.V. Telefonica Global Solutions TELEHOUSE Telstra Ltd Tempura Communications Timico Ltd Tintri Toshiba Electronics Europe T-Systems Ltd UK 2 Group Ushare Soft Vanco Veeam Venus Business Communications Viatel (UK) Ltd Virtustream UK Ltd Vodafone Western Digital Xceed Group X-IO Technologies Zadara ZAYO GROUP INC Zerto Ltd Zycko Ltd Zynstra Limited

305 065 156 232 752 420 1150 654 OS-6 300 751 200 820 656 664 132 231 OS - 2 760 030 OS - 4 320 412 135 620 434 624 652 510 110 750 550 520 740 1131 1022 1045 852 825 410 H110 827 1112 1020 1120 270 154

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CASE STUDY

Green IS GOOD W Jaeggi has recently completed an installation for Equinix as DCM found out ith more than 95 IBX data centres in 31 major economic centres, Platform Equinix is a leading worldwide provider. The company is striving for the top position, not just in terms of IT but also in the implementation of energy efficiency.

Winner of the Green Data Center Award 2012: Equinix AM3 Science Park Amsterdam The aim of the recently constructed data centre on the AM3 Science Park in Amsterdam was to achieve the greatest possible energy efficiency. At 25%, depending on the hardware, cooling represents the second largest energy consumer in recently constructed data centres, with the percentage being even higher in older centres. This means that there is considerable potential for energy savings. Using an innovative concept, which is based on 100% water – without any chemicals/biocides – geothermal aquifer storage and JAEGGI’s hybrid dry coolers (HTK Hybrid High Performance) , Equinix AM3 Science Park Amsterdam won the Green Data Center Award 2012.

JAEGGI hybrid dry coolers save water: The system doesn’t just save energy but also water, as JAEGGI has developed its hybrid dry coolers to be water-saving. During colder months or partial load operation, the cooler operates in dry mode only, with convective heat transfer to the ambient air. Only when the required cold water temperature can no longer be achieved in this way, will the wetting circuit cut in. By making use of the enthalpy of vaporisation (latent heat) of the prepared wetting water, the dry coolers operate in an energy-efficient manner. In addition, the use of IE2 energy efficiency rated speed-controlled axial fans and drive motors, monitored by a complex HYBRIMATIC control system, helps to reduce energy consumption. JAEGGI’s hybrid dry coolers operate without vapour plumes, with a system tested for aerosol output and a secure system for preventing the discharge of contaminated droplets (e.g. containing legionella), and are particularly quiet and multifunctional. Redundant design and high availability of components, which are selected in accordance with the criteria of the eco-design directive, round off JAEGGI’s sustainable product concept.

The entire re-cooling power used by the JAEGGI hybrid dry coolers installed on the AM3 Science Park is 12 MW. The usable EER value (Energy Efficiency Ratio = Qthermal / Pelectrical) for an indirect comparison is 73 for the fabled EER in this design case; for refrigeration equipment, the EER values currently achieved by the best makes are between 9 and 15.

The result of the concept is an overall reduction in energy costs of more than 100,000 Euros a year for both partners Equinix and Amsterdam University.

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CLOUD

All in HAND Black Friday website traffic no challenge for Pulsant Enterprise Cloud

U

S import Black Friday and its associated sales is gaining traction in the UK market. This year the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reports that November sales were up 2.2% from the same period in 2013. In addition, it was the best performance in the retail sector for three months.

For ecommerce sites and those retailers with an online presence, this increase in sales meant a significant increase in traffic. As with their physical counterparts, more visitors to these sites presented similar problems – virtual queues, underperforming platforms and, in some cases, website crashes due to traffic overload.

However, for Lost Ferret, an ecommerce specialist, this increase in traffic presented no issues for its range of retail customers. Lost Ferret works with mid-market retailers who make use of the company’s custom-built commerce platform Aurora. Aurora is hosted by cloud and colocation expert Pulsant on its Enterprise Cloud platform.

Tom Cahalan, Lost Ferret MD, explained: “What we found in previous years was that for our clients Cyber Monday was the busiest day of the year by quite a significant margin, whereas Black Friday was just one of the busiest. This year, however, Black Friday was the day that saw the most website traffic through customer sites.

“Where other retailers were experiencing performance issues and downtime, all of our customers remained up and running, with no negative impact on trading and their sites coping perfectly with the increase in traffic.

Select Fashion, one of our biggest customers, saw five times as much traffic to its website compared to Black Friday last year, and was incredibly happy with the performance of the platform.”

Lost Ferret initially hosted its Aurora solution on a private cloud platform with Pulsant before changing providers. However, as its infrastructure reached end of life, the requirements for increased reliability, scalability and flexibility became ever more important.

“Pulsant’s Enterprise Cloud allows us to scale up really quickly and one of the most attractive aspects of this is that we able to do so on a monthly basis. This is a cost-effective and efficient solution for a lot of our clients who experience their peak trading periods over November, December and January.”

The Enterprise Cloud platform ensures the availability and performance of these customer sites over the busy periods and allows Lost Ferret to scale down during less busy periods making sure that there is optimum usage of the technology.

“Pulsant has invested significantly in its hardware and infrastructure. This, coupled with the excellent technical team, gives us confidence in the performance of the platform, as well as their ability to address any issues that may come up. We know that Pulsant has the staff with the right skills to assist us, especially out of hours, which is the most important aspect for us,” concludes Cahalan.

Lost Ferret has migrated a number of its customers to the Pulsant cloud platform with the rest due to move early in 2015.

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CLOUD

Get on the RIGHT CLOUD Christopher Aedo, chief product architect at Mirantis, gives a step by step guide to evaluating your cloud requirements and matching your needs with the right platform.

O

rganisations tend to have one of two IT strategies today: those who are already planning and eventually implementing cloud strategy, and those who are going to be doing it soon. However, the options that companies are faced with are dizzying, often contradictory, and usually dangerously expensive. With these choices in front of them, what’s the best way for organisations to get focused and find the ideal cloud solution for their specific needs?

In essence there are 7 key factors to address that will help businesses clarify what really matters and enable them to establish their individual cloud requirements. These are: Control How much control do you have over the environment and hardware? Make sure the cloud platform you select delivers the level of control you require.

Deployment Time How long before you need to be up and running? How much time will you burn just sorting out, ordering, racking and provisioning the hardware? It is critical that the cloud platform you choose can deployed in the right amount of time.

Available Expertise Can your single IT staff member handle the project, or do you need a team of experts poached from the biggest cloud makers?

Choose a cloud platform that matches the expertise you have available – or you can afford to bring in.

Performance In a single server there are so many components impacting performance – from the memory bus to your NIC. However performance directly correlates with budget – a larger budget will usually see greater performance. However there is no reason a smaller budget can’t see high performance – providing you select the right option.

Scalability Your platform of choice should

22 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

accommodate adding, or reducing, capacity quickly and easily. Will your chosen platform require downtime to scale up or down or can it be executed seamlessly?

order approaches. They will provide the hardware on short-term lease, and will charge you to manage that hardware.

Levels of control will vary from high to minimal depending on how much of the platform you manage and deploy yourself. The level of commitment will also vary but the longer you commitment the more likely an alternative platform is to make sense. HPC is not well suited to an elastic demand and upscale in 2 to 6 weeks - and generally there will be no “scale down” option.

Commitment From no contract “utility pricing” to the long term investment of owning all your gear – the longer you’re tied up, the greater the risk.

Cost This may be the most important and most difficult factor to account for. You can see it as an output from your other factors, or your ultimate limiter dictating where you’ll make concessions. There are definitely some good ways to maximize your dollar while minimizing your risk as long as you keep your head up and your eyes open.

By addressing these factors early on in the process of implementing a cloud based solution you will save yourself time, resource and budget in the long run. Here we will evaluate your options Option 1: The Public Cloud The big players here are AWS and RackSpace, but there are other contenders with fewer bells and whistles like DigitalOcean and Linode. These represent the lowest entry barrier (you just need ‘net access and a credit card!) but also offer the least control and the greatest cost increases as you scale up.

The public cloud is priced like a utility offering the opportunity to scale up/down as needed. This is well suited to handling a highly elastic demand, but it’s important to keep an eye on what you’ve spun up.

With a public cloud you get limited access to the underlying hardware, and no visibility into what’s beneath the covers of the cloud – although you will get some flexibility in configuration and near instant deployment of service without the need for any real expert to be involved.

Option 2: Hosted Private Cloud (HPC) There are many well-known vendors offering options in this space, ranging from complete turn-key environments to build-to-

Option 3: Build your own private cloud (BYPC) BYPC requires a high level of technical expertise within the business and will present you with the greatest technical and financial risk. However, you will have total control over the hardware design, the network design, and how your cloud components are configured – but expect this to take a year to 18 months to complete.

There are lots of moving pieces, and the risks are tremendous, as you may be committing hundreds of thousands of dollars to your cloud pilot. Ask anyone who’s actually tried this; it’s a lot harder than it looks.

Determining what is needed from the cloud will drive what platform organisations should deploy on.

Considerations like budget, expected performance, and project timeline all have to be carefully balanced before plunging ahead

Option 4: Private-Cloud-as-aService (PCaaS) PCaaS, such as OpenStack, represents the best balance between the value and flexibility of public cloud and the control of BYPC. PCaaS provides total control over how hardware is used, and that hardware is 100% dedicated to you with a minimum 1 day commitment on a rolling contract. As a result of the minimal commitments it can be deployed within a few hours and you will be free to scale the size of your environment up and down at nearly the same pace as if you were on a public cloud.

Each of these cloud platforms has validity, as well as a real sweet spot, where that particular approach is the only obvious good choice for your business needs. If you properly consider your requirements and how they match with the options available there is no need for moving to the cloud becoming a costly mistake.

DCM-23:Layout 1 10/02/2015 11:16 Page 23

Energise your data centre, maximise the value of your investment.

Our end-to-end solutions can truly energise your data centre. With innovative technology, efficient operation and outstanding flexibility, we lower not only your operating expenditure, but also your total cost of ownership.

to meet the highest levels of reliability, resilience, and safety. And with Eaton’s market-leading power management software, you can also monitor and manage your whole data centre environment from one location.

From power distribution equipment to lighting, and cable management to airflow management, Eaton data centre solutions offer optimised performance

Visit us at DCW on stand G95 to discover how to maximise the value of your investment. www.eaton.eu

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STORAGE

Welcome to THE REVOLUTION DCM spoke to Joe Baguley, (below), CTO, EMEA VMware about the Software Designed Data Centre VMware has been promoting the SoftwareDefined Data Center for a number of years.

Could you explain what you mean by this?

When we talk about the ‘Software-Defined data center’, we mean just that - all components of the data center, from the network to the storage to the compute - is controlled by software, meaning it’s no longer necessary to buy specific hardware to make the complete data center run effectively.

What progress has been made since the launch of Software-Defined data center?

We recently announced updates to our enterprise storage solution, releasing Virtual SAN 6 which has been revised with a host of new capabilities, making it the ideal storage platform for virtual machines and business critical applications. For example, Virtual Volumes will offer new levels of storage integration to make third-party arrays natively aware of virtual machines, resulting in a more agile, cost-efficient method of managing storage infrastructure with the data center.

These updates respond to customer demand for simple, cost-effective and cloud-aware storage solutions through an improved hypervisor-converged storage tier, representing the next phase of our software-defined storage - so we’re moving decidedly in this space! We also launched vSphere 6 on 2nd February, the foundation of the software-defined data center, featuring more than 650 new features and innovations including broad application support, long-distance live migration capabilities, instant clone technology and 3D graphics for desktop virtualization.

What are the main concepts of virtualized storage and how does it work in practice?

One of the main advantages of Virtual SAN is that we aggregate storage on servers into one Virtual SAN. This means that we can get local, higher performing storage for clients.

Virtual SAN, running alongside vSphere environments, simplifies and streamlines storage provisioning and management. It automatically and dynamically matches requirements with underlying storage resources, cleanly automating many manual storage tasks and delivering more efficient and cost-effective operational services.

Have companies gone far enough in

24 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

virtualizing storage?

In our opinion, not yet! Organisations are only just starting to become aware of storage virtualization and the mechanics and benefits behind it. They are realising that they don’t need to buy a big storage array, and through appropriate levels of virtualization, can provide a better way to manage storage, simplifying operating system patching and driver requirements, regardless of storage topology.

Are companies nervous of virtualizing? Is price a barrier to entry?

For any new storage product it usually takes five years to be accepted on to the market.

This is usually two years in development, one year launching it and another two years while the market gains confidence in it. Virtual SAN has only been available for 18 months or so, but things are developing quickly. We already have some early adopters, and if I can use a Formula One analogy, we don’t need a 200 mph car, but the technology on the car, regenerative breaking, etc. trickles down to the affordable car on your driveway. Virtualization is for everyone, from SMEs to the enterprise.

For example, VMware EVO:RAIL combines VMware compute, networking and storage resources into a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance to create a simple, easy to deploy, all-in-one solution. It is designed to be up and running in 15 minutes and takes all the virtualized concepts and puts them in one packaged appliance. It’s a versatile and effective business solution.

What are the main advantages of virtualized storage?

The main advantages is that it makes IT infrastructure cheaper, is easier to set up, is simpler and enables businesses to focus on strategy and sales rather than the mechanics of the IT infrastructure. It gives IT the choice to run any OS on any X86 server and means the customer can choose any hard drive or server that they want.

Is the process of automation easy?

We make the process as easy as possible so you don’t need to be a specialist, any routine technician will be able to manage it.

Do you agree with IDC that the softwaredefined storage market is poised to expand faster than any other storage market?

Joe Baguley will be speaking at Cloud Expo Europe – further details to be announced soon

VMware EVO:RAIL combines VMware compute, networking and storage resources into a hyperconverged infrastructure appliance to create a simple, easy to deploy, all-in-one solution. It is designed to be up and running in 15 minutes and takes all the virtualized concepts and puts them in one packaged appliance

Yes, definitely. We’re seeing increased demand for our storage solutions as enterprises look to complete their softwaredefined data center strategy and benefit from increased flexibility, scalability, capex and open savings that software-defined storage offers.

Businesses are under increasing pressure to adapt and respond to customer demand and need an agile infrastructure to in place to facilitate this and ensure they stay competitive.

As the market continues to gather pace, businesses will be looking to deploy a simple, high-performance storage for virtual machines that drastically reduces TCO and bridges the transition of storage from traditional virtual environments to their software-defined data center and cloud environments.

How will software-defined storage affect hardware manufacturers?

The market moves with the technology and as we move to a digital world, storage demands continue to explode in many IT environments, with no end in sight - more business models are now being driven by the need to acquire and harness ever-growing mountains of information. For us, EVO:RAIL partners including EMC, Hitachi and NetApp are all storage providers and for Virtual SAN, the servers must have SSD and then go to a spinning disk, caching in the SSD and then storing on the hard drive. In theory it could get then go to other storage media, but that hasn’t been done yet.

Is it just an enterprise product at the moment?

Not really. I go to VMware user groups and at the moment most people are coming to learn about Virtual SAN and NSX. When I ask why they are coming across, it’s firstly because it’s a cool product that’s easy to configure and maintain, and finally the cost savings come third. These factors are not dependent on the size of the company.

What is the future for the Software-Defined Data Center?

Simply put, we want to make data centers invisible. The future is automation - with everything centrally controlled by software and a continued focus on the hybrid cloud.

Ultimately, clients don’t want to run infrastructure, they want to run their business.

DCM-A09:Layout 1 10/02/2015 11:04 Page 109

Not PURE

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STORAGE

Are you ready for THE REVOLUTION? Peter Godden, VP EMEA for Zerto looks at how moving certain key storage replication functions into the hypervisor can overcome some of the legacy shortcomings of Array-based, Guest/OS-based and appliance-based replication solutions.

S

torage is a hot topic in the IT industry. The huge volumes of data, with even mid-sized organisations holding hundreds of terabytes, looks unlikely to abate. In fact, analyst firm IDC argues that the world's information now doubles about every year and a half.

However, much of the focus has been on performance and capacity. With flash offering a performance boost and the cloud providing the potential for highly scalable and seemingly limitless storage depth. Yet, more data in production and archived often for big data probing requires systems capable of protecting against the inevitable data loss.

The other major trend is virtualization which according to Gartner Group has now surpassed 50 percent of all server workloads and will hit 86 percent in 2016. However, storage arrays, for all their capacity and performance gains are still a step behind the needs of virtualization when it comes to protecting huge data volumes.

Data replication is predominantly divided into three common strategies. Array-based

26 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

Replication, although prevalent, offers insufficient flexibility. As single-vendor solutions they tend to be compatible only with the specific storage solution already in use, requiring like arrays at both the production and recovery sites. Another approach is Guest/OS-based replication solutions comprised of software components that have to be installed on each individual physical and virtual server. Such solutions include DoubleTake from Vision Solutions and Veritas Volume Replicator from Symantec and both are often difficult to scale. Also, since these are designed to replicate only single servers, a guest/OSbased solution is challenged when seamlessly protecting full multi-server enterprise applications.

Appliance-based replication also poses similar limitations to array-based solutions in that they are hardware-based and specific to a single platform. Appliances also add another vulnerable physical “moving part” into a software defined stack. Instead many organisations are examining hypervisor-based replication technologies that are able to

The other major trend is virtualization which according to Gartner Group has now surpassed 50 percent of all server workloads and will hit 86 percent in 2016. However, storage arrays, for all their capacity and performance gains are still a step behind the needs of virtualization when it comes to protecting huge data volumes.

overcome many of these legacy compromises.

In essence, hypervisor based storage replication software plugs directly into VMware’s vCenter and manages replication for the entire vSphere domain and keeps track of applications and information in motion, in real time. The software is an agent-less module that continuously replicates data from VMs, compressing and sending that data to the remote site over WAN links.

This approach has a number of major advantages over legacy technologies. For example, one replication technology that is often used in production VMware environments is based on snapshots which puts considerable overhead on the production environment. Replicating those snapshots can compromise the network as well. Alternatively, continuous replication at the hypervisor level has no negative impact on performance. In addition, new features such as long term retention allow a company to create backup copies that are retained away from the production environment, so backups are also non-disruptive. This also removes network strain, so IT managers can free up bandwidth for day-to-day operations.

In addition, this new method offers a major reduction of storage footprint. Replicating in the hypervisor reduces the overhead on ESXi hosts and also allows easy backup and retention to a remote cloud. In addition, hypervisor-based replication technology is advancing quickly and offers attractive software based pricing models that can work from any storage to any storage, even mixing storage technologies like SAN to NAS. This allows organisations to avoid the dreaded “forklift upgrade” and offers major cost reduction when compared to physical, array-based replication solutions. As the volume of data and reliance on virtualisations grows, placing disaster recovery into the hypervisor becomes more and more compelling.

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STORAGE

Storage trends for 2015 Archana Venkatraman, senior research analyst, European Storage Research Group, IDC, who is speaking at DCW 2015 investigates the storage market

E

nterprise storage is undergoing massive transition. The explosion of data and the pressing need to store, retain, analyze and manage it is putting pressure on legacy storage systems and driving demand for new storage technologies.

A slew of new solutions such as flash arrays, software-defined storage, hyper-converged systems, open source storage, and cloud storage services are changing the enterprise storage landscape at breakneck speed.

But as these technologies enter the enterprise infrastructure, they bring newer sets of data protection and compliance requirements. European enterprises' main storage concerns include choosing the technologies that best meet their needs, integrating them with legacy systems, finding cost-efficiency and performance improvements, and meeting the regulatory requirements.

2015 is going to be all about finding the right balance.

Here's a deep-dive into how each of the big storage trends is affecting enterprise IT. Flash storage is red hot: The flash-based array market is on fire. IDC's own figures show that the EMEA flash array market – including all-flash arrays and hybrid flash arrays – touched $667m in Q2 of 2014, up 44% from the same period last year and 134% from Q2 2012 (IDC DSS Tracker Q2 2012 to Q2 2014).

Flash's uptake has risen significantly in Europe, thanks to the continuing price drop of raw flash chips, product maturity, and proven benefits (such as lower power needs and better performance). This is making flash one of the most disruptive technologies in storage.

2014 was the turning point year for flash.

Until then, storage managers saw servers as the preferred location for their solid state drive (SSD) media, with external storage as only the second option. But this changed as the year progressed because availability and maturity of external flash arrays grew dramatically.

Flash will remain red hot as price drops continue, vendor wars on flash products intensify and more importantly as its benefits

28 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

of performance-efficiency, lower latencies, and power-optimization become even more compelling.

Software-defined storage (SDS) moves beyond hype: The rapid commoditization of hardware is forcing the storage industry to adopt a software-defined approach. The software-defined phenomenon – where provisioning, operation, and management of the infrastructure components are automated and delivered by software – first began with the compute/server components and now have spread across storage and networking components.

SDS is another disruptive storage trend as it blurs the lines between hardware, software, and cloud storage and as it becomes a viable option for enterprises refreshing their datacenters.

One of the hottest trends of the storage industry, IDC expects SDS to grow faster than any other market segment in the file- and object-based storage market, fueled by a rich and diverse set of data-intensive use cases across multiple industries and geographies.

2015 will be the year when SDS begins to take on mission-critical workloads as the segment matures, user awareness increases and suppliers offer quality assurances.

Hyperconverged systems ruffle feathers of traditional storage: The integrated infrastructure and platforms (II&P) market in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) saw vendor revenue of $616m in the third quarter of 2014, recording a 38.2% YoY growth, according to IDC's EMEA Quarterly Integrated Infrastructure and Platforms Tracker, December 2014.

The integrated systems market alone in EMEA had crossed $1.8bn by 2013, according to the Quarterly Integrated Infrastructure & Platform Tracker from IDC. Hyperconverged systems' penetration is expected to grow exponentially - thanks to its easier manageability and almost immediate deployment. As hypervisor vendors such as VMware launch hyperconverged systems (such as Virtual SAN and Evo:Rail products) tying enterprise class storage in to servers, the axis of storage control will shift away from storage

A slew of new solutions such as flash arrays, software-defined storage, hyperconverged systems, open source storage, and cloud storage services are changing the enterprise storage landscape at breakneck speed.

Archana Venkatrama will be speaking at Data Centre World on Storage Best Practices for Virtual Environments on Wednesday 11th March at 16:15 – 16:40 Register online for your free tickets

admins to server and applications managers in a software-defined infrastructure. This will continue to challenge traditional approaches to storage.

Open-source storage flexes its muscles: OpenStack is slowly becoming a viable alternative to proprietary platforms for building cloud infrastructures. As its adoption grows, OpenStack Swift and Cinder are becoming popular choices among enterprises to build block and object storage in the cloud. What's pushing open source storage to the fore is its unique proposition including freedom from vendor lock-in and low cost. This, in turn, is pushing the popularity of SDS platforms such as Ceph or OpenZFS that offer enterprises a cheaper way to adopt SDS. 2015 could see open source SDS support vendors such as Red Hat, SUSE and Canonical steal market share from traditional storage vendors.

Data protection regulations adds complexities: Growing use of cloud computing and data delivered to more end point devices will continue to add to enterprises' storage challenges forcing them to adopt newer approaches to meet compliance requirements, retain data control and meet data privacy guidelines. The huge appetite for hybrid clouds along with elevated security concerns will continue to push enterprises to take a fresh approach to storage decision-making.

Cloud storage continues to make storage cheaper: There is little doubt that cloud computing has had as big an impact on enterprises as the era of computing itself.

Cloud has been instrumental in commoditizing storage and IDC expects cloud vendors to continue to lure enterprises with cheaper storage prices, unlimited storage capacity, high scalability and even sophisticated encryption and security services.

But that is not all. There are other hot trends influencing the storage industry such as the adoption of 40 Gb Ethernet allowing faster transfers of large datasets, stricter EU compliance regulations, and rising popularity of container technologies. Enterprises will invest in new storage trends such as storage automation and big data analytics systems in 2015 and beyond.

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STORAGE

No flash in THE PAN Scalable flash storage is handling continued data growth at Gratte Brothers

W

hen the SANs at building services company Gratte Brothers reached capacity, the company chose innovative flash storage which has significantly improved performance and provided greater visibility to help plan for the future.

Gratte Brothers is one of the UK’s leading independently owned building services companies, offering a complete range of services for the design, installation and maintenance of mechanical and electrical services, security systems and commercial catering facilities. It employs over 650 personnel and its design services generate large volumes of data.

The company had two four year old Dell Compellent SANs which were nearing capacity.

Dell Compellent advised that these could not be expanded, so group IT manager Mike Mahoney decided to go out to the market and take a fresh look at everything that was available.

The company drew up a shortlist of three vendors. Then a wildcard emerged – hybrid storage arrays from Tegile. “They were a new, untested company and no-one had heard of them,” explained Mike. “We liked the way their systems were put together – it felt like they were built from the ground up to use current technology, rather than grafting that technology onto an older system. They also offered features such as inline deduplication, compression and file snapshot recovery which would help to handle data growth and improve resilience.

“All the other solutions had pros and cons, but the Tegile solution ticked all the boxes, and we negotiated on price to bring it within our budget.”

Gratte Brothers then needed a company to integrate the new arrays with its existing infrastructure. They turned to Fordway, who were one of the first companies in the UK to partner with Tegile.

30 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

“Many companies are nervous of what they perceive as taking a risk with an unknown vendor, however exciting the product offer,” explains Richard Blanford, Fordway’s managing director. “But by doing so they can miss on opportunities to innovate, improve productivity and cut costs. Tegile offers highly scalable flash and hybrid storage at a very competitive price.

Gratte Bothers already had a virtualised environment and that’s exactly what Tegile storage is designed for, so the implementation was straightforward.”

The first stage was to set up and test the Tegile arrays at Gratte Brothers’ headquarters in London. Fordway and Tegile began by migrating a small system before moving all the data across. A week later Tegile did the same at Gratte Brother’s data centre at Slough. Here the fully virtualised systems meant the Tegile storage could be connected directly to the host system. It has plug-ins to enable it to tie in seamless to virtualised equipment such as VCentre from VMWare. There was no need for any fibre switches – the team simply used the existing fibre at the London site.

“The whole process was remarkably quick,” said Damien Silman, senior systems administrator at Gratte Brothers. “Fordway arrived on site, carried out the implementation and left the same day with everything running smoothly. In our view that’s perfect!”

The Tegile hybrid storage arrays are highly scalable to handle future data growth, and provide immediate deduplication and compression to increase usable capacity.

Mike and Damien realised that the reports from their old SANs had been inaccurate as they were measuring capacity speed, not average speed. “The reports had shown spare processor capacity, but with the Tegile storage we could see that demand was greater in terms of performance than we had been able to meet,” explained Damien. “However, this is no longer a problem. When a slow drive is at capacity, the system begins to use the fast drive, so data is constantly being moved

Gratte Brothers then needed a company to integrate the new arrays with its existing infrastructure

around and we can see where it is.

“We’d been like a Formula One car with an engine limiter set. Users either thought things were running normally or slowly. Taking away that limiter means that complaints have stopped, and the CAD operators seem a lot happier now they’re not suffering from what we called ‘slowdown syndrome’.”

Gratte Brothers now has the visibility of how storage is being used, and is planning ahead to add additional capacity when they start to approach the current thresholds.

“This hybrid storage is a perfect fit with Gratte Brothers’ needs,” concludes Fordway’s Richard Blanford. “Storage running at or close to capacity can significantly reduce productivity as employees wait for a response. Mike and Damien have chosen an innovative solution which should meet their company’s needs for many years to come.”

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STORAGE

Defining STORAGE Kevin Linsell, head of service development, Adapt looks at the the software defined data centre (SDDC)

T

he data centre industry is evolving rapidly. It is no longer common practice to build large-scale data centres with high-volumes of inefficient, expensive and hard to manage hardware. Instead, analysts and forward thinking organisations are looking to the software defined data centre (SDDC), the next big thing in the cloud computing industry, to transform the way they utilise data centre resources.

A SDDC offers businesses a fast, incredibly efficient way of running their IT, offering maximum flexibility, agility and control from the application layer down to component level. The ability to fluidly align resources with consumption to such a granular degree supports rapid change and enables transformation - and finally gives them the opportunity to uncover the true cost of their IT. However, as with all big evolutionary steps, the concept is taking a while to achieve broad market acceptance.

Disagreement about the definition of the SDDC is widespread. Major discrepancies exist between most of the vendors that operate in the software-defined world. The SDDC has become a buzzword in the IT market but the industry is still confused about ‘software defined’ and its many benefits. Analysts and vendors need to work together to educate the market on the SDDC so it can fulfil its revolutionary potential.

Confusion surrounding the SDDC A recent survey by Adapt has revealed the true extent of this confusion within the UK cloud industry. Although three out of five respondents (61%) claimed to be familiar with the SDDC concept, the majority were unable to explain its principal benefits: 13 per cent thought it was all about performance, 20 per cent said centralised management and 17 per cent admitted they were unaware of its benefits.

The statistics further revealed that almost half (43%) of respondents do not think a true production level SDDC is achievable in the

32 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

next 12 months. However, a number of vendors such as EMC and service providers are leading the charge, so watch this space.

What is a SDDC? Put simply, it’s a way of making the most economic use of traditional data centre resources like storage, network and compute.

A software layer controls and manages infrastructure consumption, process and operation down to component level without human intervention. This enables applications to move seamlessly between environments, in and out of the cloud, from low to high performance without having to touch a single piece of hardware.

How the SDDC helps IT service providers The SDDC’s innovative technology provides Managed Service Providers (MSPs) with a highly efficient way of managing services and ultimate choice for their customers. The SDDC delivers integration throughout the technology stack, enabling MSPs to deliver a more seamless customer experience across diverse technologies. Its virtualised compute, network and storage layers and automation capabilities reduce the need for human intervention, providing MSPs with the opportunity to refocus their resources on helping customers with more growth-accelerating projects.

How the SDDC helps businesses The SDDC offers the elasticity required to keep technology permanently aligned with your business objectives and priorities. In addition to the obvious technical benefits (on demand enterprise-grade performance, security and functionality; massive, rapid scale), this makes it very attractive commercially as it allows businesses to relate cost directly back to resource usage and retune their budgets for optimal return. It allows organisations to specify technology simply by business outcome – and enter more meaningful, real-world contractual relationships with service providers rather than

A SDDC offers businesses a fast, incredibly efficient way of running their IT, offering maximum flexibility, agility and control from the application layer down to component level.

simple uptime agreements.

The SDDC makes it possible for businesses to rapidly respond to demand changes as and when they arise. With its ability to promote and demote workloads into performance tiers based on criticality, the SDDC brings IT in line with businesses at crucial periods throughout the year. As a result, businesses can become more cost efficient, increase productivity and gain competitive advantage in their markets.

For example, the challenge many retail outlets face is how best to deliver during busy periods. During the January sales, a furniture retailer may need to ‘promote’ its website to a higher performance platform to keep customer experience optimal during periods of high traffic and heavy transaction workload. At a daily level, smart card ticketing providers similarly rely upon fast, flexible infrastructure that can be easily scaled to support high volumes of traffic during peak hours.

What’s next for the SDDC? There’s no doubt that the SDDC is the next big thing in IT. It’s certainly due to replace ‘cloud’ as the industry’s favourite buzzword.

However, it is clear from Adapt’s research that the IT industry is still confused about the SDDC. It is up to cloud computing providers to work together to set the story straight and ensure the market does not miss out on the efficiency and growth opportunities the SDDC can deliver.

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STORAGE

A kind of MAGIC There is an industry buzz about software defined storage. DCM finds out about one company that has been in the market from the very beginning

S

oftware defined storage (SDS) has been a buzzword for a few years and with VMWare’s product VSAN gaining market traction, people are beginning to take SDS seriously.

One of the first companies to the party was StorMagic, a company that entered the virtualized storage market six years ago. They, and more specifically their CEO, Hans O’Sullivan has been evangelizing about the technology since then, and the company’s product in that sector SvSAN has now come of age.

SvSAN is a software solution which enables enterprises to eliminate downtime of business critical applications at the edge, where this disruption directly equates to a loss in service and revenue. SvSAN ensures high availability through a virtualized shared storage platform, so that these business critical edge applications remain operational. This is achieved by leveraging the existing server storage and presenting it as a virtual SAN. SvSAN can be deployed as a simple 2-node cluster, however the flexibility of the

34 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

architecture enables the virtual infrastructure performance and/or capacity to be scaled to meet the changing business needs, without impacting service availability. This is achieved by adding additional capacity to existing servers or by growing the SvSAN cluster.

StorMagic’s typical customer has anywhere between 10 – 10,000 edge sites, where local IT resource is not available, but uptime of applications is a must. StorMagic enables a better, virtualized way of working at the edge than a traditional SAN solution allows.

Hans continues, “Enterprises using SvSAN are able to provision an edge infrastructure which complements a cloud/centralization strategy. As part of these initiatives there is a need to minimize the infrastructure at the edge, but certain applications must remain at the edge as they have requirements that cannot be met through the cloud or at distance, such as performance, latency and bandwidth or the data must remain locally for compliance reasons.

“Software-defined storage from SvSAN enables an edge infrastructure that

SvSAN is a software solution which enables enterprises to eliminate downtime of business critical applications at the edge, where this disruption directly equates to a loss in service and revenue.

complements the wider centralization or cloud strategy allowing the IT footprint to be as lean as possible and administered through a central management console.”

There are a number of benefits to this approach, as Hans explains, “We are able to eliminate downtime, future proof your edge infrastructure, centrally deploy and manage your IT infrastructure and finally save you money. We have calculated that it is possible to save up to 40 per cent of costs in both Capex and Opex, plus there is no single point of failure in your storage network.”

The latest news from the company speaks volumes about the success of the product with the company going into partnership with VMWare. VMware vSphere Remote Office Branch Office and StorMagic SvSAN will be combined to deliver high availability, high speed and uptime with the lowest possible total cost of ownership.

Gaetan Castelein, senior director, Storage and Availability at VMware, commented, “By combining VMware vSphere Remote Office Branch Office with StorMagic SvSAN, we anticipate a robust and highly available solution that addresses all these requirements using just two servers, thereby minimizing hardware costs in ROBO environments.”

"We’ve solved key business problems for a growing number of large retailers, government agencies and more, enabling high availability across their sites with less hardware and less operating expense than traditional and other competing virtual storage solutions,” said Hans. "Now, with VMware, we are positioned to deliver the ultimate in value to a market that is growing rapidly – organizations looking for affordable alternatives to expensive SANs in virtual server environments."

Virtual storage seems to have come of age, and it may be that you need the magic touch.

DCM-A04:Layout 1 10/02/2015 11:07 Page 104

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mid- to long-range 3D thermal sensors that cover areas from 20m by 30m to 100m by 4m, and a number of independent detection areas to match PTZ pre-set positions.

Building and roof intrusion detection (3) Criminals have on occasion managed to access critical areas or data rooms by drilling holes in walls, while others have broken in using flat roofs and skylights. Roof and wall protection shouldn’t been overlooked and should be treated as another layer of security.

The roof can be protected from outside using sensors and cameras on the roofs, or from inside by creating a false/virtual ceiling. Although the latter captures the breakin at a later stage, it has the benefits of the cameras and sensors not being impacted by animals or harsh weather conditions.

For wall protection, OPTEX suggests using either fibre optic sensors fixed to the wall, or a virtual wall generated by the laser sensor. For outdoor or indoor roof/ceiling protection the laser sensor is ideally suited.

Controlled access within the data centre (4) Every area of a data centre is clearly compartmented and each room has restricted access to authorised people.

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5 SPRING 2015 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT 37

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ENCLOSURES

Rack OF AGES T BIL Group is moving fully-

populated data enclosures

safely and easily with Rittal

38 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

he necessity for off-site data storage is rapidly increasing around the world, along with the accompanying need for additional, larger data centres containing yet bigger and heavier data enclosures. This has presented the industry with its own set of unique challenges especially with regard to the demands of Health & Safety.

The particular challenge of how to safely move these large data enclosures, was identified by Rittal who are one of the world's leading international data centre system providers. Among other things, Rittal manufacture and supply the actual data enclosures. When fully populated, these large data racks or cabinets can weigh in excess of 3,520lbs (1.5 metric tonnes) and are often worth around £1 million.

On delivery to data centres, the enclosures need to be removed from their anti-vibration pallets and safely transported to their final install destination. Typically, the enclosures are rolled down primitive ramps off the pallet by personnel without any form of safety brake. That is quite simply dangerous and is literally an accident waiting to happen. The journey to their final installation would typically involve manoeuvring the enclosures along relatively narrow corridors, through

doorways with limited height, around corners and negotiating gaps whilst going in and out of service lifts.

Although the enclosures are fitted with castors these are not suitable for such a demanding journey. Quite often, the small diameter castors that are fitted to enclosures are not suitable for dynamic loads over even small obstacles encountered on relatively short distances.

The size, shape and weight of the data enclosures makes the load inherently unstable, especially when on inclines or when cornering, this could lead to the unit tipping over causing serious injury to personnel and damage to both surrounding equipment and the data enclosure itself. Incidents have already occurred in the field and they should no longer be ignored. Also the fact that there are very few secure points to which traditional lifting equipment can connect to made the challenge even harder - an answer to easily and safely moving these fullyloaded data enclosures needed to be found.

The challenge is resolved Back in November 2013 Rittal approached BIL Group, having seen one of their existing products during its market research. This was a cleverly designed moving system called Skoots, comprising of a pair of wheeled units, each having its own hydraulicallycontrolled toe plate. The units attach to either end of a load with the toe plates being inserted between the load and the floor. Then both units are secured together with strapping for extra safety.

Next the toe plates on both units are raised evenly, lifting the load from the ground and making it easy to manoeuvre. The Skoots moving system has been successfully used for many years for applications such as moving vending machines, large freezer units and shop display cabinets.

At the beginning of 2014 when Rittal were presented with a first prototype, it

was quickly decided that BIL should continue to work on the project in order to produce a final pre-production model. Over the next few months, one by one, all issues were solved ¬- a toe plate bar was added to enable the Skoots unit to hook securely under the chassis of the data enclosure to prevent slipping and it was designed to be adjustable to enable it to cope with any changes to the enclosure's depth, such as the addition of cable management trays. The traditional Skoots strapping used to secure the units together was replaced with heavy duty adjustable clips and an improved hydraulic jack was fitted. The stability issues were solved by the inclusion of removable outriggers or stabilisers. Having them removable make the units very versatile and allows the load to be rolled the last few feet into its final position even if space is tight.

By May, after having passed extensive independent testing procedures and been successful in field trials at data centres in Houston, New York, Santa Clara, Dublin, Amsterdam, Singapore and Hong Kong, the Skoots SKENCSYS1 data enclosure moving system was ready. It has also achieved CE accreditation and has a pending international patent application.

BIL Group are currently in production of the Skoots SKENCSYS1 fulfilling orders for a number of international clients and have also since completed a further project with Rittal developing a special narrow Skoots unit to move cooling cabinets.

“We are very pleased with end result and now have a product that is extremely versatile and can easily be adapted to fit most OEM data enclosure cabinets currently available.

With that in mind, I'm looking forward to helping other data centres solve the problem of how to move their data enclosures both safely and easily.” commented Tim Murrow, UK Sales Manager, BIL Materials Handling Division.

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POWER

Join the REVOLUTION Addressing the most critical industry challenges, the latest power monitoring systems from Socomec will be showcased at Data Centre World 2015.

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ritical buildings and facilities managers are challenged with constantly evolving demands on energy efficiency and availability.

Demands upon IT capacity are relentless and often unpredictable; Data Centres face constant pressure to adapt to these requirements.

Flexibility is vital in order to address shortterm capacity requirements whilst meeting longer term growth requirements –a one size fits all solution is too rigid to meet the ever changing remit of a hard working electrical infrastructure.

The optimisation of critical power availability and protection of vital assets requires a careful balancing act between the changing power demands in a building with the provision of greener, cleaner power.

Furthermore, rising energy costs and premiums on floor space mean that power density is at the forefront of every organisation’s concerns.

The critical power specialist, Socomec, has developed a broad range of integrated products and services to address four of the most important and topical power issues: availability, efficiency, capacity and flexibility – as well as Total Cost of Ownership.

Socomec is showcasing an integrated range of products and services at Data Centre World 2015, drawing on the expertise from each highly specialized division of the business to provide cost-effective power solutions that are flexible enough to be scaled to address the rapidly changing capacity demands of Data Centres.

Accurate measurement = effective management Effective energy management starts with the accurate metering, measuring and monitoring of energy usage.

With over 90 years’ experience in the 40 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

development and manufacture of innovative power systems, Socomec has again set the precedent in leading-edge power monitoring systems with the launch of its latest innovation – DIRIS Digiware.

DIRIS Digiware brings together groundbreaking digital electrical measuring technology – from sensors to software - to deliver unrivalled flexibility.

Totally modular, this fully digital, multicircuit plug and play measurement concept comprises a display unit, voltage measurement module and multiple current measurement modules and current sensors as standard.

With fast installation – 4 times quicker than a conventional meter – the DIRIS Digiware delivers exceptional accuracy. Infinitely scalable the potential energy savings combined with low installation costs make this solution self-financing – with payback possible within just 6 months.

Andrew Wilkinson, regional managing director, Socomec, comments; “We understand the importance of guaranteeing the continuous supply of high quality power in parallel with the identification of cost reduction opportunities. We have invested heavily in pioneering research and development to engineer a solution that maximises our customers’ investments by measuring actual energy consumption and key electrical parameters.”

Socomec Modulys GP2.0 – in-built flexibility Socomec’s Modulys Green Power UPS designed for complete vertical and horizontal modularity and scalability - is ideal for use in the most demanding critical IT applications and Data Centres.

The range offers power scalability up to 600kW, making it ideal for unscheduled site upgrades or incremental power evolutions.

Furthermore, the installed power of a single

system can be increased up to 200kW by adding power modules in increments of 25kW. For increased power and maximum flexibility, 3 parallel systems can be configured horizontally to achieve 600kW. Achieving the desired power scaling is simple: the units feature a redundant architecture employing parallel Plug-In modules. When a new power or battery module is plugged in, the system automatically self-configures to bring the new capacity online.

High Power Solutions- Green Power up to 800kW Socomec’s Green Power 2.0 - a transformer-less unit - combines unbeatable energy efficiency with unity power to provide the ultimate “future-proof” critical power solution.With units now available from 160kVA to 800kVA a combined focus on performance and efficiency, energy costs and operating expenditure is minimised and uptime is maximised – throughout the equipment lifecycle – delivering savings up to 12% on TCO.

The optimisation of critical power availability and protection of vital assets requires a careful balancing act between the changing power demands in a building with the provision of greener, cleaner power.

Power Control and Safety Also on show will be Socomec’s latest range of Automatic Transfer Switches, the ATyS family, designed for low voltage life safety and critical load applications and fully certified to BS EN 60947-6-1. Widely used for air handling units, chillers, security and life safety systems within data centres, the ATyS family has recently been updated to keep up with the ever-changing requirements of our customers.

The ATyS M is an extremely compact automatic transfer switch for single or 3-phase loads from 40A to 160A while the larger ATyS can handle loads up to 3200A. The ATyS are also available enclosed including an option with single or dual line bypass to allow maintenance with no interruption to the load.

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PREDICT AND PROTECT REDUCE COSTS & INCREASE ASSET UPTIME

X

Linetraxx速 Power Quality Management X

Residual Current Monitors

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POWER

Protection ASSURED Power Continuity says it is the only power protection company to offer a three year warranty on all new bespoke built and installed standby generator systems

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estament to the high quality workmanship of PowerContinuity’s bespoke standby generators, all new bespoke built generator power protection systems installed by Power Continuity come with a 3 year warranty offering the client total peace of mind. This follows our longstanding 3 year warranty on our installed UPS systems.

Every Generator we build is bespoke for your site requirements. Whether 12 hour or 72 hour bunded fuel tanks, it’s no issue for Power Continuity Systems.

We recently installed a major generator installation for a client deep inside their exiting building.

When selecting a new UPS system for your brand new datacentre or mission critical business operations, the vast majority of customers consider traditional static battery uninterruptible power supplies.

However there are a relatively wide range of rotary UPS systems available, which offer a number of benefits over static UPS’. The question is, when is one more suitable than another? Let’s discuss some of most common considerations.

The fundamental difference between rotary and static UPS’ (as the name suggests) is that static UPS use chemical stored power (in the batteries) in the event of a power cut whereas rotary UPS use the stored kinetic energy of a

42 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

spinning flywheel.

Rotary UPS’ have a relatively low redundancy (typically 15-30 seconds) on their own and are therefore normally coupled with a generator to provider longer autonomy.

All the acoustic attenuation, ventilation and silencers were built and installed by our own engineers.

Our factory trained engineers carry out regular planned and preventative maintenance to ensure our Clients’ power protection systems are always ready for when the mains power goes off.

A potentially greater benefit with rotary UPS’ is the fact that they cope with “unclean” building loads a lot better than static UPS’s: a rotary UPS can literally take the entire building’s load including lighting, air conditioning, motors without any detrimental effect to the UPS or loss of load for the customer. Whereas generally only equipment such as servers, super computers, etc are connected to static UPS’, The redundancy allows sufficient time for the generator to start up and accept the full load without affecting the output to the customer. On their own, a rotary UPS can provide a “ride-out system” for short outages and brownouts. For prolonged outages you need a rotary UPS and generator.

The main benefit with rotary UPS’ is that you do not have to replace the VRLA batteries

UK Power supplies have never been so precarious, with warning after warning that the National Gird no longer has sufficient resilience to maintain 100% coverage across the UK in the face of severe weather conditions or unexpected events.

every 4-10 years, which can be a considerable capital expenditure.

Power Continuity provide both static and rotary UPS and will provide you with the necessary guidance to choose the best system for your particular needs.

UK Power supplies have never been so precarious, with warning after warning that the National Gird no longer has sufficient resilience to maintain 100% coverage across the UK in the face of severe weather conditions or unexpected events.

Although this is bad news for a lot of people, it is potentially good news for companies with power protection as it provides you with the opportunity of earning money by providing a STOR (Short Term Operating Reserve) project for National Grid.

This means that National Grid will pay you a set amount each year for the ability to call upon your standby generators to temporarily increase the Grid’s capacity.

The general requirements for National Grid to consider your STOR project are: • Offer a minimum of 3MW or more of generation or steady demand reduction (this can be from more than one site) • Deliver full MW within 240 minutes or less from receiving instructions from National Grid • Provide full MW for at least 2 hours when instructed Power Continuity can provide a turnkey design and build solution for your STOR project whether that’s upgrading your existing generators with a G59 connection or installing additional dedicated capacity.

During the last 12 months we have installed resilient UPS and Generator power protection systems of over 4 megawatts per site as well as individual bespoke systems from 100kVA upwards.

With over 25 years of design experience in the power protection industry, some of the largest global UK based companies depend on PowerContinuity for their automatic emergency power systems.

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POWER

Lowering PUEs to SAVE ENERGY According to data centre consortium Uptime Institute, a typical data centre has an average PUE (power usage effectiveness) of 2.5. This means that for every 2.5W in at the utility meter, only 1W is delivered to the load. Yet the institute estimates that most facilities can achieve a 1.6 PUE using the most efficient equipment and best practice technologies. Here, Adam Spolnik, director at ICS Cool Energy, looks at how businesses can achieve these lower levels of PUE to reduce energy costs.

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UE is calculated by dividing the total power in a data centre by the amount of energy being used by the IT equipment. For example, a PUE of 1 means that all power going into the data centre, is being used to power the IT equipment.

In order to measure PUE accurately, we calculate the breakdown usage, which allows us to gauge the results of optimisation efforts.

We monitor energy usage with a power profile for each rack within a data centre. A power system in a data centre is a critical element in the facility’s infrastructure, as it enables us to determine how much energy is being used in certain areas.

As energy costs continue to rise, it is becoming more critical to optimise overall energy efficiency and reduce power costs.

Therefore it is essential to employ procedures which will keep a data centre’s energy efficiencies on track, and coincide with the Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency. There are a few simple and low cost options which can help businesses reduce a

data centre’s energy costs and improve performance, from switching off idle servers, to managing the airflow. Here, we explore a number of options.

cutting operating costs.

Free Cooling Free Cooling is one of the best technologies to use to improve energy efficiency, especially during the colder months. The technology utilises cold outside air temperatures, allowing an external chiller to reduce or even stop its compressors from working, and cool the data centre with cold air from the ambient environment.

Internal CRAC (computer room air conditioning) units featuring Free Cooling technology as well as external independent free coolers can be installed to work alongside a data centre, offering savings of up to 70% and PUEs of 1.1.

Switching off idle servers In many data centres, between 5% and 15% of servers are no longer needed for the whole data centre to function, and could be turned off completely. While this isn’t as simple to do as it sounds, even taking small steps and testing this in a controlled environment would benefit the data centre and start to show considerable cost savings.

For larger data centres, energy savings of up to 20% can be achieved by doing this.

Turning up the heat By turning up the thermostat you can extend equipment life expectancy. It also gives you more time to react in the unlikely event of a cooling system failure. In recent years, server operating costs have generally surpassed acquisition costs; this may make the preservation of hardware less of a priority over

Reusing data centre heat in office spaces Energy savings can be doubled, by allowing hot air exerted from data racks to heat up office spaces in the colder months. Often the heat generated from a data centre, will provide more than enough heat to replace a traditional heating system.

As energy costs continue to rise, it is becoming more critical to optimise overall energy efficiency and reduce power costs.

44 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

Airflow management Airflow management is an essential part in data centre management, as it ensures separation between hot and cold air; any temperature fluctuations could result in data racks overheating and cause potential downtime.

Contained cold aisles prevent air from mixing and can be managed with perforated floor tiles for cool air to filter up through the floor, and into the front of the data racks.

Other options to separate the air include plastic sheet curtains which can be hung over the front of the racks to contain the cold aisle, and sheet metal placed in front of empty rack space to prevent hot air from mixing.”

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POWER

TECHNOLOGIES FOR UPS energy efficiency Energy efficiency is a major concern for all uninterruptible power supply (UPS) users, particularly those who operate large data centres where power requirements can run into megawatts. Fortunately, as Janne Paananen of Eaton explains, the latest technologies make it possible to reach energy efficiency levels that, not long ago, would have been considered impossible.

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This is equivalent to driving a car around the world eight times. And these figures don’t even take into account the extra savings that will be made because more efficient UPSs need less cooling.

Now let’s consider factors that affect UPS efficiency. We’ll concentrate on doubleconversion types because these provide the most comprehensive protection and are almost always chosen to protect critical loads.

A good double-conversion UPS can be expected to have an efficiency of around 94%.

Or at least it can if it is loaded to 40% or more of its capacity. With smaller loads, the efficiency falls dramatically and at 10% load it

may not be much more than 80%.

This is potentially bad news in modern virtualised data centres where loads can change rapidly and unpredictably throughout the day, and in applications where the UPS installation has been deliberately oversized to allow for the future addition of additional server racks. There is, however, a solution, in the form of Variable Module Management System (VMMS) technology.

VMMS technology uses UPSs that are each made up of several uninterruptible power modules (UPMs) that, in effect, work in parallel to supply the load. When the UPS is lightly loaded, any UPMs that are not currently

continues on page 48

hy is there so much focus on the energy efficiency of UPSs? The answer is simple – even though present-day products have efficiency figures that are usually well over 90%, a small additional increase in efficiency can mean big savings, especially in large installations.

Consider, for example, a data centre where the UPS installation supplies a total load of around 1 MW, which today is by no means unusual. At typical energy prices, increasing the efficiency of the UPS by just one per cent will save more than €10,000 per year and reduce CO2 emissions by around 50 tonnes.

46 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

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In the future how much power will you need? protecting you from the unpredictable Modular UPS solution guaranteeing service continuity, scalability and optimized costs.

A flexible response for meeting unpredictable changes in power demand.

Fully modular system

Totally redundant design

Enhanced serviceability performance

ʼForever Youngʼ service concept

For further information please call 01285 86 33 00 or email info.ups.uk@socomec.com

www.socomec.com SOCOMEC · Units 7A-9A Lakeside Business Park · Broadway Lane, South Cerney · Cirencester · GL7 5XL UK

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POWER

needed to supply the load are taken out of service and put into a low power quiescent mode. As a result, all of the load is transferred to the remaining UPMs, so that these are well loaded and will operate at, or near, their maximum efficiency. The load distribution is managed dynamically, so that the quiescent UPMs are instantly brought back into operation when the overall load on the installation increases.

Installations made up of multiple UPSs can also be managed by VMMS. If, for example, the installation has three UPSs each comprising three UPMs – a total of nine UPMs – VMMS can dynamically configure the installation so that one UPM, all nine UPMs or any number in between are operational as needed to support the load at a particular time.

VMMS helps enormously to maximise efficiency but, even when operating at their optimum load levels, conventional doubleconversion UPSs are no more than 94% efficient. What can be done to further increase efficiency? The answer is to use UPSs that incorporate Energy Saver System (ESS) technology.

To understand how ESS works, it’s useful to recall that all double-conversion UPSs comprise four power function blocks – the rectifier, the inverter, the battery and a static switch. Between them, these offer three modes of operation. Normally, the UPS operates in double-conversion mode, with the

48 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

rectifier taking power from the mains and feeding to the inverter, which supplies the loads. If the mains supply fails or its quality deteriorates, the battery feeds the inverter to maintain power to the loads.

Finally, the UPS can operate in bypass mode with the static switch closed. In this mode, the rectifier and inverter are bypassed, and power is fed directly to the loads via the static switch. This mode is most often used if there is a problem with the rectifier or inverter, or if maintenance is being carried out on the UPS. A UPS with ESS has exactly the same four power function blocks. No new blocks that could increase complexity or reduce reliability are introduced. The ESS UPS makes better use of the blocks, however, by providing a fourth operating mode – ESS mode. In this mode, the static switch is closed and power is fed direct from the mains supply to the loads, just as it is in an ordinary UPS operating in bypass mode.

The big difference, however, is that in ESS mode, the rectifier and inverter are held in a state of ‘extraordinary system preparedness’.

This means that, if the mains power quality falters, the UPS can switch to full doubleconversion operation in less than two milliseconds. This is so fast that the transition is invisible even to the most sensitive of IT equipment.

ESS UPSs will normally operate in ESS mode almost all the time, switching to double-

Installations made up of multiple UPSs can also be managed by VMMS. If, for example, the installation has three UPSs each comprising three UPMs – a total of nine UPMs – VMMS can dynamically configure the installation so that one UPM, all nine UPMs or any number in between are operational as needed to support the load at a particular time.

conversion mode only occasionally to deal with mains disturbances. In ESS mode, their efficiency is a truly impressive 99% as the losses associated with the rectifier and inverter are eliminated. The potential for energy savings is huge and, as an added bonus, because ESS UPSs run cooler most of the time than conventional UPSs, they are more reliable and they have longer working lives.

While VMMS and ESS technologies offer effective ways of significantly increasing the efficiencies of UPSs during normal operation, there is another aspect of energy efficiency that needs to be considered.

To ensure that the batteries used in UPSs are still capable of supporting the load for the required run time, they must be tested regularly. The most conclusive way of doing this is with a discharge test which, as the name suggests, involves almost fully discharging the batteries while their performance and capacity is monitored.

The traditional way of doing this is to discharge the batteries into a load bank – essentially a bank of resistors – which means all the energy the batteries have stored in them is converted to heat and wasted. In a big UPS installation this can be a significant amount of work – with a three MW installation recently tested, for example, the cost associated with annual battery testing was worth €50,000.

Another advanced technology – Easy Capacity Test (ECT) – provides a solution for regular maintenance. With ECT, the UPS is temporarily reconfigured so that its own power modules can be used to feed the energy from the batteries back into the supply system. This eliminates the need for external load banks and all associated costs and, as a bonus, no waste heat is generated and the energy taken from the battery during the discharge test is put to good use. In redundant systems the testing can be performed concurrently to avoid unnecessary downtime.

In summary, in this article, we have discussed three novel technologies: VMMS, ESS and ECT. Between them, these technologies can make possible energy savings worth tens of thousands of euros over the life of a large UPS installation, as well as significantly reducing the installation’s environmental impact. Those involved in the specification and purchase of UPSs are, therefore, encouraged to seek out products that incorporate these technologies so that they too can enjoy lower costs combined with reduced carbon footprint.

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InRak™ 10-67kW EER up to 108.03 17-100% variable capacity control Save up to 23% 2 in annua g costs annuall operating compared with nearest n competitor screw w chiller

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Up to 30% more cooling kW/m2 vs similar leading competitors

CO CONSTANTLY ONSTANTLY IN NOVA ATING INNOVATING Tu TurboChill™ urboChill™ & TurboChill Tu urboChill FreeCool™ 200-1830kW

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Indirect adiabatic AHU No airr mixing means 100% DX back-up b cooling not required

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POWER

When the lights GO OUT Colin Pearson is head of the building performance investigation team in the sustainable construction at BSRIA. Here

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he UK power supply network is complex with a range of large and small power stations fed by different fuels at varying prices. Some are new and efficient, others old and inefficient. Some are clean and others produce sulphurous emissions. This makes the job of predicting the power network capacity very difficult, but Ofgem produces an annual update to its assessment of the most likely peak demand and the most likely available capacity. Ofgem’s Winter Outlook 2014-15 report was published on the 28 October 2014. It says the likely margin of supply over demand is now just 4.1% or 2.3 GW. This is based on average winter conditions so an extreme cold spell could push the supply network to its limits and possibly lead to outages. Loss of a large power station such as Didcot B at a critical time could also lead to outages. Of course

there are reserves, some old polluting power stations can be brought back into service and maintenance work can be postponed to increase supply for short periods. Ofgem has also secured an extra 1.1 GW of so-called Balancing Services, planned demand reduction and standby generation that brings the margin back to 6.1%. So the situation is more precarious than any winter since 2006 but Ofgem is still saying power outages are ‘unlikely’.

BSRIA published an article with advice to business electricity users last February which looks at reviewing the risks and control measures applicable to their facilities. “a hurricane on the way” “Earlier on today, apparently a woman phoned the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way…well, if you’re watching don’t worry, there isn’t”. An infamous

Government official said “the chances of involuntary power outages are low since risks to security of electricity supply are being managed

by Government”, if Michael Fish taught us anything it is that confidence, however well-intentioned can be misplaced.

50 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

quote from BBC weatherman Michael Fish which has entered into British Folklore, as that night a hurricane did arrive leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

In a recent e-mail to Andrew Eastwell, CEO of BSRIA, a Government official said “the chances of involuntary power outages are low since risks to security of electricity supply are being managed by Government”, if Michael Fish taught us anything it is that confidence, however well-intentioned can be misplaced.

It’s been almost 40 years since Britain last experienced serious and sustained power outages, and the “3 day week” entered national mythology. Since then the British business model has changed almost beyond recognition, but electrical power has become even more central to the way we do things, making it hard to believe that there would be a return to the bad old days.

Which is why news that the UK’s national safety margin for electricity supply has fallen to a nail-biting 2% has rightly created shock waves in the business world, especially as businesses are likely to bear the brunt of any outages.

Whilst the majority of power failures would last only a few hours, there is the potential for some to be of a longer duration with the consequence of shutting down production at companies and critical infrastructure such as telecommunication networks, financial services. How many businesses have considered the impact of this on the different areas of their business from production capacity, cash flow, protection of information and even security as increasingly commercial premises operate sophisticated security systems.

An area which can often be overlooked is the impact on your business of a supplier suffering from power outage, if your supplier is unable to provide components or services the consequence to your business is the same as if you directly suffered the power outage.

Real Cost Analysis from the US have shown that there is a real cost in power outages where even a

continues on page 52

he talks about the possibilities of power outages in the coming months

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POWER

relatively short outage of 30 mins can lead to a loss in excess of $15,000 for medium and large organisations. A large organisation may operate from multiple sites reducing the overall impact on their business, the impact maybe disproportionately higher for SME’s, as these organisations are unlikely to have skilled resource to undertake a risk assessment and develop a contingency plan.

While many organisations may feel that the power outages are beyond their control, there are a number of activities that businesses can do to mitigate this risk, most of which should be considered good practice anyway.

The most fundamental activity is to identify which services are so critical to their core operations that even a short outage could be dangerous, or risk causing catastrophic damage to finances or reputation. These may not be the obvious ones and may not even be on your premises. For example, if you trade mainly through your website and it is hosted on a third party server, can you cope if it’s down, even for a short time?

Having prioritised the key services you can undertake a risk analysis identifying the strategy to manage the risk, this can include reduction, avoidance, transfer or retaining the

risk. Once you have an understanding of the potential risk and the consequence of the risk should it become a reality, a strategy can be developed including analysing the return on the investment for the implementation of the strategy to the potential loss caused by the power outage.

Consideration should be given to the need for full scale backup generators that will keep your operations going for several hours? Is a UPS essential to ensure that your key services aren’t knocked out even for seconds or minutes? Is CHP (Combined Heat and Power) a viable option for your company, in which case you could gain security and potentially even export electricity to the grid?

Any contingency plan should include the human element. Would the staff know what to do if disaster strikes? Is working from home a practical option and do they have the facilities they need for this?

One man’s problem is another man’s……

Against the uncertainty of a major business problem there is born an opportunity, the risk of blackouts has the potential to create business opportunities.

Demand both for UPS solutions and diesel

Any contingency plan should include the human element.

Would the staff know what to do if disaster strikes? Is working from home a practical option and do they have the facilities they need for this?

powered backup generators is likely to rise.

These need to be managed, using reliable and appropriate software to ensure that they “kick in” and operate effectively. Companies will be under more pressure to control their energy usage, which should heighten interest in Building Energy Management Software.

Suppliers of CHP solutions can offer the potential to escape the effects of power outages, and cutting their energy bills, while also reducing their carbon footprint. If the demands are not high enough to warrant a private CHP system, a group of companies can come together to use their own district energy system, supplying both heat and power, and even potentially cooling (even in the UK an outage could strike during a hot summer).

A further benefit is that heat networks can be used to store energy, in the form of heat that can be used hours, or even months after it is produced.

It will probably only take one major outage for the current concern to become a widespread panic. Every company should be looking at its contingency plan now and making sure that it can keep on smiling through the darkness.

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Expanding your power distribution capacity shouldn’t be a hardship. And with the flexible STARLINE Track Busway, it won’t be. Our overhead, scalable, “add-as-needed” system can expand quickly, with no down time, and no routine maintenance. Make dealing with the jungle of under-floor wires a thing of the past, and reliable expansion and reconfigurations a part of your future. To learn more, visit StarlinePower.com or email info@uecorp.com.

Come see us at the

booth at the Data Centre World London Show.

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M O D U L A R C O N TA I N M E N T

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MODULAR

Modular systems: THE BIG DEBATE Andrew Roughan, commercial director at Infinity SDC looks at the role of the modular data centre

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ontainerised and Modular Data Centre Facility (CMDF) platforms seem to have been the ‘next big thing’ for a while, enabling some organisations to realise the significant technical and business advantages.

However, the majority of operators are continuing to build technical space using traditional whitespace construction. With many macro sociopolitical and environmental trends set to impact the data centre, it’s imperative to understand where CMDF fits into the future data centre market and to determine if it has more or less to offer when meeting the challenges these trends bring.

Macro trends We are living through the digital revolution, with the adoption and proliferation of digital computers and record keeping continuing to the present day. In my opinion it is about to accelerate due to the development of new materials, such as graphene, spawning a new level of technical innovation that will bring further miniaturisation, mobility and greater

54 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

power efficiency.

The digital revolution has opened up vast new markers, increased the pace of innovation and helped organisations dramatically reduce costs through automation. For many, IT has become the differentiator.

The IT journey In response to this, the way companies are using IT is changing. This IT journey transports organisations from having on-premise legacy IT through to multi-sourcing and the Software Defined Data Centre, where everything is managed and automated from a centralised control point.

Within the wholesale colocation market there is an ongoing trend for smaller units of scale, as enterprises aim to achieve a more ‘pay as you grow’ model for their retained IT assets. This trend has supported the calls for a modular approach to building and supplying data centres.

Modular and the benefits So, what is a modular data centre?

There are a whole range of offerings in the marketplace from scalable whitewall

solutions that are pre-built in standard scalable units to fully containerised modules, manufactured complete and shipped to the site. In between these extremes, there are prefabricated modules that are shipped from the factory and assembled on site, some using more standard construction methods and others being contained modules that link together.

These solutions aim to deliver similar benefits including a faster deployment, tighter quality control and lower operating and capital costs. Some manufacturers also aim to deliver the potential of offering higher power densities and DCIM and SDDC integration.

The premise is a simple one; if you reduce the module size you can smooth out the capacity/investment curve. For traditional bespoke data centres, the ’curve’ looks like a giant’s staircase, with large swings from over-capacity and high investment to under-capacity pending re-investment, often in a five year cycle or more. At no point is there an optimal blend of investment to available capacity.

By deploying smaller units, you also smooth out the IT utilisation / PUE

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MODULAR

curve. Big data halls that are partly deployed with IT are inefficient from a cooling perspective. Therefore, the smaller the hall, the better the PUE at lower levels of deployment.

Although smaller modular units have obvious advantages, there may be other factors to consider.

The only way is CMDF? The majority of what CMDF platforms provide can be achieved equally well in whitewall construction, for example, by prebuilding smaller, scalable data halls. There are clever cooling techniques that make traditional data hall cooling scalable, producing good PUEs at low IT deployment levels. These include dynamic rescheduling chilled water set-point control, hydraulically independent CRACs’ and the ability to add CRACs in-life without any operational disruption to the data hall. These are the dark arts of good M&E design. If CMDF doesn’t hold all of the high ground on these issues, what about the containerised element of CMDF? The ‘eco-reality’ of containerised modules One issue that has always intrigued me is

the issue of economies of scale and the efficiency issues of ‘over-packaging’. There is little doubt that small containerised halls are power efficient at smaller deployment levels, but small units mean more walls, more pipe and more materials in general. Now we start to wonder about the overall efficiency at the large deployment scale. Can a multitude of small modules be as efficient and eco-friendly as a large scale data hall at full deployment and if not, where are the break points?

There is anecdotal evidence that containerised modules are more expensive than traditional whitewall construction, only becoming noticeably cost effective at the high power density end of the market. Could this be as a consequence of the previous point that there’s just more ‘stuff’ that goes into the manufacture of containerised modules?

Eating infrastructure rack by rack?

If we take the current wholesale colocation market trends for smaller units of scale and ‘pay as you grow’ utility type pricing models into the enterprise data centre space, we could potentially end up with all of colocation at the rack level. It isn’t difficult to envisage an outsource data centre where halls are

filled to capacity quickly by collocating all customers on a rack-by-rack basis, aggregating their requirements and always ensuring one hall is completely full before another is occupied. Large data halls can be run at optimum efficiency with everyone benefitting from the low cost of whitewall construction and the total flexibility and agility of the rack as a unit of sale. However, the winners in this scenario are those prepared to give up on the concept of ‘contiguous space’.

Could this be the end of the road for the server hugger?

In a world where between 0 per cent and 90 per cent of applications in any given enterprise may be resident in the public cloud, do IT managers need to get excited about contiguous space? If you trust the public cloud, is it a stretch to accept that your retained IT assets are safely contained in outsourced data centres, spread over numerous data halls or chained data centres, under single and central control?

Undoubtedly, CMDF will continue to meet specific demands, but if the current macro trends continue, it may not be the answer to meeting the demand for mainstream outsource data centres at the emerging utility end of the market.

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DCIM

Competitive EDGE DCIM Power Solution helps British cloud and networking provider Exponential-e enhance its SLAs and gain a competitive edge

E

xponential-e’s full-service CloudNet platform serves a diversity of industries. Its 1700+ UK and Global customers trust Exponential-e to deliver technology to the heart of their business.

Exponential-e’s ethos of excellence and innovation meant that the data centre infrastructure specification for the new colocation business had to be as solid and reliable as its 100 gigE network. Leveraging its core competencies in networking, security and high availability, the 71,500-square-foot (1,625m2) data centre facility has been designed for enterprise-class connectivity up to 10Gbps, N+N redundancy on UPS, and N+1 on all other critical services.

Rob Anderson joined Exponential-e as data centre manager during the planning stage for building their Tier III data centre in North London. “Based on previous positive experience and benefits gained with intelligent power distribution units (iPDUs), I advised the Exponential-e team that this was the solution to help us manage our new data centre and to

56 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

enable our customers to manage their own equipment and power. We wanted to give our customers more visibility and remote hands-on to their own dedicated data centre cabinets.”

DCIM Monitoring Software to Manage Capacity Exponential-e also selected DCIM monitoring software to analyse power information that is automatically gathered by the rack iPDUs from data centre technology vendor Raritan -- including data on voltage, amperage, kilowatts, kilowatt-hours, and power factor. The combined software and hardware solution helps the firm monitor the power in customer cabinets and capacity based on actual loads. The solution can also monitor power consumption at the device, row, and data centre levels.

“We monitor the overall power utilisation in the data centre, and track future requirements for the remainder of that year,” says Anderson.

“We also set energy limits and generate energy bill reports by individual customers. In addition to real-time charts on active power,

Enterprise customers with remote access to power monitoring are given access to their equipment cabinets through the dashboard.

energy capacity and consumption, our dashboard shows PUE weather maps, cooling charts, and the carbon footprint of the building” claims Anderson.

The forecasting tool came in handy when the firm was moving to a new electricity provider from the national grid. “Power IQ helped us calculate how much power we think we’re going to be drawing over the next year, which was useful information in our negotiations with the provider,” says Anderson.

24x7x365 Fully Managed On-site NOC A DCIM dashboard was added to the large screen on the wall of Exponential-e’s UK-based Network Operations Center (NOC), which is staffed 24x7. Power usage for the entire data centre is centrally monitored on the screen. All iPDUs that are live are also being monitored.

“For any forecasts we require, we can easily obtain the relevant power information straight from that NOC screen,” adds Anderson.

An Energy Monitoring Tool for Customers Enterprise customers with remote access to power monitoring are given access to their equipment cabinets through the dashboard.

On the dashboard they can see their power usage and individual iPDUs. Customers like to know exactly what is going on in their cabinets; not just with their equipment, but also with their entire power usage. They also want to know their power headroom and how much is available to support future growth,” continues Anderson.

“Customers like the ability to control and oversee the equipment within their rack. On their dashboards they can see how much power they’re drawing not just on a daily basis, but also by week, month and year. If customers are planning to add more equipment to a cabinet, they have the ability to see how much contractual power remains.

Our customers are really excited about our power monitoring offering,” says Anderson.

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THE LAST WORD

Q&A CAMPBELL WILLIAMS Group strategy and marketing director, Six Degrees

Campbell joined Six Degrees Group in 2011. He is a wellknown figure in the industry and he has travelled the world as a presenter and subject-matter expert in a variety of technology fields, including twice addressing global United Nations conferences. Campbell held the post of group sales & marketing director when the company was founded and now has the role of group strategy & marketing director. He is responsible for channel strategy, product strategy, go-to-market messaging, proposition and solution development, public relations and branding matters.

58 DATAcentreMANAGEMENT SPRING 2015

How did you become involved in the IT industry?

I always wanted to work in the technology sector as I couldn’t bear the idea of doing a job that was going to be the same in 5, 10, 20 years. A graduate position with a telecoms manufacturer, Mitel, came up when I was 21 and the rest is history.

Who has been the biggest influence in your career?

There were several people in my early 20s who were hugely influential in making me better at my job, teaching me how to think, and helping me to be a better person. When I’m coaching and mentoring the younger people who work for me, I hope one day they might think of me as fondly as I do of those guys 15 years later. There are still plenty of people influencing my career and I’m still trying to get better at those three things.

What is the biggest issue in the data centre at the moment?

The biggest debate I have, with colleagues and peers, is “what do you do with your space”? Colo pricing has been under a lot of downward pressure in the last few years and it’s tough to make a margin competing against aggressive wholesale players with brand new and enormous facilities to fill. So you have to move up the stack and into more cloud and managed services.

It’s much quicker to fill your data centre with naked colo but once the space is gone, it’s gone. We’re now being more discerning and walking away from deals that don’t offer the right financials.

What is the question you are most often asked in your business life?

I’d say it’s probably “can I pick your brains?” or something like that. I manage several disparate teams and as a founding member of the management team I get involved in a lot of areas of the business.

What are the best/worst things about your job?

There aren’t any worst bits, I’m one of those people who is hugely lucky to have a job that they love; I still bounce into work every morning and sometimes have to force myself to leave in the evening.

What advice would you give to someone starting out in the industry?

Simple: “be a sponge”. Right from the beginning I was desperate for knowledge; if I could hang out with the

engineers for a beer, I’d just listen and absorb. I probably annoyed people with lots of stupid questions (I probably still do), I’d pester management with “why did we do this/that” queries.

What living person do you admire and why?

I don’t tend to be a great one for hero worship so I don’t have a big list of people I admire, it tends to be more archetypes. I love polymaths as there’s something incredible about the likes of Stephen Fry (and the likes of Da Vinci beforehand) who are so talented at so many things. I’m a huge sports fan so there are lots in there too; England winning the Rugby World Cup wasn’t the best day for a Scotsman but I cannot stop admiring Clive Woodward for that relentless drive to get better at all the details (ditto Dave Brailsford).

Where would you most like to live?

I’m really a city guy at heart. I love working in and living around London. I’d happily spend some time in Rome, Paris or Madrid but I’d hit language problems. New York would be great, as would San Francisco.

What is your favourite book?

It probably depends who is asking! I’m terms of stunning literary achievement, it would be Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. In terms of favourite and most read, it’s Lord of the Rings!

How do you relax?

I do a lot of active relaxing, so I like to hit the gym and lift weights or go for a run. Long runs are my alone time to do some thinking. I’ll do semi-active relaxing in the shape of going to the pub to watch the football or rugby. Or maybe just chill out with the Sunday papers. Relaxing isn’t a problem for me.

What sports team do you support?

I’m a Rangers supporter, so we’re having a hard time at the moment. My English team has always been Man Utd. What is your desert island disk?

A: That’s a tough one too. I’m a huge music lover and don’t do anything without it, I’ve got literally thousands of albums. But in terms of favourite, I’d go with the most played, which is The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses. Two and a half decades of memories (scarily) and still gets me going to this day.

What is your ideal holiday?

I like to mix up active and non-active time so a mix of City fun, day trips and chilling out on the beach are ideal. I can’t just sit by the pool for a fortnight. So places like Thailand are perfect for me as I can mix it up.

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