NETCOMMS EUROPE VOL 5 ISS 1

Volume V, Issue 1 2015

£35/€50

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Coping with Data Growth Online Backup and Data Recovery

Optimise Your IT For Today’s Challenges

Future Proofing Your Network Improving Data Centre Efficiency Automated Cooling Control Making Use of Data Analysis

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CONTENTS

BUSINESS CONTINUITY 12 Business Continuity Planning

The best approach to data recovery

CASE STUDY 14 Get Connected

How Dublin’s Ashling Hotel embraced wireless

16 Recycling- it’s an Art Form for N2S IT Lifecycle Management 20 Cool Runnings How London’s data centre specialists helped Virtus appraise their new LONDON2 site.

40 Coping with Data Growth

E Space Business Centre, 181 Wisbech Road, Littleport, Cambridge, CB6 1RA Tel 01353 865403 info@netcommseurope.com www.netcommeurope.com

Online backup and data recovery

COMMENT/OPINION 8 Celebrating 25 Years of the FIA 26 Mine’s Smaller Than Yours

Mike Gilmore reports on the industry’s latest advances

Understanding Power Usage Effectiveness

CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE 38 RiT Technologies Discusses AIM Standard...

42 Flash Architecture

Enhancing the security of networks

Evaluating storage for applications

D ATA S E C U R I T Y 10 Attack of the Clones

Understanding the DDoS threat

DCIM 22 Improving Data Centre Efficiency 32 Automated Cooling Control

Forget DCIM software, what you need is a DCIM process!

Making use of data-collection and analysis!

ENCLOSURES AND RACKS 44 Racks vs Frames

Understanding both types of enclosure

EVENTS PREVIEW 36 Data Centre World Preview

The Cloud - What’s New? What’s Next?

POWER 18 Controlling Energy Costs

The reliability of power in the UK

REGULARS 3

Foreword

6

Industry News

www.netcommseurope.com

Publisher & Managing Director: Ian Titchener Editor: Nick Wells Production Manager: Rachel Titchener Advertising Sales: Ian Titchener Financial Controller: Annie Callow Reprographics by Bold Creative Price: €50 | £35 Subscription rate: €200 | £140 The views expressed in the articles and technical papers are those of the authors and are not endorsed by the publishers.

The author and publisher, and its officers and employees, do not accept any liability for any errors that may have occurred, or for any reliance on their contents.

All trademarks and brandnames are respected within our publication.

However, the publishers accept no responsibility for any inadvertent misuse that may occur.

ISSN 2045-0583 This publication is protected by copyright © 2015 and accordingly must not be reproduced in any medium. All rights reserved.

Printed by MCR Print, 11 English Business Park, English Close, Hove, East Sussex BN3 7ET

STRUCTURED CABLING 28 Copper’s Big Bump in the Road

Published under licence by: LGN Media, a subsidiary of The Lead Generation Network Ltd

Netcomms stories, news, know-how?

Please submit to editor@netcommseurope.com including high resolution (300dpi+ CMYK) images.

Future proofing your network

NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

3

LANactive

Switch to the future

FTTO Active & Passive Solutions Nexans is pleased to announce LANactive, an alternative approach to structured cabling. Using fibre-to-the-office (FTTO) topology together with access switches installed near to the work place, it provides Ethernet services via standard copper based RJ45 technology to the device.

• Long distance transmission • Elimination of costly floor distribution • Reduced cable containment • Refurbishment with minimum disruption

The approach offers significant cost savings and other benefits in specific circumstances:

• Redundancy at user level

ncs.uk@nexans.com www.nexans.co.uk/LANsystems

4

NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

Global expert in cables and cabling systems www.netcommseurope.com

FOREWORD

Remembering Steve Gold While I’m delighted to bring you another bumper issue of Netcomms Europe, it’s with great sadness that we’ve had to say goodbye to our founding editor, Steve Gold, who died from complications arising from a heart operation on January 12th 2015. Steve was an internationally renowned expert in the field of IT crime and cyber terrorism, which culminated in his role as a senior internal auditor/fraud investigator for the National Health Service. As a journalist, he specialised in Communications and IT Security, having written for a number of titles, including Accountancy Age, Computer Weekly, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, Euromedia, the Guardian and The Times. Steve also assisted and co-wrote later editions of the Hackers Handbook, alongside Professor Peter Sommer, which has sold in excess of 60,000 copies. His full-time journalistic career began as a staff writer on Microscope in 1986.

The following year he helped launch PC Dealer, a trade computer reseller magazine, before helping Paul Robinson found SC Magazine, the world’s first dedicated IT security news publication, in 1994.

Steve’s next venture was working alongside a fellow team of US, Canadian and Australian writers to launch a pioneering IT newswire - Newsbytes News Network - in the US in 1985. In 2004 he joined Infosecurity Magazine as a contributor and soon became technical editor, assisting a succession of editors over a period of seven years. At the time of his death, Steve was Editorial Director here at LGN Media, where he will be remembered for his generosity, honesty and humility. An online tribute can be found at www.silentmodems.com Nick Wells Editor – Netcomms Europe

This issue of Netcomms Europe is dedicated to Steve Gold

Jan 1956 – Jan 2015

Flexible Network Test to 100G All-in-one transport testing to 100G Today’s core and metro communications networks are implementing 100 GigE and OTN technologies rapidly to provide sufficient bandwidth supporting the explosive increase in mobile communications data. These high-bit-rate networks demand very high reliability due to the large data volumes and variety of client signals in use.

With four 100 Gbps ports, MT1100A supports R&D of the latest OTN 400 Gbps technologies using client signals, including Ethernet, SDH/SONET, PDH/DSn, and Fibre Channel, now in development.

Europe 44 (0) 1582-433433 www.anritsu.com ©2014 Anritsu Company

www.netcommseurope.com

NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

5

INDUSTRY NEWS

xxxxxxx

...NEWSWIRE...NEWSWIRE...NEWSWIRE. 

According to the UK Government’s Home Secretary, Theresa May, recently referring to international terrorists: “The threat we face is now more dangerous than at any time before or since 9/11.” Data centres are prime targets for terror attack because of the massive disruption and chaos that taking one or several of them out of service could cause to UK life and the UK economy. Targets are likely to be areas like London’s Docklands where there are large concentrations of data centres in relatively small geographic areas. And, although the whole of the UK is placed on severe threat alert, major conurbations like London, Birmingham and Manchester are far more likely targets than rural areas.

Enterprises of all types that rely on data centres should give serious consideration to mitigating terrorist threats by having their disaster recovery (DR) or secondary data centres far away from those target areas. In fact, enterprises that do not need extremely low latency to the City should seriously consider not only the safety aspects, but also be far lower cost base of a data centre that is “out of sight, out of mind” from a terrorist perspective.

Tucked away in Norfolk - yet provide with excellent fibre connectivity and power is the MigSolv Gatehouse Data Centre, a 30,000 square foot technical floor space data centre that has more anti-terrorism measures in place than you’ll find in major centres. It has been audited and commended by the National Counter Terrorism Security Office and has a far lower likelihood of attack than data centres in the major conurbations.

A massive bomb-blast earth mound separates two large data halls, so that in the very unlikely eventuality of an event at one, the other is fully protected.

A three metre steel fence protects the perimeter of the nine-acre site with microwave intrusion detection along its entire length. Plus, there’s CCTV and infrared on the outside of the site and biometrics on the inside. The site is very well connected, with a number of mainstream Tier-1 carrier s on site with dual redundant fibre connectivity. And, unlike London, the electrical supply is not in short supply. Another big plus for clients of the MigSolv Gatehouse data 6

NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

centre is that the entire site is PCI DSS compliant for the processing and storage of credit card and other financial transaction data. Surprisingly few data centres carry this accreditation. www.migsolv.com



Making your DCIM deployment more efficient and cost-effective has never been easier thanks to the integration of Corning’s data centre EDGE connectivity solution and Cormant’s best-of-breed DCIM technology. According to Corning, their modular cabling solutions provide “unequalled rack density and ease-ofaccess to speed installation by up to 35%, reducing MAC costs by 25% and improving cabling ROI by up to 50%.” It’s also claimed that overall data centre productivity and asset utilisation can be further improved by between 20% and 50% when combined with the Cormant-CS DCIM solution.

With Corning’s EDGE solution fully integrated into Cormant’s DCIM solution with asset tracking through standard barcode labels, the intelligence truly is in the software. www.cormant.com



Capgemini, one of the world’s foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, is to use Schneider Electric prefabricated modular data centre infrastructure to upgrade the IT, power and cooling capacity of its Merlin facility.

Paul Feeney, Head of Global Data Centre Infrastructure and Transition at Capgemini told us, “Modular infrastructure allows us to align the requirements we have for high density, flexible racking, and energy efficiency.

This makes prefab a more sustainable solution going forward.” Kevin Brown, VP of Data Centre Offer at Schneider Electric said, “Prefabricated infrastructure solves the challenge of ensuring scalable data centre capacity to meet the needs of growing businesses like Capgemini. In addition, it is flexible to meet customer’s specific system design requirements, such as Capgemini’s use of flywheel technology for power back-up.”

Last year at DatacenterDynamics Converged London, Schneider Electric

announced 14 prefabricated data centre modules together with 12 new Data Centre Reference Designs. The reference designs detail complete data centres scalable in 250kW to 2MW increments, delivering IT, power, and/ or cooling integrated with best-in-class data centre infrastructure components and StruxureWare for Data Centres DCIM software for an easy-to-deploy, predictable data centre.

“Schneider Electric is delighted to have been selected to deliver a prefabricated modular data centre solution to Capgemini,” said Matthew Baynes, Enterprise Director, Schneider Electric UK. “Prefab meets the needs of a broad range of data centre requirements, from large space and colo facilities, to small and medium enterprises and industrial applications. Across the board, business seems to be voting in favour of its scalable, predictable performance and the efficiency benefits prefab brings.” www.schneider-electric.com



Siemon has been named one of the ‘20 Most Promising Cisco Solutions Providers for 2014’. A distinguished panel of CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, and analysts, including the CIO Review editorial board, made the selection. “Structured cabling is critical to building strong IT infrastructures that form the foundation of the IP-based networks that are vital to the success of any business,” said Carl Siemon, the company’s president and CEO. “We work closely with our customers early in the project lifecycle to provide tailored solutions that optimise the infrastructure in order to best support their long-term networking requirements. As a Cisco Technology Partner, all of our products are 100 per cent compatible with Cisco equipment.”

Siemon is also offering a new series of high-speed interconnect cable assemblies specifically designed to be compatible with Cisco switches and servers. A good example is Siemon’s SidePOD and Baffle solutions for use with its VersaPOD networking cabinets. This unique accessory is specifically designed to create the necessary clearance for properly routing airflow to and from Cisco’s side-vented Nexus switches. www.siemon.com/CIO www.netcommseurope.com

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All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. iPad is a registered trademark of Apple Inc. www.schneider-electric.com • 998-1229694-GB

COMMENT

xxxxxxx The forefront of cabling technology

Celebrating 25 Years of the FIA

By Mike Gilmore, DIRECTOR standards@fia

Introduction

Mike Gilmore reports on the fibreoptic industry’s latest advances

2015 is a particularly important year for the Fibreoptic Industry Association as we celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of its formation. The cornerstone of the celebration is the Summer Seminar and Networking Event held on 1st/2nd June. This year it will be held at Whittlebury Hall Hotel near Silverstone, Northamptonshire - which is ironic in view of the repeated confusion between our organisation and “the other FIA”, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile,” which frequently leads to our website being inundated each time Lewis Hamilton is docked points.

The seminars will feature a twin-track approach. One track will focus on trends and developments in the telecommunications industry while the other will deal with the more mundane day-to-day problems faced by our installer members. The latter has been enabled and encouraged by the success of the FIA Accredited Installers Scheme - membership of which requires regular attendance at our quarterly free-of-charge seminars.

This direct contact between our Council members and the installers has not only allowed a wider understanding of the vast array of technical information already available on the FIA website, but has also led to the development of specific guidance documents for Accredited Installers in specific topic areas. This greater attention to standards and quality assurance has led to AIS status becoming a requirement in a growing number of infrastructure installation tenders produced by blue chip organisations. Thanks go to the FIA Council and the endorsers of the Scheme for their continuing support.

The success of the AIS is particularly noteworthy in the year of our Silver Jubilee.

communications cables within buildings, which is expected to come into force during 2015. All cables intended for installation inside buildings, and certain other structures, will have to be tested and ‘labelled’ with a EuroClass ranging from A to F tagged with some other sub-designations concerning the production of droplets, smoke, acid gas etc. All the various existing terms for cable sheath materials such as PVC, LSOH will be replaced by the EuroClass designation of the cable construction.

Opportunities for confusion will be substantial and it is the role of associations such as the FIA to provide guidance to their members, their customers and their consultants.

Following discussions with government, we are working with BSI to produce advice and guidance on where each EuroClass of cable should, or perhaps should not, be used. Moreover, because the CPR affects power cables as well, we will be working with relevant groups to ensure that our advice and guidance is common to all infrastructures.

DC Power

There are many other technical advances that will affect our members during the period 2015-2016. One of the biggest trends is the growth in the use of DC power - mostly over Category 5 and equivalent cabling – that’s being driven by the growth in the type and range of devices now fitted

with or supported by IP technology.

Lighting systems, wireless access points, cameras, access controllers - the list is endless and the integration of such systems at a management level is bringing the concept of the ‘intelligent building’ to life for the first time. The FIA has been working hard to develop the planning and installation guides necessary to support the deployment of DC powering solutions via our ‘standards@fia’ team.

At the same time the recognition by IEEE, the networking standards group, that it may be time to fill in the gaps between 1GbE and 40GbE with something other than 10GbE may lead to a range of 2.5, 5 and 25 Gigabit product sets that will be supportable over existing installed base.

So, we may see a role for Category 6 cabling and perhaps alternative solutions for optical fibre also.

Conclusion

So, in its 25th year, having started in 1990 with the publication of the world’s first Code of Practice for the Installation of Fibre Optic Cabling, the Fibreoptic Industry Association is still operating at the forefront of cabling technology while ensuring that the information provided to its members is accurate, pragmatic and economically feasible. Here’s to the next 25 years. www.fia-online.co.uk

Regulations

Moving away from the challenges faced by installers on a regular basis, the FIA Summer Seminar will also concentrate on some of the wider issues faced by our industry in the coming year. One of the highest profile challenges will be the management of the impact of the Construction Product Regulations on 8

NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

The FIA’s Summer Seminar and Networking Event will be held on 1st/2nd June at Whittlebury Hall Hotel, Northamptonshire. www.netcommseurope.com

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D ATA S E C U R I T Y

Understanding the DDoS threat

Attack of the Clones

By Darren Anstee, Director of Solution Architects at Arbor Networks

Introduction

Darren Anstee reports on the rise of distributed denial of service attacks.

Recently there has been an almost constant feed of news surrounding distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, with banks, gaming organisations, governments, educational establishments and e-commerce vendors all being attacked. The DDoS threat has evolved considerably over recent years, with significant changes in the frequency and scale of attacks, and the motivations of cyber criminals. And, over a similar period, many organisations have become highly dependent on the availability of Internet services for their business continuity.

The beginning of this year saw a dramatic increase in DDoS attack activity with possibly the most concentrated storm of large attacks that has ever been seen on the Internet. The majority of these attacks leveraged a reflection amplification technique using the Network Time Protocol (NTP), with large numbers of significant attacks being detected all around the world.

Methodology

Reflection amplification is a technique that allows an attacker to both maximise

the amount of traffic they can generate, and obfuscate the original sources of that attack traffic. This technique relies on two unfortunate realities: firstly, around a half of service providers do not implement filters at the edge of their network to block traffic with a ‘forged’ (spoofed) source IP address; secondly, there are plenty of poorly configured and poorly protected devices on the Internet providing UDP services that offer an amplification factor between a query sent to them and the response which is generated.

Historically, DNS servers have been the most frequently utilised by attackers for reflection amplification. In fact, the largest attack ever seen on the Internet prior to 2014 was generated in this way – 309 Gbps, targeting Spamhaus in March 2013. However, in the latter part of 2013 and most of 2014, NTP has seen significant use with very large numbers of attacks in February and March 2014.

NTP is normally used to synchronise the clocks between devices on the Internet. This takes place with very little traffic, but some NTP servers have administrative functions open to the Internet and these offer very good

(100s of times) amplification factors for attackers. Attacks leveraging NTP have been around for years on a small scale, but they really came into focus in late 2013. A number of gaming operators were targeted and news quickly spread, with plentiful media coverage of the successful attacks and the methodology used. Attack tools quickly circulated through the attacker community along with lists of servers generating good amplification factors, and even DDoS services started offering NTP reflection amplification as an option.

Key Trends

Arbor’s ATLAS system, which monitors events from 300+ network operators around the world, detected a new largest DDoS attack – 325Gbps, targeting a gaming operator in February 2014 – but it is the sheer of number of large attacks that is interesting. In Q1-Q3 2013 Arbor tracked 11 events over 100Gbps; in the same period of 2014 this had risen to 133. Further down the scale (in terms of attack size) there was astonishing growth e.g. ATLAS tracked 1.5x the total number of attacks over 20Gbps in 2013 in just the first quarter of 2014.

The DDoS threat has evolved considerably over recent years, with significant changes in the frequency and scale of attacks, and the motivations of cyber criminals.

10 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

www.netcommseurope.com

However, NTP reflection amplification attacks started to reduce in April 2014 and although they are still significant they are not at previous levels. It appears that attackers have now moved on to Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP). In Q2 only a handful of events utilising SSDP for reflection amplification were detected, in Q3 Arbor’s ATLAS monitored nearly 30,000.

The use of large DDoS attacks to saturate the Internet connectivity of a target has been a key trend in 2013 and 2014, and this looks like it will continue into 2015. Attacks will likely continue to get larger and more frequent, and unfortunately many businesses are still unprepared for an attack. Any

businesses that is reliant in any way on the Internet for day-2-day operations is at risk of attack, whether they derive revenue from the Internet, or simply use it to access cloud-based data/ application service, financial services etc. The range of motivations behind attacks, and the ease which they can be generated, has made this a ubiquitous problem.

Protection

The answer is for businesses to implement multi-layered DDoS protection solutions, using on-premise equipment coupled with cloud-based services. On premise, DDoS protection solutions are able to proactively detect

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and mitigate all kinds of attacks, including the more stealthy application layer attacks (which represent about a fifth of attacks), but they cannot deal with large volumetric attacks, which saturate Internet connectivity. To deal with these a cloud-based service is needed, but these are often too slow to react to application and state-exhaustion attacks hence the need for the on-premise component. Ideally these two layers should work together, and only then can businesses get complete protection from the DDoS threat. www.arbornetworks.com

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Europe +44 (0) 1582-433433 ©2014 Anritsu Company

NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015 11

BUSINESS CONTINUITY

The best approach to data recovery

Business Continuity Planning

By Russell Cook, Managing Director at SIRE Technology

Introduction

When it comes to preparing for the unthinkable many companies overlook continuity planning, which should be an integral part of their daily management procedures. Even though the cloud is now a recognised and familiar term, research suggests that nearly 50 per cent of businesses do not have a continuity plan and run the risk of extended interruption. Of those businesses without a plan: Russell Cook makes clear the best approach

• • • •

to data recovery

90 % that lose data will shut within two years 80 % will fail within 13 months 53 % never recoup their losses 43 % will never re-open after the disaster!

What makes your business tick?

A wide range of assets come together to create the entity that is your business and all must be safeguarded against any number of hypothetical eventualities.

The tangible assets that are vital to your operations are relatively easy to protect. What about the truly vital assets, without which your business couldn’t even function?

•

•

The communications, transactions, contracts and records that represent the results of years of trading - can they be replaced?

What about the applications required to support and manage all of this accumulated knowledge and intelligence?

Technology in the shape of communication mediums and CRM systems mean less paperwork is generated, but as more and more business-critical information is held digitally, businesses are more exposed in the event of a disaster. While most businesses take the threat of data loss seriously and put in place backup procedures, it is the speed and quality of the recovery process that’s critical.

Solutions that offer damage limitation are not sufficient. You need to know that in the event of any incident, all your business applications and data will be 12 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

instantly and completely available to you, ensuring you can continue trading with minimum disruption.

Business Continuity Benefits

The advent of the cloud offers significant benefits in terms of Business Continuity as a Service (BCaaS), where the system you select will mirror your server to the cloud. This offers up to 38 per cent reduction in infrastructure cost, provides protection for your business and is accessible at a flick of a switch and with instant visualisation.

Another benefit, that’s often either forgotten or not fully appreciated, is the systems ability to de-duplicate data.

Much of the data on your organisation’s live system will be copied time and time again. For example, when you cc an email to other people in the business the same data is saved multiple times across the business. With a modern disaster recovery (DR) system only one version of the email will be stored. At its most effective this de-duplication system can deliver a staggering reduction in data storage of up to 95 per cent!

So, disaster has struck and it is your busiest time of the year, what do you need from your business continuity support? Hopefully the system you have in place has a simplified backup administration that delivers a scalable solution, encompassing the virtual environments, databases, email and enterprise resource planning. These

various elements are best delivered via the following components: • Image-based back up efficiency; data is converted directly to virtual machines. Since each backup is a fully bootable virtual machine there is no need for a conversion to occur before performing a restore. Data is always available as there are no complicated rollup or restore processes.

• Instant virtualisation in just seconds; backups can be virtualised, either locally or on an appliance such as Reviiver, or in the remote cloud. CPU, memory and network resources can be dynamically configured allowing changes to be made without restarting the virtual machine.

• Centralised management accessible; if using Reviiver all the appliances can be controlled through a central web interface that provides access to critical statistics and remote management to remote servers and virtual machines through a secure VPN connection.

Conclusion

We all hope that we won’t need to call on the insurances we take out, but taking the time to plan for the unthinkable will bring you a lot more than just peace of mind. So, as you draw up your objectives for 2015 make sure that your business continuity planning is right at the bottom of the list again. www.sire.co.uk

The advent of the cloud offers significant benefits in terms of Business Continuity of Service. www.netcommseurope.com

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CASE STUDY

How Dublin’s Ashling Hotel embraced wireless

Get Connected How Lancom Systems helped one of Dublin’s major hotels embrace wireless.

Challenges

Wireless technology in an office environment is one thing, but the unpredictability of meeting the wireless needs of staff and guests in a modern Dublin hotel are an entirely different ballgame.

The 4-star Ashling Hotel is located at the heart of the historic centre in Dublin. With 225 bedrooms, a restaurant, bar and conference rooms, the hotel offers a high level of service to leisure and business travellers. A modern WLAN hotspot provides greater convenience and mobility for all concerned.

Guest wishes

“Our WLAN satisfies all of the wishes of our guests in terms of coverage and performance,” says Alan Moody, general manager of the Ashling Hotel.

Various requirements had to be met to achieve this, he adds.

“The old access points (APs) were replaced with new, state-ofthe-art equipment in elegant white housing from the WLAN specialists LANCOM Systems, and we added more APs as well,” says Jimmy Byrne, technical solution Manager at Wood Communications.

“We also implemented a more powerful Internet connection,” he explained.

Dual-band access points were deployed in the conference rooms, which can transmit in the 2.4 GHz and in the more powerful 5-GHz frequency bands at the same time. Conference attendees with client devices capable of 5 GHz are then guided to the correct frequency band, which is the result of an integrated technology called band steering.

“This makes us ready for the future and, at the same time, it reduces the load on the 2.4 GHz frequency band,” says Byrne.

Security

The subject of security is very close to the hotel managers’ hearts.

“We wanted a strict separation of the employee and guest WLANs,” says Sean McAlinden, Director of Netplex Limited.

The system integrator set up logically separate subnets to implement this, one for the hotel staff and one for the guests.

Virtual local area networks, or VLANs, strictly separate the communications on the subnets, even though they use the same physical network components.

Additional security comes with the firewall integrated into the WLAN controller, which at the same time provides centralized management of the WLAN. “The result is a secure, highperformance and easy-to-manage WLAN”, says general manager Alan Moody, who added that the hotel’s guests appreciate this too.

“The feedback on the free service is consistently positive,” he explained.

New leading edge technology

The hotel foyer revealed...

14 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

Lancom Systems recently launched a highly integrated wireless infrastructure solution for brick-and-mortar retail solution jointly developed with imagotag that supports classic WLAN, electronic shelf labels, and location-based services on a single platform The solution - which was jointly developed with imagotag - supports classic WLAN, electronic shelf labels, and location-based services on a single

platform. The end result is a highly integrated wireless infrastructure solution for brick-and-mortar retail Brick-and-mortar retail is going through rapid change. Modern radiobased applications, such as electronic shelf labels and location-based services for smartphone users, are optimising in-store processes and laying the foundations for new business models and shopping experiences.

Lancom Systems is claiming a first mover technology that integrates the different radio technologies into a single infrastructure platform. The new E-series access points support classic WLAN, electronic shelf labels (ESL) and iBeacons.

The benefits include lower costs, longer service life of the electronic shelf labels, and a high degree of sustainability. The technology is thanks to the close cooperation with the Austrian ESL specialist imagotag, the developer of the wireless technology for label control.

The electronic price displays are one of the top trends in retail. According to a recent retail survey, the worldwide market for electronic shelf labels (ESL) is set to grow by an average of 18 per cent annually until the year 2018.

In Germany, too, retailers are increasingly adopting ESL. Large retailers are already gathering their first experience with electronic goods labels and price tags.

A particularly energy-saving radio technology that controls the electronic price labels ensures that the batterypowered displays have a long service life. Until now, operating these systems required the costly installation and operation of a dedicated infrastructure.

Compounding the problem was the interference with existing wireless LAN infrastructures, since both of these technologies operate in the same frequency band (2.4 GHz). Wireless LAN is very widespread in brick-andmortar retail. Uses include wireless stocktaking or the provision of fast Internet access to customers

Lower costs

Lancom has fine-tuned the two wireless technologies to provide interference-free www.netcommseurope.com

About Lancom Systems

parallel operation in close cooperation with ESL specialist imagotag, developer of the wireless solution for controlling the electronic shelf labels and supplier of the ESLs. Retailers benefit from a lower upfront investment, low operating costs, and a long service life of the batterypowered price tags that operate in parallel to the wireless LAN. Along with wireless LAN and ESL, the new LANCOM E-series access points support a third wireless technology. The integration of iBeacons enables retailers and operators of shopping malls to implement innovative location-based services, including: Location-dependent push marketing: customers in the vicinity receive special offers via app-based push messages on

Wireless access - even whilst you east... their smartphones.

Indoor navigation: radio-controlled localization in combination with an appor Web-based floor plan conveniently guides customers to the desired offers or shop.

Business intelligence: analysis of customer walk paths helps to optimise the layout of the sales floor.

Christian Schallenberg, a member of the management board with Lancom Systems: “I am convinced that electronic shelf labels and location-based services offer enormous potential for the retail sector.”

“Just think about dynamic pricing or improved customer communications.

Even today, projects like this frequently fail because of the costs or the technical hurdles. By integrating the ESL and iBeacon technologies in a single professional WLAN infrastructure, the retail sector has the unique opportunity to present themselves as innovative and quick to respond to trends, quite apart from entering into a whole new form of customer dialog. And all of this in a costeffective, efficient and low-maintenance package,” he explained.

Michael Moosburger, founder and managing director of imagotag, agrees about the enormous potential for this solution.

“Electronic price displays are the major future trend in retail. By www.netcommseurope.com

combining our ESL technology with wireless LAN and iBeacons, we have jointly created a unique infrastructure solution, which offers completely new possibilities of flexible pricing and customer loyalty to the brick-andmortar retail sector.”

Lancom Systems is the leading German manufacturer of reliable, innovative network solutions for business customers.

The company’s two business units, VPN Network Connectivity and Wireless LAN, offer professional users secure, flexible infrastructure solutions for local-area and multi-site networks.

The entire core product range is developed and manufactured in Germany. In addition, LANCOM also provides VPN solutions certified by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) for the protection of particularly sensitive networks and critical infrastructures (EPCIP) against cyber attacks.

The company’s headquarters is in Würselen near Aachen, Germany, and other offices are located throughout Europe. Customers include small and medium-sized enterprises, government agencies, institutions, and major corporations from Germany, Europe and increasingly worldwide. The enterprise is a partner in the Alliance for Cyber Security initiated by the BSI. www.lancom.eu

Lancom Customer: Ashling Hotel Dublin Location: Dublin, Ireland Contact: info@ashlinghotel.ie Website: www.ashlinghotel.ie Products and services: 4 Star Hotel located in the heart of historic Dublin City with 225 bedrooms, restaurant, bar and meeting room facilities.

Requirements 1 Extend the range and performance of the existing WLAN 1 Integrate the 5-GHz radio band for hotel guests 1 Simultaneous use of the WLAN by staff and guests Components used: 1 72 x LANCOM L-320agn access point 1 3 x LANCOM L-460agn dual-radio access points 1 1 x LANCOM WLC 4100 WLAN controller 1 1 x LANCOM Public Spot option System integrator Netplex Limited in partnership with Wood Communications Website: www.woodcomm.ie, Contact: sales@woodcomm.ie Website: www.netplex.ie, Contact: info@netplex.ie

NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015 15

CASE STUDY

IT Lifecycle Management

Recycling - it’s an art form for N2S Introduction

Jack Gomarsall details the concept of the circular economy

Jack Gomarsall has spent the last 35 years of his working life involved in the recovery and recycling of redundant IT equipment. Jack’s unrivalled experience in his field makes him the perfect person to lead the highly successful Bury St Edmunds based business Network 2 Supplies (N2S).

Jack launched N2S in 2002 and the company offers a unique and complete IT lifecycle management service, which embraces the concept of the circular economy. Its principle business involves recovering and sorting materials from redundant or decommissioned computer and communications equipment and associated cabling, which is then despatched for specialised recycling. Much of the equipment is re-used or stripped down for spares, of course only after being wiped of all data.

The Circular Economy

“I have been in the business of recovering and recycling IT equipment for 35 years, it is what we do. We are certainly not scrap metal merchants,

we embrace the concept of a true circular economy preventing tonnes of waste being sent to landfill. Our clients benefit from us paying for the reusable materials,” said Jack. “ Yes, as a business our priority is to make money, but if we can do so while simultaneously protecting the earth’s health then it is a win, win situation. It’s this circular economy concept that sits at the heart of the recycling agenda. Companies that acknowledge the concept of the circular economy are not only helping to protect our planet but are opening up and benefitting from new financial and profit making opportunities, so let’s all get recycling now.”

Materials routinely salvaged by N2S include precious metals such as gold, silver and copper and hazardous materials such as mercury, as well as steel and plastics. Much of the work is done by hand, often the only technology used in the process is at the shredding stage, which serves a double purpose of preparing materials for recycling and destroying all data at the same time.

The N2S self-professed ‘obsession’ with recycling and the circular economy

Make

has lead them to the impressive figure of just 0.3% of the materials they handle ending up in landfill. And, this is not a figure simply plucked out of the air, but one which is fully quantifiable.

Jack said: “Obviously, there is a value to all the materials we handle, so they have to be handled with a great deal of care, with precise attention to detail. It is an art form really. The landfill boys don’t get much out of us, we have a real obsession of ensuring we recycle as much material as possible.

“All waste is weighed when coming into our possession and then tracked with details of the volume recycled passed on to the client for use in the event of Environment Agency inspection.”

Security

In addition to opening up commercial and profit making opportunities to its client, and of course supporting their ‘green’ credentials, N2S plays another salient role, which can be summed up in one word – ‘security’. The company is committed to ensuring sensitive,

easy.

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16 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

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personal and confidential data of its clients is safe and secure. It provides a fully bespoke service for data erasure, destruction and shredding, both on-site and off-site. The value of this service cannot be overstated due to the huge financial penalties facing company’s found guilty of data breaches.

“For some time now here at N2S we have been issuing warnings amongst UK businesses over the implications of failing to effectively protect data. As far back as 2012 we carried out a national survey amongst organisations in the public and private sectors to see how aware they were of the rules on the destruction of confidential information.

Our survey revealed more than 75% of companies were not aware they could be fined up to £500,000 for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act. Now, with the EU data protection laws in the process of being overhauled, the situation has become even more alarming. “The proposed new EU General Data Protection Regulation has been in debate for the past two years and in March the European Parliament backed plans to fine companies up to

www.netcommseurope.com

Materials routinely salvaged by N2S include precious metals such as gold, silver and copper.

5% of their annual turnover if they breach the new data protection laws.

It is ultimately important all businesses and public sector organisations have stringent data protection policies in place and this extends to all hard drives, smartphones, media devices, tapes or

any other device which may store and hold critical information.”

To find out more about N2S unique IT lifecycle management services go to ww.n2s.co.uk

NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015 17

POWER

The reliability of power in the UK

Controlling Energy Costs

By Alan Luscombe, Sales and Marketing Director & UPS Ltd

Introduction

Alan Luscombe reports on the biggest threats to IT industry according to new UPS survey.

Regular increases in the price of energy and the demands placed on businesses through environmental legislation continue to be considered amongst the biggest threats to the UK IT industry. This is according to the results of Uninterruptible Power Supplies Limited’s (UPS Ltd) latest industry survey. The 2014 edition of company’s annual opinion poll, which questioned 2000 IT and data centre professionals across the UK, revealed that 77.51 per cent believe that rising power costs are still a ‘major concern to their business’, with over 60 per cent also conceding that increasing environmental legislation represents a ‘significant risk’ to their long-term prosperity.

Downward Pressure

However, when comparing the latest results to those from 2013, it would appear that the situation has begun to improve, with those responding

negatively to both questions falling slightly from 12 months ago. The number of those claiming that the cost of energy is a major issue fell by over seven per cent since last year. Likewise, those concerned with environmental legislation fell by almost five per cent in the same period. “When we look at these results, it’s clear that there’s still a strong pressure to control energy costs and be more environmentally efficient, but the survey does demonstrate that, at least for some, things are looking brighter. With the price of oil decreasing significantly and forecasters expecting further downward pressure, there is a realistic belief that energy prices are set to stabilise and, according to the ratings agency Moody’s, UK energy prices will remain close to current levels until 2020.

This isn’t a view shared by everyone, but it’s still in stark contrast to more negative forecasts from a couple of years ago,” remarked David Renton, Managing Director for UPS Ltd. Spare capacity within the UK

electricity network was another topic those questioned felt strongly about, with 74.64 per cent of respondents claiming that the reliability of power in the UK is going to become a major concern within the next ten years. This is a slight increase from the previous survey, where 71.93 per cent chose ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’ to the same question. This reflects the latest Winter Outlook report published by the National Grid, which reported that the capacity margin for UK electricity has fallen to 4.1 per cent. In 2010 the figure was closer to 15 per cent. Despite the drop, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has moved to dispel fears of winter blackouts.

Conclusion

Regardless of how energy costs and capacity develops, the survey’s findings underscore how those working in IT and data centre-related industries are vulnerable to rising power costs and

The reliability of power in the UK is going to become a major concern within the next ten years.

18 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

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CASE STUDY

xxxxxxx your IT for today’s challenges Optimise

Cool Runnings How London’s data centre specialists helped Virtus appraise their new LONDON2 site.

Introduction

This case study looks at how Virtus leveraged Romonet software and services to create a predictive model for Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over a 10 year period for their new LONDON2 data centre. The move enabled Virtus to independently assess the long-term financial impact of two competitive cooling technologies and validate the vendor claims made during the design stage.

Neil Cresswell, Virtus CEO.

Challenge

Virtus’ new facility presented a variety of challenges for the Virtus design team: develop a competitive CapEx profile comparable to London’s first-rate data centres, while ensuring Virtus’ high standards for quality, flexibility and service at minimum operating cost and at a market competitive Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). To put it in their own words, a “Virtus intelligent data centre - flexible by design” and independently verified. Virtus engaged

Romonet based on their credentials for TCO and data centre modelling.

Solution

The Virtus design team had identified that indirect/free air-cooling could deliver a low PUE while delivering best-in-class operating and financial performance. To some extent this had already been validated by their own market analysis and vendor references.

However, they turned to Romonet to independently assess and determine the lifecycle running costs based on the performance of each vendor solution and compare them against the overall capital and operational cost profiles over a 10 year analysis period. Romonet’s predictive modeling capabilities were used to build a number of models of the Virtus data centre and comparatively predict the TCO of each option for the business. Why Romonet?

“We liked the Romonet technology” said Robbie McGhie, Director of Services and Engineering at Virtus. “It fitted the bill and there was no other obvious choice.”

Benefits

The chosen technologies for each design option was validated by the Romonet model as to whether it was able to deliver the required performance at the right TCO. Romonet’s analysis confirmed that indirect free air was the best choice given the climatic conditions of London. In addition, a comparison was made between two competing vendor products using “what if ” scenario analysis with the following objectives: low TCO, high agility/ flexibility, class-leading efficiency (e.g.

PUE), excellent quality and durability of construction and superior resilience (Tier III certification required). The Romonet model confirmed that the design choices made would meet the business objectives and furthermore was helpful in selecting the final vendor cooling solution.

Located within London’s metro, Virtus designs, builds and operates a new generation of efficient data centres.

20 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

Outcome

Romonet software not only validated the choices made, but also created a

long term forecast with lifecycle TCO and PUE forecasts for the data centre based on a load fill out plan and the actual climatic conditions in London.

Future

Romonet is now performing a similar exercise for the LONDON1 site, which has been in operation for over 3 years.

With LONDON2 now being an operational site, Romonet’s SaaS based Portal is being deployed and will determine how site cost performance compares to the original business plan and validate whether critical sub-systems have performed vis-a-vis the original design intent.

Performance models for the two sites will be tracked within Romonet Portal, where actual metered performance will be compared to expected performance on an ongoing basis and any divergences immediately notified to the local ops team to investigate. The Romonet Portal managed service will also allow Virtus to systematically plan for capacity changes, rapidly compare the impact of operational changes, re-investment scenarios, concurrently providing the business with an adjusted long-term TCO view as well as fully loaded cost-per-customer analysis over the assets’ remaining life.

Conclusion

Virtus contracted Romonet to assess the financial and energy performance of the design and technology choices made for their new LONDON2 site.

The resulting report validated Virtus technology selections and helped inform the selection of the specific vendor cooling device.

It also provided Virtus with a TCO forecast and achievable performance for the lifecycle of the site, given expected load fill-out and climatic conditions. The external “audit” enabled by Romonet technology was also instrumental in re-assuring investors and potential customers of the soundness of the Virtus business plan. www.romonet.com

www.netcommseurope.com

DCIM

Forget DCIM software, what you need is a DCIM process!

Improving Data Centre Efficiency

By Steven Bailey, Managing Director AIT Partnership Group Ltd

Introduction

Steven Bailey unravels the barriers to wider adoption of DCIM solutions

Many of us have become bored of the hype and noise generated by DCIM software vendors and their marketing research agencies such as Gartner, 451 and Forrester, much of it resembling the ‘snake oil’ pitch of traveling salesmen in old cowboy films. DCIM is the must have product for every well-run data centre we are told. All you have to do is buy the software and you will magically realise the benefits; lower PUE, higher air supply temperatures, reduced stranded capacity, identification of inefficient hardware, more accurate change management, faster fault diagnosis, better and faster reporting and it will probably make the blind see, the lame walk and improve your sex life as well! All that is left for you to do is to evaluate the products based on the features you want, negotiate the best price for the software licence, install and reap the rewards.

That’s the hype. The reality, of course, is very different.

DCIM software is a bit like margarine. Margarine was a good idea that originally addressed a genuine problem, which was the need to replace butter due to a lack of refrigeration in the nineteenth century. But it became overhyped, oversold and over time the problem it was designed to solve was forgotten. With fridges commonplace the marketeers had to create another benefit so they sponsored falsehoods about its health giving properties.

What has this got to do with DCIM software? Well, like margarine, DCIM software is a very good idea that has been marketed as a panacea because the problem it was designed to resolve, improving data centre efficiency, is not widely acknowledged by customers as a problem. Early adopters have been organisations with a strong culture of improving energy efficiency, but this isn’t widely seen in the UK as a driver.

DCIM market will grow by 27% each year to reach $1.7 billion by 2018. Of course, the size of the market depends on your definition of DCIM and what solutions are included, 451 Research identified more than 60 suppliers, but there does seem to be an increasing consensus that the market isn’t growing as fast as was previously thought.

Why then, despite all the efforts of some very well funded marketing machines, has growth been below expectations? To be fair 27% growth is still impressive, but this doesn’t match the hype. There are many possible reasons for this mismatch; the hype was always over the top and created as much to attract investors and venture capital as it was to create real demand, the sales cycle on a major DCIM project is very long, the barriers to breaking down departmental silo’s in big organisations can be very daunting, there is often no budget allocated and paradoxically proving a return on investment for a DCIM solution probably requires information to be gathered using a DCIM solution. At AIT we have seen all of these obstacles, but the biggest barrier to wider adoption of DCIM solutions is that senior management teams rarely target the data centre with making efficiency improvements because they rarely understand what’s possible. DCIM software is therefore a product designed to solve a problem of which, in many organisations, there

is little recognition. How many senior management teams understand the cost of running a server room or data centre? How often do those who pay the energy bill appreciate how they can reduce the bill by adopting best practise processes? How many are now making strategic decisions to go into co-location hosted space or adopt more cloud services without evaluating how to sweat their assets and make more of their existing facilities? In my experience the answer to these questions is, not many.

Best Practise

When senior management does demand greater efficiency, hard pressed facilities and data centre managers may find it hard to respond if they don’t have the information or resources they need. Reaching for the shelf marked ‘DCIM software’ may seem tempting, but it can prove costly if objectives and processes are not put in place before the tool is purchased. DCIM software, like any tool, will only add value if it is in the hands of a skilled practitioner and used in the right way. More importantly, like any database, it requires the right information to be loaded into it. DCIM vendors consistently underplay the amount of resource required to do this.

Auto discovery tools and integration with existing asset management systems can help, but won’t eradicate the need for extensive professional services when implementing a DCIM project.

Great Expectations

The potential market for DCIM software, like margarine, is big, but probably not as big as was once predicted. A 2014 survey by 451 Research downgraded their previous estimate and predicted that the global 22 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

Like margerine, DCIM software is a good idea that’s been marketed as a panacea because the problem it was designed to resolve is not widely acknowledged by customers as a problem. www.netcommseurope.com

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DCIM

Software is probably one of the least important parts of a successful DCIM project.

So, for a DCIM project to succeed several conditions are required; firstly a culture of improvement and a senior management team driving greater energy efficiency, secondly a commitment to adopt best practise processes in the data centre to improve efficiency, thirdly a clear set of objectives and fourthly an understanding of, and the ability to deliver, the extensive professional services required.

This list doesn’t include software!

DCIM software might be useful to replace some of the professional services required, although it will itself require a lot of professional services to implement, but you can implement a DCIM project without purchasing software. In fact, the software is probably one of the least important parts of a successful DCIM project. Like any project you have to start off with a clear idea of your objectives and then create a detailed plan of how and when you will achieve them. This will take a lot of resource, but without an experienced DCIM 24 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

project manager and experienced professional services the chances of realising a return on the investment in your DCIM software licences are slim. Of course, the software vendors underplay this. They argue that it’s all about the tool and that anyone can use a good tool, but without a skilled experienced craftsman a good tool is useless.

Conclusion

Few end users have the resources to implement a DCIM process without the help of a good DCIM system integrator while those that do probably won’t buy DCIM software because once implemented it would necessitate the making of these resources redundant to achieve a return on the investment!

This is one of the many paradoxes of DCIM; those that need it can’t implement it and those that can implement it won’t buy it! You can achieve the benefits of DCIM without

using any expensive software. Excel is the oldest DCIM software tool and in the right hands it can be very effective in delivering limited outcomes. The efficiency savings that can be delivered by adopting best practise processes do not require that you use an expensive DCIM tool, however a good tool should make it easier and less time consuming to carry out these processes. If the license cost of the tool is less than the cost of the labour it replaces then it’s a good investment. If it doesn’t then you are probably better off recruiting additional labour or taking on a managed service contract to carry out the processes. Either way, if you want to improve the efficiency of your server rooms and data centres, it is worth considering an investment in a DCIM software tool as a part of a DCIM process, but not as a solution in itself. www.ait-pg.co.uk

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OPINION

Mine’s Smaller Than Yours! xxxxxxx

Understanding PuE

By Alex Rabbetts, Migsolv Data Centre Solutions

Introduction

Alex Rabbetts takes a closer look at tier standards

Sitting here in the depths of winter, (well it is February after all!), we find ourselves reflecting on the state of the data centre industry. It is, after all, pretty much coming of age now. The industry, as we know it, has really only been around for coming up to 20 years. So why, if it is coming of age, do people within the industry continue to use childish ways of communicating their messages?

Take, for example, PUE, (Power Usage Effectiveness), why do people think that their customers care about them – or take them any more seriously – when they engage in this ridiculous boast of ‘Mine’s smaller than yours’!

Size Doesn’t Matter

And this is the same for data centres.

Nobody cares if your PUE is smaller than someone else, what they care about is what you do with it. They care, of

course they care, about how efficient your data centre is, but they don’t care about how big or small your PUE is.

Like the teenage boys who make a rather similar claim – everyone knows it isn’t size that matters, it’s what you do with it! And just for the record, a very low PUE usually means that you’ve measured it in a different place from where you should to make it look better, or you’ve failed to include everything that you should have done. It isn’t particularly clever and only the really stupid will be impressed!

Talking of claiming to be something your not, let’s just examine something else. Ah yes, “my data centre is Tier 9 Plus”! No. It isn’t. Tiering is a standard that was developed by the Uptime Institute. Now, if you don’t like it, don’t use it, but don’t try to be clever!

There is no such thing as Tier 3 Plus or Tier 3 Star, there are no data centres in the UK that are certified for their construction as Tier 4, (there are only 7 in all of Europe), and there are only two Tier 3 data centres certified for their construction in the UK. Teenagers love the ‘my bike’s better than your bike’ argument, but leaving the completely unfounded, unqualified, unaccountable claims to them is probably wise! If it isn’t certified by the Uptime Institute, it isn’t Tier anything.

It Isn’t Rocket Science

Nobody cares if your PUE is smaller than someone else, what they care about is what you do with it.

26 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

Ever heard a bunch of teenagers discussing sex? More often than not they have absolutely no idea what they are saying. Have you heard about the data centre operator that claims he has a Tier 3 Plus data centre? He’s the same! Let us be quite clear here – there is no such thing as Tier 3 Plus! (Or Tier 3 Star, or Tier 4 Minus, or Tier 4 Plus!) There are four Tiers; I, II, III and IV. Like the teenager, he thinks he knows what he’s saying but he is actually demonstrating his ignorance.

‘Ah!’, claims the teenager data centre operator, ‘But my data centre is uber efficient and it has everything that a Tier 4 data centre would have, I just didn’t pay for the Uptime Institute to certify it.’ Let us just take a closer look at that statement. Start with the last bit, ‘I just didn’t pay for the Uptime Institute to

certify it.’ OK, so what that actually says is, ‘I don’t have any proof what-so-ever of what I am claiming, but I just expect you to believe me.’

Let’s see about the middle part of that statement, ‘… it has everything that a Tier 4 data centre would have …’.

Really? How do you know? Can I see evidence that you know what a Tier 4 data centre would have? Nope, thought not.

And finally, the first part, ‘It’s uber efficient ...’ OK, so can you please explain how this data centre is uber efficient when you are telling me that it is Tier 4? In other words, for every one of everything that is needed it has two. Each must run on standby as a minimum, (and probably actually sharing the active load), so by its very nature it must be inefficient. It isn’t rocket science, but then teenagers aren’t that great at rocket science!

And so, let us address just one final point. Find anywhere, yes anywhere, on the Uptime Institute’s website – or indeed anywhere else that anyone with any knowledge or experience has strung a few words together – where it says that Tiering is a measure of quality.

Yes, it is a measure of resilience and redundancy. Yes, the higher the Tier, the less efficient it will be. Yes, the higher the Tier the greater the PUE will be. But no, nowhere will anyone find anything that suggests that placing a self-claimed badge of a Tier rating on your data centre is any kind of suggestion of quality. Just like a teenager that claims, ‘my house is cooler than your house,’ it probably isn’t!

Conclusion

Beware of anyone claiming ‘Mine’s Smaller Than Yours’ for their PUE, or that claims to be ‘Tier 3 Plus’, (or any other Tier unless they are listed on the Uptime Institute’s website for a ‘constructed’ tier), because like any boasting teenager, they are merely demonstrating to you their level of ignorance and naivety. They have no experience and they don’t know what they are doing. www.migsolv.com

www.netcommseurope.com

Put the date in your diary

11 & 12 May 2015

North

DataCentres North Conference & Exhibition designed to meet the needs of the large and growing number of businesses and decision makers responsible for commissioning, designing, maintaining and operating Datacentres, Critical Environments, Server and Comms rooms across the region.

Why Here? Why Now? Based in Manchester DataCentres North is designed to meet the specific needs of the North of England’s DataCentres market. The show gives you access to the growing number of companies basing themselves in the North, many of whom do not go to the London based events.

Emirates Old Trafford Manchester

The Conference Featuring case studies, panel discussions as well as individual papers the DataCentres North conference will address issues affecting both small and large datacentres, Server and Comms rooms including: • DCIM • Legislation • Connectivity • Design • Energy & Sustainability • Cooling • Cloud & Big Data • Virtualisation & Storage And much, much more

Be part of the programme - Share your experience by submitting an abstract via the website

For the latest information visit www.datacentresnorth.com Contact the DataCentres Team: +44 (0) 1892 518877 or email: datacentres@stepex.com Supported By :

Silver Sponsor:

STRUCTURED CABLING

xxxxxxxproofing your network Future

Copper’s Big Bump In The Road

By Tony Robinson RCDD CDCDP - EMEA Enterprise Datacentre Marketing Manager, Corning Optical Communications

Introduction

Tony Robinson navigates the challenges surrounding migration

100M, 1G, 40G, 100G… You don’t jump to greater data centre speeds; you ‘migrate’. Migration is an evocative word that conjures up images of birds flying south for the summer, or the politically charged idea of people looking for a better life travelling across the world from poor to rich nations.

Migration is about opportunity and necessity; ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors. Above all, migration is a process that carries risk, and the rewards only really start happening once migration is complete.

If your data centre has been built on copper cabling infrastructure then your migrations so far are likely to have been smooth and successful. The big jump to 40G, however, represents a significant challenge with many barriers in its way.

A New Standard

The 40G standard for copper is unlikely to be ratified until 2016 or 2017, and many copper data centres will be patiently waiting for this to happen

so that they can test and adopt the resulting technology. The standards have been in development for a long time already and much is understood about their likely composition.

Whatever they precisely end up being, two things are absolutely certain: it will use completely different cabling and completely different connectors. It will mean a whole new infrastructure for anyone wanting to continue with copper as they migrate through the 40G barrier and beyond, and at shorter distances than those currently employed today.

Such a transformation immediately begs the question: why not adopt a fibre infrastructure instead? To my mind, fibre cabling means future proofing your data centre rather than simply building for its immediate future need. To use a migration analogy, take the example of the islanders of Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Maldives. Faced with the prospect of being submerged beneath rising oceans in the coming decades, these and other countries are actively looking to purchase land for their citizens to live on

before it’s too late. Some are looking to the security of the mainland far higher above sea level, while others are looking to neighbouring islands where the same issues risk following them in years to come. Whatever they choose to do, they are still going to be moving everything lock, stock and barrel. It’s the same with the choice facing data centre managers about copper continuation or a new move to fibre.

Performance Gains

There will be those data centres where existing 1G or 10G architectures are sufficient for the foreseeable future, and where an upgrade to optical fibre could be considered ‘overkill’ in their business model. Copper has served well in these environments, and across the LAN, offering a continuous network medium able to cope with all but the most extreme distance requirements.

Indeed, copper’s robustness and ability to continue extracting new performance gains seemingly knew no

The hierarchical ‘tree’ data centre is becoming replaced by a ‘leaf and spine approach

28 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

www.netcommseurope.com

enclosures

enclosures

committed to better

STRUCTURED CABLING

xxxxxxx

Mega data centre trends demand far greater interconnectivity between networked devices.

bounds, at least until now. The 40G copper blueprint is currently being drawn up on an entirely new basis.

Forget about RJ45; a new interface is essential. Existing copper cable will be obsolete, with new Cat8 cable emerging as the minimum 40G requirement.

Additionally, 40G copper distances will decrease from the current 100m for 10G to a proposed 35m for 40G. There will be power issues, because the additional power requirements of 40G copper conflict with the power and cooling restrictions of the modern data centre.

And there is little hope in sight for greater density as 48 copper pairs will continue to be the maximum for a 1U housing, compared to x4 that number with fibre.

Density is a huge issue for data centres and this is being exacerbated by the hyper-scale, mega data centre trends that demand far greater interconnectivity between networked devices in the data centre. Virtualisation, 30 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

cloud and SDN are causing data centre architects to move away from their traditional three-tier ‘north/ south’ orientated data centre designs toward a much flatter, broader two-tier environment that promotes so-called ‘east/west’ traffic flows.

All the leading networking vendors are now vociferously advocating extremely dense switching and routing topologies that create an ‘Ethernet fabric’ for dynamic, on-demand, low-latency services. As such, the hierarchical ‘tree’ data centre is becoming replaced by a ‘leaf and spine’ approach. This challenging architecture is ultimately crying out for fibre cabling; not just being of the availability of ratified 40G and 100G standards, but because of the density advantages.

Conclusion

and capacity, albeit over progressively shorter distances. But with 40G it comes up against a giant obstacle that will necessitate all adopters to execute a major forklift upgrade in cabling infrastructure. If 40G is a requirement today, then fibre must be the wise alternative because it may be another two years at least before 40G copper is a ratified standard. Even when it is, will you be able to swallow the density limitations, distance restrictions and power problems?

Future proofing your network - by installing fibre rather than copper - is the logical approach to navigate these challenges, and to embrace the nascent data centre trends and opportunities around flatter, more dynamic and interconnected architectures. www.corning.com

Copper has a track record of supporting migrations to higher speeds www.netcommseurope.com

DATACENTRES are MATURING Mature Data Centres know that protecting their customers’ data isn’t just about being popular, living in the upmarket streets of London, wearing Tier III trainers or comparing the size of their PUE.

A mature data centre understands that high quality, exceptional service, low cost & ultimate flexibility combined with levels of security unsurpassed elsewhere is more important than boasting about the size of your PUE or your tier III label.

Don’t let childish boasts cloud your decision - choose a data centre that offers maturity and puts your business needs first.

Contact MigSolv Today

0845 251 2255

migsolv.com

DCIM

Making use of data-collection and analysis

Automated Cooling Control

By Henrik Leerburg, Product Line Director, Schneider Electric StruxureWare for Data Centers

Introduction

Henrik Leerburg reports on automated cooling control in dynamic data centres

Fine tuning the operations of the cooling equipment needed to keep a busy and constantly changing data centre up and running is an onerous task, requiring concentration on safety and continuous computing availability, while keeping costs under control.

However, Influence Maps and diligent analysis of temperature data can be used to design an optimal cooling plan and automate the on-going cooling effort for optimal efficiency.

Maintaining IT infrastructure at safe operating temperatures while minimising the cost and energy wastage of the cooling equipment needed to do so is a delicate balancing act for data centre operators. A crude but simple approach is to cool the ambient temperature of the room as a whole.

However, outside of particularly cold climate regions that becomes a prohibitively expensive proposition.

A far more attractive proposition is to allow the ambient temperature of a computer room or data centre facility to be as warm as possible while directing cooling effort with pinpoint accuracy

to the IT equipment where it is most needed.

Depending on the occupancy and utilisation of the servers and storage arrays in the data centre’s racks, the cooling load will vary continuously.

Deciding how much cooling effort to deploy to individual racks is a process that needs constant monitoring and adjustment. Frequently this has to be done manually, with operators assessing the temperature of equipment at points within the data centre and adjusting the local computer room air conditioner (CRAC) units accordingly.

This is far from ideal as it represents a very tight process window, placing a heavy burden on operating personnel.

It also introduces the risk of inaccurate temperature measurement, which can lead to inefficient, or worse, inadequate utilisation of cooling resources.

Influence Maps

Part of the problem is assessing the overall impact of adjusting the output of a particular CRAC unit. Upping the cooling output of one unit may

have an effect, positive or negative, on the temperature of a rack some distance away thanks to the flow of air throughout the cooling system infrastructure. This necessitates further adjustments whose effects must also be taken into account. A more proactive method of maintaining adequate cooling at maximum efficiency is to use Influence Maps: schematic tools that allow operators to model the effects throughout a data centre of adjustments made to one or more CRAC units.

An Influence Map is unique to each computer room, containing within it data specific to its layout and contents.

This data is captured automatically by software, which at the point of first installation ‘learns’ the specifics of the site in which it is deployed, as CRAC units are turned on and off and the effects of these actions are measured. In this way a baseline map of the cooling processes in a computer room is drawn up.

These maps can then be used as the basis of an automated cooling plan, providing operators with an accurate picture of the effects of adjusting the outputs of CRAC units so that optimal cooling can be realised. Of course, no data centre operates in a steady state.

Changes in load are continuous with more racks of servers, storage arrays and communications equipment being added and older ones replaced. Each rack will have different load and cooling characteristics and the automated cooling plans must be adjusted to take account of these. Adjusting the baseline of an Influence Map is therefore a regular, typically a weekly, process.

Cooling Optimize Module

Cooling Optimize Influence Map

32 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

Schneider Electric’s Data Center Operation: Cooling Optimize module is an add-on for the company’s existing StruxureWare for Data Centers Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software. The module makes use of Intelligent Analytics technology to gather data in real time and produce the necessary Influence Maps. These in turn allow the Cooling Optimize module to react to this data in a closedloop system, automatically identifying and eliminating hot spots and helping to www.netcommseurope.com

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DCIM

diagnose potential overheating risks. its automatic closed-loop adjustments Cooling Optimize makes use of a making the necessary changes in real dense array of temperature sensors to time and the influence maps providing determine exactly where the heat load is greater insight to operators of the within a data centre. This temperature systemic effects of those adjustments. data is aggregated and transmitted wirelessly to a purpose-built appliance Report date: 13.41 Thermal Airflow where12/12/2014 it is analysed by control software, Start: december 5, 2014 which then sends adjustment commands Thermal airflow is constantly adapted to End: december 12, 2014 to the27cooling equipment. As the server match the cooling needs created by the Upper temperature threshold: °C and storage data centre’s changing characteristics.

Lower temperature threshold: 22 °C load changes, the builtin machine learning automatically The continuously optimised cooling Tags: adjusts cooling output to match the capacity allows operators to increase requirements of the data centre. both the load and capacity of IT Location Minimum Average Maximum The module balances the need for equipment in their data centres, cooling with the lowest possible energy confident that the cooling infrastructure Top 20,3 °C 25,3 °C 28,0 °C expenditure, allowing the ambient deployed is sufficient to keep the facility Bottom 25,2 °C temperature of20,3 the°Cfacility to rise while operating. 28,0 °C delivering sufficient cooling to where it The constant collection and is needed, resulting in immediate cost aggregation of temperature data helps savings. mitigate risks to the safe operation of Above Temperature Threshold Below Temperature Threshold The intelligent control provided IT equipment a data centre. Up Temperature Rack Count Above Rack Exceedance Temperature theRack Count BelowinRack Exceedance Threshold (Hours)improves the Threshold (Hours)

by Cooling Time Optimize to 95% of hotspots areTime automatically a data resolved and provided 27,0 °C 22,0 °C 12 data is also 526,0 (22,8 %)to 12manageability 690,0of(29,9 %) centre with

Temperature Compliance

help operators diagnose trickier issues.

In the event of an emergency, cooling units will automatically run at maximum capacity and thereby ensure a cool facility until such time as the issue can be resolved and the data centre can return to optimal efficiency. This safety feature applies even if the Cooling Optimize module is unable to connect to or control the cooling units in question.

Providing optimal control of cooling equipment, tailored dynamically to the changing load, can dramatically reduce the running costs of a data centre. As much as 40% of cooling energy costs can be eliminated by directing cooling effort only where it is needed and removing redundancy.

Further cost savings in the long term are delivered by efficient use of cooling equipment. The more optimally it is used, the less unnecessary wear and tear is experienced and therefore the equipment requires less maintenance yet lasts longer.

The Cooling Optimize Module provides operators with rich and detailed reports of the operations of the cooling equipment, allowing greater fine-tuning and long-term planning based on the insights delivered. A Benchmark Report verifies energy and cost savings as well as greenhouse-gas reductions achieved through the use of active cooling control. A Temperature Compliance report determines whether rack temperatures have complied with required set points, and if they have not, it also records the time period for which racks have been in violation of these limits. This allows easy detection of potential problems within a data centre so that they can be addressed before they become critical.

Conclusion

12 / 35 racks have sensors with measurements.

Temperature Compliance

34 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

1

/

2

Making use of the data-collection and analysis capabilities of the Cooling Optimize module, coupled with its intelligent use of Influence Maps allows data centre operators to fine tune their operations to deliver sufficient cooling while avoiding the twin perils of over provisioning and therefore increased cost and overheating.

www.netcommseurope.com

COMMS-SOLVE technologies limited

Gardner Cultivates Cloud Development Ty Gardner is a man on a mission. The task he has set himself is to educate Cambridgeshire and North Herts enterprises about the changing business communications climate which is fast becoming very ‘Cloudy’ indeed.

Whilst ‘The Cloud’ is a terminology continuously discussed

by IT and communications professionals most businesses still see it as a highly complex technology that sounds costly and confusing.

The MD of Barkway based Comms-Solve Technologies is convinced many businesses still lack an understanding of how much better companies could communicate with their customers, staff and suppliers by embracing internet based communications technology.

“It’s not rocket science but it’s a paradigm shift that growth seeking companies should learn about and embrace as soon as possible,” says Ty Gardner.

See us at the

The shift to ‘Cloud’ communications is being driven by tech savvy employees familiar with working on their handheld devices any time, any place, anywhere.

Cambridge Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Seminar on April 11th.

“For businesses that want to remain competitive, the movement to the Cloud is not a question of if, but a question of when,” argues Ty.

So what exactly is it?

“Put simply, the Cloud advances the way businesses can integrate their familiar IT and communication services into a single connectivity platform, “explains Ty. “It offers business the flexibility to deploy services rapidly, gives people the means to access and integrate devices from anywhere, and crucially, brings security, seamless working and collaborative working to organisations whatever their type or size.”

know that it just works, simple. The Cloud is no different.

Don’t worry about the how, worry about the why.”

Based in eco-friendly offices on the stunning Cokenach country estate, Comms-Solve Technologies use all of the products and services they sell to their customers in house, as Ty outlines.

Recent research conducted by the ‘Cloud Industry Forum’ concluded that 69% of UK firms have adopted at least one cloud-based service. By the end of 2014, this is predicted to breach the 80% mark.

“I am proud to say that our technical people really know their stuff and are ready and willing to spend time with company representatives, understand the issues they are facing, and their future expectations and deliver solutions that are Opex based which means capital expenditure is vastly minimised.”

“Reluctance of transitioning to Cloud communications often stems from a fear of change and a lack of understanding. Ask yourself; are you reluctant to use an iPod instead of an old fashioned cassette player because you cannot see what is going on? No. You press play and

Comms-Solve Technologies will begin their Cloud education process in earnest at the Huntingdonshire Business Fair on April 3rd and will also be hosting the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Seminar on April 11th.

At both events they plan to explain and discuss the benefits of: • Microsoft Outlook integration including “click to dial”

• Audio and video web conferencing

• Microsoft Lync on PC (laptop), iPhone and iPad

• Seamless configuration across multi-platforms

• Mitel UCA softphone working on mobile devices

01763 847050

www.cstl.co.uk

Comms Solve Technologies Limited 1 The Courtyard, Cokenach Estate, Barkway, Hertfordshire. SG8 8DL

enquiries@cstl.co.uk

EVENTS PREVIEW

xxxxxxx The Cloud - What’s New? What’s Next?

Data Centre World Preview The largest dedicated cloud event in the world for IT decision makers.

Just as you thought you had ticked all your organisation’s cloud boxes, along comes a new development, a different application or a fresh product. It can be difficult to keep up. But help is at hand you can discover what’s new and what’s next at Cloud Expo Europe 2015, the largest dedicated cloud event in the world for IT decision makers. Taking place at ExCeL London on 11th - 12th March, the event is free to attend and packed with over 300 expert speakers and 300 leading suppliers to help you choose and implement the right business and technology solutions for your organisation, wherever it is in its cloud journey.

The Cloud - A journey, not a destination.

The cloud is not a fixed solution for your business needs, but rather an avenue to new possibilities. Now in its sixth year running, Cloud Expo Europe 2015 reflects the dynamism of the industry with a range of new and expanded elements, including the Open Cloud Park, partnered with Open Stack, OW2 & Open Nebula, the Internet of Things Theatre and a Cloud Security Alliance conference stream.

The show will feature a record 300 cutting-edge suppliers showcasing the latest technology solutions and services, including Arista Networks, Cisco, CenturyLink, Equinix, Ingram Micro Cloud, Telstra, Adapt, Vodafone, Digital Realty, Dimension Data, NaviSite,

Nexenta, Iomart, Pure Storage, SoftLayer, SunGard Availability Services, T-Systems, Veeam and many more.

In 2015 the compelling conference and seminar programme will be spread over 11 conference theatres covering all the major technology and business issues, including Virtualisation, Infrastructure, Storage, Cloud Management, Applications, Security, Cloud Innovations, SDN, Data and Analytics and Internet of Things.

Over 300 expert speakers including, top rated CIOs, acclaimed global cloud leaders, cloud gurus with huge twitter followings, real practitioners from blue chip organisations including Tesco, Greenpeace, Virgin Active, eBay, Diageo to name but a few, will be present to share their expertise.

In 2014 Cloud Expo Europe, colocated with Data Centre World for the first time, attracted a total attendance of 12,188 senior decision makers. The event provides the perfect opportunity to network with thousands of your peers, industry visionaries, leaders and people who have faced – and overcome – the same challenges as you. Cloud Expo Europe 2015 provides the perfect platform to explore the industry’s new and upcoming business and technology solutions. In addition, visitors will be able to access the co-located event Data Centre World, the world’s largest and most influential gathering of data centre expertise, free of charge.

Data Centre World - A unique gathering of data centre expertise.

Data Centre World 2015 will assemble expertise from all four corners of the globe.

36 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

Situated alongside Cloud Expo Europe for the second year, Data Centre World requires little introduction. Firmly established as the only event of its kind in the industry, this event is now in its ninth year. Data Centre World 2015 will assemble data centre expertise from all four corners of the world: 200 world-class speakers, 300 leading international suppliers and thousands of data centre professionals will come together at ExCeL London on 11th 12th March to create the world’s largest

and most influential gathering for data centre professionals and the data centre industry.

The exhibition includes a staggering range of companies from the industry’s biggest names to SMEs. This is the place to discover new technologies, meet existing suppliers and place fresh orders, all in the same day. Panduit, Excool, Borri, GEA, Trend, Uninterruptible Power, Piller, Huber Suhner, Munters, Riello, Stulz, Sempertec, Pentair Schrodd, Vattenfall, Puffin Solutions, AF Switchgear, Powershield, Eaton Electric, Bluebox, E&I Engineering and Schneider Electric will all be present.

Over 200 data centre experts and real practitioners from blue chip companies and leading organisations including Tesco, Ford Motor Company, Microsoft and Deutsche Bank, will share their experiences in a world-class, case-study led conference programme.

Four conference theatres will cover all the major technology and business issues from Power, Cooling, Heating and Ventilation to Security, Risk Management and Virtualisation.

Record visitor numbers are predicted in 2015, highlighting the importance of the event to the data centre community.

With such a huge range of industry expertise on hand and brilliant networking opportunities, this is the one business event that you should be sure to attend in 2015.

Register now for your FREE tickets at www.cloudexpoeurope.com/netcomms Register now for your FREE tickets at www.datacentreworld.com/netcomms Please note that you only need one ticket to gain access to both Cloud Expo Europe and Data Centre World 2015 Event details: Cloud Expo Europe & Data Centre World 2015 Date: 11th and 12th March 2015, 9:30am-5pm Location: ExCeL, London www.cloudexpoeurope.com www.datacentreworld.com

www.netcommseurope.com

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CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE

Enhancing the security of networks

RiT Technologies Discusses AIM Stan AIMing for the optimum technical implementations...

Why now?

Scheduled to be released next month, the AIM (Automated Infrastructure Management) standard is designed to improve the security of networks, increase equipment life, decrease labour costs, and reduce downtime while providing the ability to supply network connectivity as a service.

Defining the requirements for real-time visibility and control of all network physical components this standard sets common processes for enhanced network documentation, automatic alarms, alerts, and improved management for network MACs (Move, Add and Changes).

Although AIM functionality has been around for several years here are 5 reasons why this standard is being introduced now.

Increasing network complexity - The growth of strategic IT trends such as mobile computing, server virtualisation and the public cloud is making the data centre environment more dynamic.

At the same time, the higher density of equipment and connections in data centres is making it more difficult to keep an accurate record of network topologies and connections.

Automated end to end real time documentation of all components and their connections including fibre channel circuits, storage area network

(SAN) switch boards, and remote access connections enables better management of complex networks.

Growing labour costs - In many cases management of physical infrastructure is done manually with “on-board tools” such as Excel spreadsheets and Visio graphics. Precious time is wasted trying to document highly dynamic network topologies, while making diagnosing and resolving network problems more difficult and time consuming.

In addition, without automated solutions adding or moving components is more labour intensive and prone to human error. With AIM the entire infrastructure is represented in a consistent database, which provides precise and real-time information on the current status and future network requirements.

Also, AIM systems provide automated work order management, with guiding mechanisms and mobile applications that enable technicians to complete and update work orders more efficiently Wasted resources - without a real time inventory of network components there can be multiple assignments to the same ports, or alternatively organizations can continue to pay for equipment and connections that have not been properly deactivated.

With an intelligent management

system, processes can be established to ensure that when servers or switches are decommissioned, all intermediate connections and switch ports are freed up and available for future use.

AIM allows businesses to achieve increased cost efficiency spanning the data centre’s entire life cycle from planning design, procurement, installation, daily management of moves, adds and changes (MACS) to the eventual upgrade.

Costly downtime - The average cost of downtime according to the Ponemon Institute is around $5,600 per minute or $336,000 per hour, with the numberone cause for downtime still being the “human element.” IIM monitors network components, alerting early on to trouble spots and internet congestion which if left unhandled can cause downtime or decrease output. The result is a better-managed network with greater output, stability and robustness.

Compromised security - networks are vulnerable on multiple levels - from malware attacks to manipulation or theft of operational data to unauthorized network access.

As more industrial operations become linked to corporate networks, and connectivity is pushed out to devices, the number of entrance points onto the network increases.

Where security vulnerabilities may

AIM defines the requirements for real-time visibility and control of all network physical components...

38 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

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ndard... occur, organizations must develop safeguards within the infrastructure to reduce the opportunity for intrusion.

IIM adds an extra layer of security to mission critical communications networks by guarding the network from unauthorized connects, disconnects, moves and changes.

Providing complete real-time control of all network physical components and their connections, AIM provides businesses with a more robust network infrastructure with increased productivity and service availability.

Automatically documenting all network components and their connections results in a better-managed network with greater independence and intelligence.

According to Gartner, intelligent infrastructure in the data centre can cut operational costs by 20-30 per cent, decrease downtime, optimise power and space utilization, accelerate service deployment and enhance security.

This is why the AIM standard will be published later this year in the US (through TIA standard organisation) and later in Europe (through the ISO organization) and AIM platforms are advocated by industry leaders as a new best-practice for managing data centres.

About RiT Technologies

Founded 25 years ago, RiT Technologies is a unique provider of network infrastructure solutions for data centres and communication networks.

RiT pioneered IIM (Intelligent Infrastructure Management) for companies and organizations wanting to achieve full control of their network infrastructure; a technology that has been adopted by all the leading cabling vendors and is currently in the process of standardization by ISO/IEC.* The RiT range of solutions comprises of IIM (Intelligent infrastructure Management), DCIM (Data Centre Infrastructure Management), structured cabling solutions, and an innovative indoor optical wireless technology solution for networks. www.rittech.com

www.netcommseurope.com

CASE STUDY

Online backup and data recovery

Coping with Data Growth Introduction

Rocket is an established IT support company offering bespoke support packages to schools and businesses on the south coast of England. The company is currently a business partner for the Local Authority and holds contracts with a mixture of infant and primary schools in Hampshire. Their services include tech support, installation work, website design and other general IT services.

Challenges

As the level of technology used within schools has increased, the amount of data needing to be backed up has also risen. In addition, schools are increasingly required to hold data for lengthier periods of time for compliance purposes. However, with no clear guidelines outlining which data schools must protect and for how long they must retain it, the amount of data each individual school holds can vary greatly before even taking into account school size. Prior to utilising online backup, Rocket was supporting physical backup

solutions at each of the schools they were working with, which presented a number of challenges for the company.

The initial obstacles revolved around physical tapes or hard drives and how they cannot effectively scale to cope with data growth. This limitation meant that such devices needed replacing on a regular basis in order to allow backups to succeed as data volumes grew.

Using physical solutions also meant that technicians had to make frequent site visits to manage and monitor the equipment; taking up valuable time.

Furthermore, there was a growing need from the schools themselves who were looking for a more reliable, speedy and automated solution that could accommodate the expanding amount of data being stored without manual input from a member of staff.

Solution

Redstor’s Backup for Schools Service is a fully automated, online backup and data recovery resource that simplifies the management of backups for schools and significantly reduces the amount

of time technicians need to spend on-site. The service also addresses the challenge of coping with data growth in the schools themselves as Redstor’s service can scale infinitely without any additional hardware or software requirements and also automates the process of protecting critical data.

Rocket first met with Redstor at the BETT Show in 2013 and began talking about Redstor’s data backup offering.

The company had previously looked at online backup and implemented another organization’s system, but found that as well as being difficult to manage, it often failed and didn’t provide clients with a reliable and robust service. After trialling Redstor’s Backup for Schools Service in one school, Rocket decided to roll out the facility in all of its contracted schools. Simon Price, Director at Rocket said: “While Redstor was slightly more expensive than some alternatives we had looked at, the value for money has been second to none. It’s exactly what we and our clients were looking for.” He added, “the installation was very smooth and after the initial upload, the service has been efficient and effective.”

Results

Redstor’s Backup for Schools Service can scale infinitely without any additional hardware or software requirements.

40 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

Following the smooth introduction of Redstor’s online backup for schools service, Rocket is now successfully backing up data in all contracted schools, a total of 1.6TB; ranging from 20GB-500GB in each school.

The most significant business benefit for Rocket has been the amount of time saved by remotely managing the service. Technicians are no longer required to visit each site in person purely to support and monitor backups. Redstor’s Backup for Schools Service generates a daily report, which immediately notifies each school and Rocket’s support team that the backup has been successful whereas in the past this was previously unavailable.

Simon Price said, “When we were using a physical back up, it required a technician to spend at least half a day in each location managing and replacing tapes. Redstor’s alternative has been fantastic, as it has kept site visits to a minimum; saving us both time and money. The service’s www.netcommseurope.com

scalability has also meant we have been able to successfully accommodate our clients’ increasing data, which has been a huge benefit to them. The daily alerts confirming the backup has taken place is very good, we trust the solution and this gives us extra peace of mind.” Price concluded, “As a business, Rocket is currently looking to roll out this service to other customers beyond the education market. We see Redstor’s backup solution playing a significant part in our overall business growth.

With Redstor by our side, we’re confident this will really take off.” www.redstor.com

Challenges

• ICT services provided to an ever increasing number of schools in the Portsmouth area • Varied amount of data volumes needed to be backed up in each school • Growing demand from clients to provide a more reliable and automated service

Solution

• Redstor Backup for Schools Service

Results

• Redstor Backup for Schools Service used to back-up over 1.6TB • Service backs up varying volumes of data, between 20GB and 500GB, at each school supported

by Rocket • Rocket have successfully saved themselves time and money by reducing the amount of time spent managing backups on each site • Rocket utilise Redstor’s data backup service to win new clients and to continue to drive business growth

enclosures

01923 698230 | sales@prismenclosures.co.uk | www.prism-online.co.uk

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enclosures

commited to better

NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015 41

CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE

Evaluating storage for applications

Flash Architecture How flash architectures have changed the storage market.

Introduction

Flash leverages solid-state technology to store and retrieve data making it significantly faster than hard disk, which is especially beneficial in virtualised environments where data access is highly random. However, flash technology has limitations. On average, it tends to be between 8 and 20 times more expensive than hard disk. It also suffers from wear leveling: a particular cell in flash can only be ‘written to’ a certain number of times (also referred to as a P/E cycle) before it becomes invalid.

Flash can be deployed on both servers and storage to accelerate data access.

The right approach is determined by the application’s particular performance, capacity, and data protection needs.

Flash on Storage

This can be divided into: (1) Old-school architectural models that retrofit flash over hard disk architecture, and (2) Newer architectures designed for flash.

Flash offers improvements in both cases.

With model (1) above, flash is used as cache or tier. In the caching model, read accesses are accelerated, but writes to storage are not.

The tiering model uses flash as an intermediate tier for storing hot data (while cold data resides on disk).

In general, this model works well in instances where the data being accessed

is on flash. When it is not, data must be ‘promoted’ from disk to cache while other data on the cache is ‘demoted.’

That requires significant system overhead since the promotion process is not triggered until the number of cache misses reaches a certain threshold. Only then is data promoted, and in large chunks that increase the chances of cold data taking up precious flash capacity.

Furthermore, in tiered models, flash is used as a staging tier. While write performance can be improved in this manner, this also leads to other overheads. Firstly the flash capacity needs to be large enough to accommodate peak load conditions.

In addition, flash needs to be RAID protected to ensure data integrity.

Finally, such models introduce bottlenecks when draining data to disk.

Flash on server

For performance-intensive applications, flash on server can be effective. It delivers very low, sub-microsecond level latencies. However, there is a limit to the amount of capacity that can be supported. It can also be challenging to use common data protection techniques like snapshots and replication. Flash on server works well for high performance applications where data availability is not as critical or is guaranteed through other mechanisms.

Modern Architecture

Modern architectures are optimised for flash’s unique capabilities. Again, there are two popular models: One in which flash is the only storage repository (known as all-flash arrays), and another in which flash is combined with hard disk (flash-disk arrays).

All-flash arrays effectively improve the system’s responsiveness. These systems use data reduction techniques like deduplication and compression to increase flash’s usable capacity, but they’re expensive because flash suffers from wear leveling, requiring the architecture to significantly over-provision to lengthen its life span.

Also, because when flash is the only storage repository it must be RAID protected to prevent data loss from drive failures. Finally, these models require snapshots to be stored in flash, which is often unnecessary.

Conclusion

An intelligently architected flash-disk system delivers the same level of latencies/responsiveness as an all-flash array without the overhead. If the array allows flash quantities to be flexibly varied depending on workload, it eliminates the need for an expensive all-flash array. And, flash-disk architecture allows capacities to scale to petabytes of storage. Also, by storing a copy of data in disk at all times, there is no need for overprovisioning or RAID protection; snapshots and cold data are stored in disk where they belong.

When evaluating storage for applications, the following factors play a key role in determining the right solution: • • • •

Performance requirements Capacity requirements Data availability and data protection requirements Cost-effectiveness.

A well-designed flash architecture will ensure that customers do not have to trade-off one requirement for another.

By storing a copy of data in disk at all times, there is no need for overprovisioning or RAID protection.

42 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

www.nimblestorage.com

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THE CLOUD. WHAT’S NEW. WHAT’S NEXT. Just as you thought you had ticked all your organisation’s cloud boxes... Cloud Expo Europe is jam packed with world-class expertise to help you choose and implement the right business and technology solutions for your organisation, wherever it is in it’s cloud journey.

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11 − 12 March 2015 ExCeL London

www.cloudexpoeurope.com The largest dedicated cloud event in the world. www.netcommseurope.com

CO-LOCATED WITH DATA CENTRE WORLD

POWERED BY THE STACK NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015 43

ENCLOSURES AND RACKS

Understanding both types of enclosure

Racks VS Frames Simon Robinson, Product Manager on behalf of Excel, looks at the pros and cons

Introduction

For those of you who have wondered why there is such a varied choice of mounting equipment and patch panels for installation into either a rack or an open frame, this article aims to highlight those differences and discuss the most suitable products in a variety of situations. There are pros and cons for using both types of enclosure depending on the actual design. Ultimately both are designed to accept 19” rack mount patch panels.

Racks

Available in different heights, widths and depths with various options for the doors and panels, racks are the most common way of mounting patch panels or equipment. The height is measured in “RU” Rack Units, or more commonly, “U” Units. This is the usable height available inside the cabinet, and not the physical height. As a reminder, 1U is 13⁄4” (44.45 mm).

The standard widths that are most commonly available are 600 and 800 mm, which is convenient as the standard

44 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

raised floor system is constructed with 600 x 600 mm floor tiles. 19” profiles can be fitted in different positions (front, rear, mid, etc) to support the patch panels and other equipment. By using the front and rear 19” profiles heavy equipment can be fitted.

Pros

• Racks are available in various heights, widths and depths • Some racks can cope with large weight limits – 1000 kg or higher • Different door types can be fitted and equipment can use front and rear profiles • Managing airflow improves cooling • Restrict access to authorised personnel • Co-location of clients • Earth Bonding for equipment and panels

Frames

Available in various heights, frames are the simplest method of mounting patch panels. Two post frames consist of

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Frames Frames are the simplest method of mounting patch panels and are available in various heights. They can take up very little floor space (footprint). 2 post frames consist of two vertical 19” profiles that have a simple base. This arrangement of profiles best suits where patch panels have to be mounted which can be due to a number of reasons such as: l They are cantilever mounted from the front only l No air flow management is required

Conclusion: Racks and Frames have their different uses. Frames are common in larger communications rooms and data centres where security is controlled by means of access to the room.

They are good for managing patching (copper and fibre) and offer a compact solution. Racks are versatile, offer airflow management and security meaning they can be used in work areas as well as dedicated rooms.

l Works well where a cross-connect is employed l Easy access to patching l No opening of doors l Between frame patching can be managed l Smaller footprint l Lighter

vertical 19” profiles that have a simple base, which means they can take up very little floor space (footprint). This arrangement of profiles best suits where patch panels have to be mounted which can be due to a number of reasons such as: • They are cantilever mounted from the front only • No air-flow management is required • Works well where a cross-connect is employed • Easy access to patching • No opening of doors • Between frame patching can be managed • Smaller footprint • Lighter

Conclusion

Racks and Frames have their different uses. Frames are common in larger communications rooms and data centres This Whiteand Paper has been produced by Simon Robinson, Product Manager, on behalf of Excel where security is controlled by means of versatile, offer airflow management access to the room. They are good for security meaning they can be used in European Headquarters work areas Middleas Eastwell & Africa managing patching (copper and fibre) asHeadquarters dedicated rooms.

Excel House Office 11A and offer a compact solution.Junction Racks Six are Industrial Park Gold Tower Electric Avenue Birmingham B6 7JJ England

Jumeirah Lake Towers Dubai United Arab Emirates

T: +44 (0) 121 326 7557 E: sales@excel-networking.com

T: +971 4 421 4352 E: salesme@excel-networking.com

www.excel-networking.com MF959_09/14

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NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015 45

DCIAR SE EC TSOT RUYD Y

network infrastructure products

Cray Valley is a leading distributor of Networking, Cabling Infrastructure and IP Physical security products and prides itself on the innovative range in its portfolio.

With a market leading Wireless LAN product from Extricom that has a unique single Wireless blanket giving it a number of technical advantages unavailable to traditional cell based wireless systems.

The innovative and comprehensive range of IP door access/IP cameras/IP Environmental monitoring from Axxess ID coupled with excellent technical back up support offered across the range from leading manufacturers, Cray Valley offers a partnership of choice to its customers. This is complemented with a full range of High speed RF and FSO links, with all products having free training courses available from the manufacturer. Our Cabling infrastructure Systems from Siemon, Nexans and Matrix are well respected Global manufacturers with a full range of Cat5e/ Cat6/Cat6a and Cat7 and Fibre.

Cray Valley Communications Limited Unit 11, Concorde Business Centre Airport Industrial Estate Westerham, Kent TN 16 3YN, UK Tel: +44 1959 573444 Fax: +44 1959 572172 Web: www.crayvalleycomms.co.uk

network infrastructure products Mills is a leading distributor of structured cabling, cable management and specialist tooling for the communications industry.

With a stocked product range of over 4000 lines, Mills is the one stop shop for your cabling infrastructure requirements.

network infrastructure products Excel is a worldclass premium performance endto-end infrastructure solution – designed, manufactured, supported and delivered – without compromise.

Excel is driven by a team of industry experts, ensuring the latest innovation and manufacturing capabilities are implemented to surpass industry standards for quality and performance, technical compliance and ease of installation and use.

Since the brand was conceived in 1997, Excel has enjoyed formidable growth and is now reported in the latest BSRIA UK market report as the 2nd largest structured cabling brand with 17% share of the UK market in 2013. The system is also a growing force in markets across EMEA and is sold and supported in over 70 countries.

Excel European Headquarters Excel House Junction Six Industrial Park Electric Avenue Birmingham B6 7JJ UK Tel: +44 (0)121 326 7557 Email: sales@excel-networking.com Web: www.excel-networking.com

network infrastructure products Minitran is a leading distributor specialising in structured cabling systems, networking, audio visual, home automation products and security systems and has been established since 1989.

Brands include Panduit, Nexans, Hubbell, Rittal, Dataracks, TE Connectivity, Belden, Schneider, Abitana, Domintell, Aten, Austin Hughes, Planex, Draka, Acome, GeoDesy, Noyes, Sharpmark, Psiber Data, Greenlee and our own Mini5/6 range.

• Cabinets & Enclosures

• Cable Preparation &

• Structured Cabling

Termination Tools

• Fibre Optics & Tooling

• Power Tools

• Voice Products

• Contractors Tools & General

• Structured cabling • Home automation • Audio visual •

• Active Products

Hand Tools

Fibre optic • Voice products • Cable protection • Ethernet

• Coaxial and Audio Visual

• Overhead & Underground

switches • Wireless LAN • Enclosures • Power products • Test

• Power Distribution

Cabling Equipment

equipment • Security

• Trunking & Cable

• Safety Equipment

Management/Fixing

• Test Equipment

• Tool Kits & Tool Cases

Mills is the premier distributor of the full Fusion structured cabling system range. Established over 90 years, Mills is an IS09001 and Investors In People certified company. Free catalogue on request.

Mills Ltd, 13 Fairway Drive, Fairway Industrial Estate, Greenford, Middlesex. UB6 8PW, UK Tel: 020 8833 2626 Email: sales@millsltd.com Web: www.millsltd.com

46 NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015

Comprehensive stock is held in our warehouse for next day delivery or collection. Orders placed up to 5.30pm are despatched the same day. Our experienced sales and technical support team provide free advice and assistance with design.

Minitran Ltd Unit 5 Myson Way, Raynham Road Industrial Estate Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire CM23 5JZ Tel: 01279 757775 Fax: 01279 653535 Email: sales@minitran.co.uk Web: www.minitran.co.uk

network infrastructure products The Fusion Product range represents the outcome of two years of market research and focus groups to establish installers and users expectations for an end-to-end network cabling system.

Altogether better because ..

Completely integrated - so everything fits together Cost effective - ensuring maximum return on investment Fast to install - every aspect of design optimised to save time Comprehensive range - providing a complete solution No excess packaging - save time opening packs and minimise impact on the environment 25 year warranty - providing peace of mind • • • • • • • •

Cat5e Cat6 Fibre Voice Coaxial Audio Visual Cabinets & Enclosures Cable Management

Fusion, PO Box 556, Greenford, UBS 9JS, UK Tel: 0845 370 4709 Email: sales@fusiondatacom.com Web: www.fusiondatacom.com

network infrastructure products Consistently high levels of service, knowledge of our products and attention to detail is what has kept our loyal (and expanding) customer base coming back to us since 2002.

Data Comms Direct are stockists of network infrastructure equipment and specialists in associated power products. Our customers range from one-man IT departments to some of the UKs largest data centres.

• Racks – Flat Packed Wall Cabs & Prism Server Cabs • Power Cables – Over 3000 lines in this category • PDUs – Geist Stockists. Bespoke also available with fast turnaround.

• Large stocks of Cat5e, Cat6 & Fibre Patch Leads • Trunking – Marco Dado, Mini & Power Poles • Desk cable management • Floor boxes & cable covers • Bespoke - If we don’t stock it we can get it made Call us now on 01823 653100 or visit www.dcdi.co.uk for great service, good prices & next day delivery Data Comms Direct Ltd, Unit 3A, Westpark, Wellington, TA21 9AD Tel: 01823 653100 Fax: 01823 661335 Web: www.dcdi.co.uk Email: sales@dcdi.co.uk

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DIRECTORY

active products Austin Hughes solutions provide data centre managers and administrators instant secure, local and remote access control to mission critical equipment.

InfraPower: Quality rack mount power distribution and power monitoring solutions that help manage data center power capacity, reduce downtime and energy costs and improve energy efficiency. Locally metered, remotely monitored and switched rack PDUs are designed for use across the network, either locally via SNMP or over IP. InfraSolution: Enhance rack level security and equipment efficiency by using remote rack IP door access with HID or MiFARE swipe card control, temperature & humidity monitoring including integrated monitored and switched rack PDUs. InfraGuard: Environmental solution provides Smoke, Vibration, Water, door and side panel sensors, lamps, alarms and Temperature & Humidity monitoring CyberView: Our leading edge LCD drawer and KVM (Keyboard, Video and Mouse) solutions provide the widest range, available on the shortest lead-times in the European market today whilst ensuring capital equipment and software

cable management

network infrastructure products

Cablenet Trackmaster Ltd is an importer and distributor od networking, cabling and power products. As well as a wide range of imported copper and fibre optic cabling products and computer cables Cablenet also distributes for a number of best breed vendors.

Cablenet has one of the UK’s widest ranges of copper patch cables in stock, with cables available in 11 different colours and lenfths from 0.3mtr up 30mtr, and also has in house a manufacturing facilitty to produce cables to your own specifications Call our sales team on the contact details below for more information on this. Our sales staff are very knowledgeable about the products we sell,w ith particular expertise in Cabinets, KVM and UPS. Our 18,000ft2 southern logistics centre is within an hours drive of central London and 30 minutes drive from Heathrow airport marking Cablenet an ideal partner for intergrators and installers who serve the UK, international financial markets and overseas customers.

Brand-Rex is a leading BrandRex global supplier of structured cabling systems for data networks, and is a niche supplier of high performance cables for extreme environment applications.

The Brand-Rex data communication solutions include high performance copper and fibre optic cabling systems, a unique air-blown fibre system, high density data centre cabinet systems and an intelligent Infrastructure Management solution. Through sophisticated modelling techniques, extensive research and advanced test laboratories, Brand-Rex designs, develops and manufacture some of the most advanced cable and connectivity solutions available on the market today.

Brand-Rex has been manufacturing in the UK for almost 40 years and is one and is one of Europe’s leading structured cabling providers. With a worldwide office network, Brand-Rex delivers international sales and technical support to an extensive global customer base.

Cablenet Trackmasters Ltd Cablenet House 2A Albany Park, Frimley Road Camberley, Surrey GU16 7PL UK Tel: +44 1276 405 300 Fax: +44 1275 405 309 Email: sales@cablenet.co.uk

Brand-Rex Head Office Viewlield Industrial Estate Glenrothes File KY6 2RS UK Tel: +44 1592 772124 Email: morketing@brand-rex.com Web: www.brand-rex.com

management costs are kept to an absolute minimum.

Austin Hughes Europe Unit 1, Chancery Gate Business Centre Manor House Avenue, Southampton SO15 0AE, UK Tel + 44 2380 529303 Email: sales@austin-hughes.eu Web: ww.austin-hughes.eu

network infrastructure products Cannon Technologies is an international leader in the design and manufacture of IT infrastructure. From fully featured server racks, high density cooling and power management to remote control systems all under BSI - ISO 9001 :2008 Cannon Technologies has serviced some of the world’s leading organisations and is the ideal partner for challenging projects.

Taking our 35+ years of experience in the market Cannon Technologies has launched a completely unique modular data centre solution that will dramatically alter the way everyone views modular build techniques. The design is based on existing, market proven solutions and can be deployed in a fraction of the time required for traditional modular builds. Offering a wide range of in built features such as: Power protection; Power management; Cooling; Fire detection & suppression; Environmental & security monitoring; Low PUE. Cannon Technologies Ltd Queensway, New Milton Hampshire, BH25 5NU, UK Tel: +44 1425 632600 Email: sales@cannontech.co.uk Web: www.cannontech.co.uk

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network infrastructure products Creating perfect connections is Metz Connect’s core competence. The personal commitment of the founding family characterizes the international success of the independent, medium-sized enterprise group, which together with its subsidiaries pursuers the company’s goals with a high degree of responsibility.

Highly innovative, efficient processes and partnerships have characterized the Metz Connect Group for decades. The company’s brands RIA Connect, BTR Netcom and MCQ Tech offer a diverse, innovative product portfolio with highly specialized connector components that satisfy with highest quality.

Metz Connect Ottilienweg 9 78176 Blumberg Deutschland Phone +49 7702 5330 Fax +49 7702 533 433 Email: sales@metz-connect.com Web: www.metz-connect.com

network infrastructure products

Established for 30 years, Comtec provides the trade with one of the most comprehensive product portfolios for building and maintaining communication networks.

We stock everything from structured cabling and tooling to specialist fibre optic and copper test equipment and aim to deliver quality products at the lowest possible price, next day.

• • • • • • •

ADC KRONE premier distributor Nexans cabling solutions Cooper B-Line cabinets Over 5 ,000 product lines stocked Volume discounts FREE technical support Easy ordering by credit card or Trade Account

Orderphone: +44 1480 415400 Orderfax: +44 1480 454724 Email: sales@comtec-comms.com Web: www.comtecdirect.co.uk

NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 1 2015 47

0.5U Panel Packing upto 24 Category 6A, 6, or 5e jacks, with screened and unscreened options into an aesthetically pleasing frame, the Excel 0.5U panel is the ultimate in port density, and rack space efficiency.

Want to save space, time and money?

Contact us +44 (0) 121 326 7557 sales@excel-networking.com www.excel-networking.com