Indy Data Centers

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Comment by David 'GuruConnector' Hall on November 12, 2008 at 2:11pm

Green data center?

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/nuclear-power-plant-converted-to-green-data-center.php

Comment by David 'GuruConnector' Hall on October 18, 2008 at 9:25am

how about a little humor in here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcQ7RkyBoBc

Comment by David 'GuruConnector' Hall on October 15, 2008 at 9:16am

How many cross connect options does each data center have? What kind of power grid and backbone does each sit on? Are you SAS70 certified? Are you on Homeland Security list? What is total run time on generators? What about priority fuel delivery to backup generators in the event of a major catastrophe int he area? Have you ever been asked about missile deflection technology like I was recently? :)

Comment by David 'GuruConnector' Hall on October 15, 2008 at 9:12am

At the conference they talked about Rack to Rack, Floor to Floor SAN's to mitigate the risk of even very localized issues. Is anyone seeing this approach being implemented anywhere?

Comment by John Qualls on October 14, 2008 at 4:27pm

Day in, day out, this is what we are about.

Comment by David 'GuruConnector' Hall on October 14, 2008 at 4:24pm

Just returned from a conference on how Storage Area Networks (SAN's) combined with Virtualization can be a very cost effective, scalable, effective solution. 100 of the Top 100 companies use VMWare for virtualization already. Now we are seeing SAN's combined on college/university campuses or medical center campuses and elsewhere to help replicate data virtually from building to building. Often its not a major catastrophe that hits but localized power outages, flooding, and other damage that causes one local building to go down. With a combination of Virtualization & SAN's campuses can replicate data building to building, always having the latest snapshot and ability to restore in the event of localized outages. This same architecture can be deployed by integrating data centers into a Storage Area Network. What changes are you now seeing in your data centers in light of virtualization and SAN's? Hospitals have the ability to cross replicate data between themselves but I am not sure how many are implementing this option or whether its even feasible. I am not seeing any slow down in data center expansion so I don't think this is something that will be deployed anytime soon on a massive scale. I would just like to hear about your data center experiences, feedback from clients, current projects involving VMWare/SAN combination, and any other comments on where you think we are headed.

Comment by David 'GuruConnector' Hall on October 9, 2008 at 2:12pm

Questions to consider when exploring data centers:

1) Does the data center has 24/7 QUALIFIED staff at the data center location or is the night-shift just a simple operator crew with not much technical knowledge? Is there a night shift crew at all? Do they support your operating system (as an example Linux) or are they single platform only?

2) Support Ticket times and support. How long does it take to get hands-on help to work on your server? Find out what the average ticket response time is.

3) Remote reboots. Does your server or servers will be connected to a remote reboot power switch? Can you eventually provide your own power switch if necessary? Remote reboots can be critical in situations of a non-responsive server. Saving valuable minutes by rebooting the server yourself can be a big benefit.

4) Does the data center have enough power for your server? Some data centers upgrade power as they need it. That can hurt existing customers when it comes to overloaded circuits or downtime when a circuit needs to be upgraded. Ask the question and get written confirmation.

5) Redundant power. Does the data center operates UPS's (Batteries) so that an emergency generator can be started and your server still receives power from a battery. A good data center has a large set of batteries sitting between the power feed so that no downtime will ever occur based on loss of power.

6) Network equipment. Do you have to provide your own equipment (Switch, Firewall, Router) or does the data center provides basic switching and firewalling?

7) How many IPs do you get per server? Are there any additional costs associated with IP addresses? Ask for your own VLan (virtual Lan) when being connected to the data centers network equipment.

8) Will you have physical access to your own server (in case you live in the same town where the data center is located)? How about external support in case you have purchased a support contract from the server vendor (which often includes their consulting services)?

9) Do you need to lease a whole rack cabinet, half a rack cabinet, or can you buy rack space per U (Rack Unit). A "Rack Unit" is equal to 1.75" (Inch) in height. Make sure you do not have to buy resources that you will never need.

10) Bandwidth and Uplink Internet connections. Ask the data center for detailed information about their uplink providers and available bandwidth. What happens if they run short on bandwidth? Adding additional circuits is not a matter of days. A large pipe added to a data center can take anywhere from 2-6 months. You don't want to suffer 6 months of bad performance due to small Internet pipe.

Comment by David 'GuruConnector' Hall on October 9, 2008 at 2:11pm

How many servers does Yahoo have? Some reports suggest as many as 450,00 spread over 25 locations!! That is a lot of energy being consumed! I have read that many companies are exploring 'green' options to help power their data centers. Anyone know of any alternatives being considered?

http://www.datacentres.com/research/google.asp

Comment by David 'GuruConnector' Hall on October 9, 2008 at 1:53pm

Good point! Thanks, John!

Comment by David 'GuruConnector' Hall on October 9, 2008 at 1:52pm

I talked to the head of a large engineering firm that told me the cost of his downtime was 30-40k an hour!

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