Stream Data Centers Builds Its New Data Center in Woodlands

June 28, 2012 By

Latest industry reports suggest that data center developer Stream data centers recently started construction of a private data centre in Woodlands, Texas.  This data center will be spread across 73,320 sq.ft and also be able to withstand 146-mph winds and uplift. The data center will also incorporate sustainable design practice to achieve the LEED Gold Certification.

Stream Private Data Center is expected to provide 3.375 MW of critical load with plenty of room to expand to 6.75 MW across 30,000 square feet of raised floor with all necessary conduit and pads. The facility will implement the 2N electrical /N+1 mechanical configuration which will provide dual feed power from two separate sub stations.

‘Stream data centers’ has chosen Woodlands as the location for the data center is because this location offers strict zoning and a controlled environment. The region also has zero proximity to industrial uses, rails lines and flight paths.

Stream Data Centers co-managing partner Rob Kennedy said, “The Stream Private Data Center in The Woodlands offers corporate users a wholesale data center option located within a master-planned setting.”

The new data center is designed in such a way that it can be controlled by either a single tenant or 3 fully independent private data center suites. Each data center suite delivers a significant critical load which is not only expandable but also supported by independent power and cooling infrastructure.

The new facility will be fully-commissioned and ready for occupancy 1 April, 2013.

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Digital Realty Trust Inc. Acquires 3 New Properties in London

June 27, 2012 By

One of the leading providers of data center real estate, Digital Realty Trust Inc has decided to purchase 3 properties near London for a collective amount of 715.6 million pounds. The Sentrum Portfolio will be purchased with cash, debt and a bridge loan, the San Francisco-based company said in a statement today.

Digital Realty also plans to sell 8.35 million worth of shares to help fund the last accusation plan, although they have kept mum about the identity of the seller.

The European data center market is less mature than in North America and should “sustain solid growth,” equity researcher Benchmark Co. LLC said in a December report. Four- fifths of the space in the Sentrum Portfolio is currently rented, with an average of eight years remaining on the leases, according to the statement.

“There is a significant value-add opportunity to lease the balance of the portfolio’s available space,” Scott Peterson, chief acquisitions officer for Digital Realty, said in the statement.

The portfolio is reported to include 761,000 square feet (71,000 square meters) across three data centers located in Woking, Watford and Croydon

Digital Realty, which has data centers in 31 countries, has seen its share price rise 9.9 percent this year. The company acquired a 269,000-square-foot data center in Dallas, Texas, it said on June 21.

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Ways to Optimize the Data Center Operations- Effective Data Center Cabling

June 22, 2012 By

Cabling in a data center is considered to be its nervous system. Integrating a data center with cables requires skill, understanding and no to forget the all important, cables. You do not want a spiral tangled of noodle like mess when you have fault to fix right? This mess can actually escalate and cause various problems for the data center operation. Good cabling methods are essential to ensure that the data center has plenty of good airflow along with easy accessibility in case of a fault and that safety is maintained throughout the infrastructure. Let us look at some of these pointers which will prove quite helpful for when dealing with data center cabling.

Step Away from Under-Floor Cabling Plans:

Raised floor is a common site in data centers but closer inspection will reveal that they are really not an effective solution to the eternal problem of heating of the data center and not to mention keeping the cables organized.

While it is good plan if you are looking from the space saving point of view, but really, it is an ideal place for generating heat in the data center. Also during maintenance, this plan just makes the process a nightmare as looking for a particular cable will be next to impossible. Not to mention that lifting the floor without causing damage is not a task meant for the faint hearted.

The good news is that the majority of the players in the data center sector has moved on from raised floors and is implementing the hot/cold aisle technique which is a good alternative and does not hamper the performance of the data center. Another method is to place the cables overhead.

Overhead is the Way to Go:

One of the major advantages of this method is the prevention of air flow obstruction. Think about it, no obstruction, and no hot air and hence increased efficiency. According to an industry expert, overhead cabling reduces the cooling fan and pump power consumption by 24%. That is a significant amount of energy saved. Also this method eliminates the hassle of lifting the floor to take a peek at the cables. Overhead cabling also promotes accessibility meaning it eases the process of maintenance of existing cables or even addition of new ones. Overhead cabling offers dual win, enhanced data center efficiency and up-time.

Trays for Cables:

Cables kept in a wire mesh to make them accessible for maintenance is one of trends which is implemented by data centers all over. But the same problem of heating persists, but only when it is not properly planned. Even in this arrangement, removal of the dead cables on a regular basis is pertinent otherwise it will be another colorful mess. Also there is a weight factor, meaning if the tray becomes heavy, it will sag and it’s just going to be unsightly.

If you choose to implement this method, going for the modular cable rack systems is ideal. This modular overhead system provides an easy to sort modules which lets the tech experts plan effective multi- level tray organization. Though the system needs precise planning, at the end of the day, it is a great solution with promising return o investment.

Remember these few pointers before going for this arrangement:

  •  At all costs, refrain from suspending the trays from the overhead in an existing data center. This is because; the drilling and the other construction processes can cause contamination. Mounting the trays on top of cabinets and racks is an effective solution.
  •  Often due to mechanical stress, zinc whiskers, which are filaments of zinc occur in the cable trays. These can get caught in the air handling system and not to mention in the IT equipment causing faults and all other kinds of nightmare scenarios. Choose trays which are free of zinc to mitigate such potential risks.

Bottom-line is that there are different types of cable storage methods available but the overhead cabling is the most efficient solution. It is important to know that data center managers take stringent steps to prevent cable clutter in the facility. The benefits of the overhead method cannot be overlooked. They offer significant energy saving and also completely removes the necessity of the raised floor plan which is an expensive deal in a data center.

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DataBank Holdings Spills the Beans on its New Data Center Project

June 14, 2012 By

DataBank Holdings, Ltd, a leading data center and colocation provider who also specializes in offering custom data center recently stated the details of their new data center. The facility is going to be located in north Dallas. The construction is to be completed in four phases and is going to be available to the customers by the winter 2012.

The facility will also have a dedicated power house for constant power delivery via dual 10MW utility feeds in a 2(N) configuration. Originally what was meant to be a 50,000 sq.ft data center, it has now been expanded to contain an additional 10,000 sq,ft of space.

“We could not be more pleased with the new facility’s location,” said Tim Moore, CEO of DataBank. “To construct a facility that meets DataBank standards we needed a unique site combining ultra-high power availability and a dense concentration of fiber providers. Our partners at Digital Realty were able to provide us with a unique and premium property in a stellar data center park setting.” Moore continued, “DataBank’s product is anchored on a 100% uptime availability SLA for enterprise, hosting and cloud providers that make up the bulk of our client base. Also, this location allows us to duplicate our product in North Dallas.”

“DataBank approached Digital Realty looking for a solution that would give it complete control over its business and technical operations,” said David Caron, Senior Vice President, Portfolio Management at Digital Realty. “Our Powered Base Building data center solution supported DataBank’s vision to expand its business, how, when and where it was needed.”

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QTS’s Data Center Becomes the Primary Data Center Choice for Web.Com

June 13, 2012 By

 

QTS (Quality Technology Services), charts as one of the leading providers of data center facilities and services and they recently announced that it has been selected by Web.com which is an online service provider, to take care of and manage the company’s growing data center service requirements. The terms of agreement for the current relationship are not disclosed.

 

It has been reported that eight separate data centers all in North America support web.com and its various other owned brands. With this new partnership, web.com is looking to branch out by keeping the QTS data center as their primary option and will consolidate wit h facility near the company’s Jacksonville, Florida, headquarters to retain disaster recovery capacity.

 

“As a company consistently growing both organically and via strategic acquisitions, scalability and flexibility are primary infrastructure needs,” said Jane Landon, senior vice president and chief technology officer — Web.com. “We inherited a relationship with QTS when we acquired Network Solutions and Web.com has continued to appreciate the service and performance. QTS offered us a long-term agreement that gives us the flexibility we need, and the sheer size and scope of the QTS Atlanta Metro Data Center provides us room to grow.”

 

“We’re pleased that after a thorough review of possible data center options, Web.com has determined that QTS is the best solution to handle the constantly growing requirements of its many businesses,” said Chad Williams, chief executive officer — QTS. “QTS will continue to build and develop the hardened, world-class data center space needed by today’s demanding customers. We’ll continue to provide our services at scale for growing companies like Web.com who are looking to mitigate the risk associated with forecasting their data center needs.”

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TELEHOUSE Group’s Data Center Expansion Project in Full Swing

June 12, 2012 By

 

TELEHOUSE Group ,the leading global provider of dedicated data centers, international Internet exchanges, and managed IT services, recently announced that its parent company KDDI Corporation is all set to invest approximately $140.6 million (11 billion Japanese yen) to expand its data center business in the Greater China market including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The expansion plan includes construction of new data center in Beijing, China. This data center is set to offer all the standard TELEHOUSE services in Dec 2012. In the mean time, they are also planning to move forwards with the expansion of the colocation space in TELEHOUSE HONG KONG CCC.

 

KDDI is currently in charge of operations of four data centers, which are located in the Greater China Region, including Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The Beijing data center will be the newest addition, with a total floor area of 67,000 square meters (m2) in the region.

 

“KDDI and TELEHOUSE America recognize Greater China as one of the most important growing markets, and leading the whole Asian economy,” comments Satoshi Adachi, VP of TELEHOUSE America. “Additionally, active entry of Japanese, European and American companies requires world quality standards with high reliability services. In response, the KDDI group will support its customers’ business expansions by providing premier data center services and a high quality global network, using TELEHOUSE as its core, backed by the service advantages KDDI has in China with CD Networks (CDN) and DMX Technology.”

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Webhost “DreamHost” Becomes a Tenant in RagingWire Data Center

June 6, 2012 By

DreamHost, a full-service web hosting company operating across the globe has become an anchor tenant in RagingWire Data Centers’ new Northern Virginia campus known as “The Bolt.” The state-of-the-art facility will enhance DreamHost’s hosting and cloud services dramatically. This move will ensure the improvement of their performance for the East Coast and European clients.

DreamHost offers a wide range of advanced systems and services to the industry. Their products include hosting, virtual private servers, and dedicated servers — plus cloud storage and compute services in beta testing. All these services can be configured as per the customer’s requirement and also are recognized for their proactive customer communications.

“DreamHost is expanding rapidly worldwide with our unique mix of smart and creative software development, flexible infrastructure, and passionate support for open source platforms and applications including Linux, OpenStack, WordPress and Ceph,” said Simon Anderson, DreamHost’s CEO. “We chose RagingWire for our Virginia data center partner because they have cleverly innovated their power, cooling and physical infrastructure to deliver ultimate reliability for our web and cloud hosting network and servers. And the people at RagingWire are pretty cool as well!”

RagingWire is known in the market for designing and operating data centers. Its solutions are unique operated by in-house data center experts and operators. They also offer excellent service with 100% availability and zero downtime even during maintenance.

“DreamHost offers exceptional hosting products and superior customer service for the individual blogger and web designer all the way up to enterprise applications,” said George Macricostas, RagingWire’s chairman, CEO, president, and co-founder. “We share their commitment to enterprise-level reliability and are proud to have been selected as their data center platform in Ashburn, Virginia.”

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Data Center Infrastructure Management

June 1, 2012 By

Most organizations spend more than 70 percent of their IT budgets on infrastructure such as servers, operating systems, storage and networking. This is required to manage the swift yet uneven pace of growth that is essential to survive in today’s highly competitive environment. When organizations achieve the critical mass, they are often bogged down by the widely varying demands placed on their IT infrastructure.

Even as the investments for hardware and software are tracking downward, the costs of managing and supporting infrastructure are increasing. Server sprawl leads to increased operations and support costs, labor intensive legacy platforms lead to increased administration and support costs. Deployment and maintenance of IT systems is costly and consumes too much time and effort and managing system security and user identity information across enterprise systems can be complex.

Identity and Access Management:

Rapid search, identification and verification of user access rights helps guarantee information, communication and IT infrastructure protection from malicious attacks. The Activity Directory Domain Services offered help create a scalable, secure, and manageable infrastructure for user and resource management. These services provide the means to manage identities and relationships, and the out-of-the-box functionality needed to centrally configure and administer system, user, and application settings. Some of these services are:

  • Active Directory Implementation
  • Active Directory Migration from Previous Versions

Desktop, Server and Device Management

Data centers can manage desktops, mobile devices, and servers as well as deploy patches, operating systems, and applications across the network, asset inventory and proactive monitoring of systems by implementing and managing the Microsoft System Centre Suite.

  • System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) – The SCCM comprehensively assesses, deploys, and updates servers, client computers, and devices-across physical, virtual, distributed, and mobile environments. Optimized for Windows and tightly integrated with Windows 7, it is the best choice for gaining control over IT systems.
  • System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) – SCOM uniquely enables data centers to reduce the cost of data center management across server operating systems and hypervisors through a single, familiar and easy to use interface. Through numerous views that show state, health and performance information as well as alerts generated according to some availability, performance, configuration or security situation being identified, operators can gain rapid insight into the state of the IT environment, and the IT services running across different systems and workloads.

Security and Networking

Data centers should guarantee that information and communication are protected from unauthorized access while at the same time provide a mechanism to protect the IT infrastructure from attacks and viruses while preserving access to corporate resources.

  • ForeFront Endpoint Protection (Anti-Virus) – By allowing a data center to use its existing client management infrastructure the solution helps reduce ownership costs while providing improved visibility and control over endpoint management and security.
  • ForeFront Threat Management Gateway (Firewall and Proxy) – The solution reduces the cost and complexity of Web security through multiple layers of continuously updated protections that are integrated into a unified, easy to manage gateway.
  • ForeFront Unified Access Gateway (Firewall, Proxy and SSL VPN) – The solution utilizes a combination of connectivity options, ranging from SSL VPN to Direct Access, as well as built in configurations and policies. This enables the delivery of comprehensive, secure remote access to corporate resources for employees, partners, and vendors on both managed and unmanaged PCs and mobile devices.

Data Protection and Recovery

Organizations require a structured or disciplined backup, storage and restore management solution to protect their data. Disaster Recover Planning – an in-depth analysis of current systems and creation of contingency plans in case of natural or intended disasters.

The System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) from the Microsoft System Center suit can also be implemented for data management. The SCDPM delivers unified data protection for Windows servers such as SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, Virtualization and file servers, as well as Windows desktops and laptops. DPM seamlessly uses disk, tape, and cloud-based repositories to deliver an easy-to-use and best-of-breed backup and recovery solution for Windows.

Virtualization

In today’s highly automated, technology-enabled economy, business capability has become inextricably linked to IT capability. However, IT infrastructure is becoming increasingly complex. The need of the hour is to leverage IT so that it becomes a more efficient and strategic asset of business.  By consolidating resources through server, client and storage virtualization, organizations can increase their resource utilization from 10%-15% to as much as 80%. Hardware requirements can also be reduced by 10:1 ratio or better. Automated system management and administration at every level in the data center allows greater focus on more strategic planning activities. Moreover, through virtualization, organizations can achieve a reduced deployment time for new IT services by 50% to 70%

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Are You Planning to Move Your Data Center?

May 28, 2012 By

Sometimes, relocating or migrating would be the best idea when severe problems such as poor cooling to disasters to unsuitable physical security or unreliable data networks occur. Understanding the threats of any data center relocation event, foreseeing them, and in due course planning for unforeseen events are the best set off to even the most fine designed relocation experience. In migration or relocation of data centers some fundamental factors must be taken into account. Some of them are as follows:

Floor Spacing:

The ideal data center environment requires the capacity to handle a large number of data cables, the capacity to ably hold high heat loads that are erratic and varied, and the ability to settle in for future technological and cooling encroachment. For enhanced safety, the data center floor must utilize anti static tiles to condense the danger of electrostatic shock damaging of equipment components.

Connectivity:

The service should have admission to manifold ISPs with the cable incoming from different points of the building. This decreases the danger of outages due to a technical breakdown as well as construction and landscaping mishaps. It is also important to validate the roof access rights in the event of having a satellite or microwave line of sight antenna fitted in. Along with this, verification of the connectivity must also be looked into. Both the ISPs that enter the building and the types of data circuits that they can offer must be suitable.

Cooling:

In the recent time, IT growth and the considerable increase in power and heat compaction have stressed data centers to the highest limit of exhaustion when it comes to power and cooling. Most data centers try to preserve a 75F/25C air temperature. It is important to lookout for computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units that screech or disconcert loudly. This can be an indication of pitiable maintenance. Condensation from CRAC units should be drained away immediately through piping.

Fire Security:

Fire safety is important in any organization. The same holds good for data centers as well. Not only should there be smoke and heat detectors, but they should be connected to an alarm board that graphically/pictorially shows the locality of the fire on the building’s floor plan. The first line of resistance should be a gaseous system that chokes the fire by dislocating the oxygen in the air. These systems are less destructive than water based ones. However they are usually designed for fires of short duration.

Data Backing:

The backup system that is newly introduced in current location may be different from the one used at the earlier location. This can be a little tricky to restore historical data during or after the relocation because of server collapse or human error. It is recommended to check whether the new facility can handle data backed up using your software on your backup media. If this is not supported, it is advisable to invest in data conversion services with a third party. High-quality backup services typically store data for a preset period of time before reprocessing the media. It is important to store most of the data at a secured secondary facility. This protects the data from disastrous events at the main data center. However it is necessary to confirm if this type of extra data security exists.

Service Costs:

The service costing includes various facets of charges on facilities of bandwidth, power, cooling, security, floor space rental and custom services. The ideal way to determine these costs would be by keeping the costs of previous expenditure of the past with the current add on environment in mind. The current website architecture the costs can be presented as recurring and/or onetime expenses for easy calculation. Lower persistent costs can easily give the reading of cheaper operating expenses but the price may become adverse when higher setup fees are taken into account.

The above mentioned factors must help when planning to relocate data centers. The data centers in the vicinity may not meet all the criteria mentioned in the above list. Nevertheless, it will surely help reduce final costs to a manageable number. Data center selection is only the first stage of the physical planning for the relocation and will largely be the responsibility for services and networking teams.

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Data Center Network Architectures and Research Problems

May 19, 2012 By

Data centers have progressively become an essential part of Internet services and networking.  This has resulted in setting key demands for the current data center network architecture. Demands like support for cloud computing, competence, scalability and efficiency results in appealing confronts from network architecture’s perspective. Like other sciences, research in data centers is essential to keep the center running smoothly.  Research projects must be paid keen attention for the purpose of quick improvement. Agility is the key. The more agile a data-center network is, the more efficient the deployment of money and resources is. During the research process there is a whole gamut of challenges. The major ones include – formulating ideas, setting out detailed designs to code up and implement, bringing together all the equipment to run the experiments and make them real.

There are several research problems or hitches in data center. Some of them are enlisted below:

Cost:

It is essential to understand the cost structure in a data center. There are various components in a data center which eat up the costs. Some components include – Servers, Infrastructure, Electrical utility costs and lastly the Network (Links, transit, equipment). Power associated expenses are similar to the networks. IT devices consume 59% of each watt brought, 8% to delivery losses and 33% for cooling purposes. Cooling costs could be brought down by permitting the data centers to run hotter, which may need the network to be more flexible in nature. Important fraction of network related costs is spent on networking equipment. Other fraction of the total costs of the network recount to wide area networking that includes traffic to end users, traffic between data centers and regional services.

Cloud Servicing:

Data centers supporting cloud services vary from distinctive enterprise data centers. Cloud service data centers need automation, unlike enterprise data center where automation is inequitable. Cloud service data centers support large economies of scale. Scaling out dispense workload to small cost hardware, in contrast to updating lofty cost hardware. The enterprise networking architectures were initially developed for much smaller data centers, in contrast to the ones active today. The limitations of the conventional architecture have resulted in quite a few workarounds and squares for the protocols to keep up with the new anxieties on data centers.

Unnecessary subscription of resource and fragmentation:

Unnecessary subscription ratio means the ratio of subscriptions to what is offered restricted server-to-server capacity limits the data center capacity and fragments the server pool. This is because idle resources cannot be allotted where they it is required. To evade this trouble all applications should be placed carefully also taking the impact of the traffic into consideration.  However, in practice this is challenging. Partial server-to-server capacity guides to designers clustering the servers around one another in the ladder, because the distance in the ladder influences the performance and cost of the communication

Reliability, utilization and fault tolerance:

Data centers undergo pitiable reliability and utilization. In case some component of the data center is unsuccessful, there must be some means to keep the data center working. Typically in data centers, counterpart elements exist. When an access router fails for example the counterpart handles the load. However, this leads to elements use only 50% of greatest capacity. Multiple paths are not successfully used in current data center network capacity. A vast majority of data centers use TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) for communication. This communication usually takes place among the nodes and Incast. This occurs in many to single environment, which is dissimilar from the usual assumptions TCP based its design. In simple and more understandable words, TCP is unsuitable for a special data center environment with low latencies and high bandwidths thus limiting the optimum use of all capacity. In casting a receiver, requests data from multiple senders. Upon receiving the demand, the senders start sending out data to the original receiver simultaneously with the other senders. Nevertheless, in the middle of the connection from sender to receiver, is a bottleneck link resulting in a fall down in the receiver receiving the data. The result is network jamming from using the same bottleneck link. Advancing and increasing the buffer sizes of switches and routers hinders congestion, but in high latency and bandwidth data center environment, the buffers can still fill up in a short phase. In addition, large buffer switches and routers are costly.

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