As reported in an article published in the pages of the New York Times, research experts conducted an experiment in which it was planned to find out whether wireless devices can be used for communications between dedicated servers, data center in the future or not.

The researchers set out to find out whether the use of wireless systems will speed traffic between servers, data center , if the basic (cable) system is overloaded in the near future. Several server racks in one of the centers were equipped with small corporations directional antennas for wireless devices and switching, which were installed on top of the server racks.

Used for communications range of ultrashort radio waves: The frequency – 60 GHz, the wavelength – about 5 millimeters. According to the researcher, the detailed system of wireless communications has allowed to significantly accelerate the speed of communication between the racks – from 45% to 95% depending on the specific experimental conditions.

It is known that wireless communications are often not completely reliable. Communication may be interrupted, for example, by the inclusion of a microwave oven or by unfavorable conditions for admission to a particular point. So it is the fact that this idea will be accepted by most operators or the data centers. Nevertheless, the situation in case of data centers is radically different from the usual situation with unreliable mobile phones with unstable connections to Wi-Fi.

The fact is that, the entire situation within the data center is under strict control, all occurring processes are well predicted, and the equipment is serviced by staff for uninterrupted services.  In addition, this system uses directional antennas, ie relationship between the switching devices is carried out through the narrow beams of radio waves.

Companies continually live with the pressure for spending cuts. One of the feasible ways is to focus the workforce on its core business, opting for outsourcing of various satellite services. This includes the area of IT – including Data Center, or database.

For the choice of outsourcing, to have a good foundation is necessary to consider the context necessary to manage a data center. First, an entire infrastructure is needed to support server: electrical, cooling system, equipment (hardware) and so on.

We not only need to rely on all the structure operating 24 hours a day, but also on the technology and skilled management in order to meet demands for best results.

Security is another key factor. It is important to have resources against robberies, fires and floods, mainly to ensure that customer information will never be violated by hackers or other malicious person.

High performance is another standard feature, which means that you cannot save on backup systems, maintenance, upgrades and license updates. With that in mind, you can deduct or invests in mature, or opting for self-management of risk.

There are few companies who neglect the storage of data. Some only become aware of the need to outsource the data center after a disaster that may take years to complete recovery of material losses and market credibility.

As a rule, the outsourcing of Data Center for disaster recovery services offers cost-cutting in the medium term, and allow the team to keep focus on business, employees and customers. It is worth bearing in mind that IT investments are absolutely necessary and do not pay in the short term.

If we had said this a few years ago, it might not be so believable, but virtualization technology has become widespread, almost essential in many contexts.

I believe that automation of systems is essential today, more with the servers that provide cloud computing services: the number of machines in data centers continues to increase, so not just automate the creation and management of VMs, we must think of the rest.

The problems associated with virtualization in the data center

In a virtual data center, the operating speed of change has increased. Virtual machines are reconfigured, loads of computing resources are moved, and applications grow and shrink rapidly. We know that the continuous changes increase the risk of errors, analysts estimate that 60/80 percent of data center problems are caused by mismanagement.

How can we ensure the stability of data center, maximizing the advantage of the flexibility offered by virtualization?

Virtualization promises to improve the operation of data centers and no doubt it does. The server consolidation provides significant benefits. The ability to migrate without blocking loads significantly facilitates the management of the hardware. The ability to deploy new virtual machines in a very short time compared to physical machines makes it faster and more effective development and deployment of applications.

The benefits of virtualization, however, bear some costs associated with it. The hypervisor adds another layer of complexity to the stack software. Imposes requirements on the servers, the storage system and especially on the network. While the hypervisor provides a little ‘automation to simplify server hosting operations, the environment around the virtual cluster has made it easier. In a recent survey conducted among customers, 70% said that virtualization adds additional pressure on network operations.

It is easy to understand the origin of this pressure. Each initiative is surrounded by virtual physical resources:

1. Storage systems.
2. Users, workstations and networks of partners.
3. Load balancers and security devices.
4. Tools for remote administration of servers.
5. Physical servers.
6. Hypervisor competition that are not compatible.
7. Private clouds, lab systems, and other specialized clusters.

The boundary between each of these elements is the virtual environment where mistakes can happen while operating. Both boundaries can be the cause: the configuration of the hypervisor may be incorrect, or the environment outside might be set incorrectly. When there is a performance issue, the information from both sides of the border must be integrated to find a solution. When new applications are implemented, both sides must be pre-approved. Errors and inconsistencies occur in three different ways: in the form of application performance problems, delays in the operational procedures and activities that waste staff time. Each data center has its own unique path, here are some examples.

What are the main problems?

Application performance becomes poor or discontinuous

The parameters of access to ports and the network cannot match. There are many parameters that affect performance, including the port duplex mode, network QoS settings, access lists, firewalls and more.

Some “rogue devices” may be connected to the network with IP protocol settings that are incorrect or improper devices that disrupt production.
Configurations that “deviate” from the best practices, every time the manual procedures are followed incorrectly or when standards are incomplete. Consequently, new and older devices have very different settings, resulting in unpredictable performance.

Requests for changes are taking too long:

When you migrate a virtual server for upgrades or maintenance, its destination must have the correct network settings. A set-up of manual port delays, especially when compared to the almost instantaneous speed of the hot virtual migration.

When created, updated or tested with a disaster recovery site, its network settings must be verified to match up with the master site. A manual verification leads to delays.

When you add new servers to expand a system of load balancing, many devices, including the physical switch, firewall and load balancer may require meticulous rolling upgrades. The manual configuration adds delays, typically takes a much higher time to run a new virtual server.

The staff wasting time on routine tasks:

• Daily activities such as the allocation of IP addresses must be coordinated. It can be difficult to identify errors in an environment of constant change.
• The problems often involve troubleshooting logs and alerts that are correlated from multiple sources. With virtual machines, there is often a gap between the physical and virtual systems, in which data need to be matched manually.
• If an unauthorized party makes a move or a change, you will need to waste time in re-checking the work (or worse, fix the errors)
• The reporting and verification of compliance is in itself a nuisance, and virtual systems add complexity.
• In a virtual data center, the changes are more complex and occur most often because of the flexibility of virtual machines. The errors become more expensive, and can happen more frequently.

But there is a way to master the complexity and minimize errors, that does not require a complete reorganization of the infrastructure. It is sufficient to optimize the existing infrastructure with automation. If a platform configuration management can be integrated into the network of data centers, it can run automated procedures, all the problems listed above can be solved. An automated platform configurations can be equipped with a “gold standard” for all the items on the perimeter of the virtual system. Deviations from these standards are due to rogue or misconfigured devices, can be prevented, repaired or isolated. The gold configurations can be applied in a single pass, resulting in a rapid and effective response to change requests. The troubleshooting process can be accelerated when the data from physical systems is correlated with the data of the virtual systems.

Authorization rules and delegation can block unapproved changes and check those approved rules.

Automation is needed in the network around the hypervisor to realize the full benefits of virtual systems. A network platform residing in the data center management and automation can minimize errors, promote flexibility, and cut the hidden costs of virtualization.

Data Processing Center - a building or part thereof, the primary function of which is the placement of equipment handling and storage of information, as well as engineering controls to keep its job.

History

Task of processing information were resolved at different times by different technical means. In XX century the electronic computing devices took over responsibility for large computing tasks, and the emergence of storage devices allowed to move from paper archives to the more compact tape and electronic media. Even for the placement of the first computers required the creation of special facilities – computer rooms, which supported certain climatic conditions, to prevent overheating of the equipment and ensure its stable operation.

Since the beginning of the era of personal computers and servers, compact computer hardware companies concentrated in the server rooms. In most cases, a server room in the company refers to a separate room, equipped with air conditioning and domestic uninterrupted power supply, which creates the minimum conditions for the continuous operation of equipment. Today, however, it is suitable only for those businesses whose business location processes are slightly dependent on computing resources and information.

The emergence of data centers

The data center is an enlarged copy of the server room. But there are some fundamental differences.

As soon as business information becomes a key factor in enterprise performance and reliability of corporate information infrastructure determines the continuity of business processes requires a different, more robust solution that imply a guaranteed power supply (diesel generator), uninterrupted power supply (UPS), precision air-conditioning control, integrated security system (gas fire fighting, smoke removal, fire alarm, access control and video surveillance), an automated dispatch system and monitoring equipment.

Thus, the need to establish and maintain [an] effective data center is when an enterprise is in a real need for continuity, manageability and scalability, as of the IT infrastructure depends on the stability of the business.

Why is a data center?

And then it’s time to consolidate the processing of data and centrally manage IT infrastructure and information systems – it is necessary to build a data center.

Consequently, the data center meets the following requirements of the market:

Significant increase in the amount of information;
Increase the number of used business applications;
Processing of data in far-flung divisions.

Who needs a data center?

In India, the first data centers began to emerge in the late 90s. Their customers were the banking industry, petroleum  industry companies and government agencies.

The data center can be designed for use by one company, and is multiuser. Multi-user data center presents a wide range of services including business continuity, hosting, rental server, server location.

So to summarize the above, how do companies need the data center:

Companies, which are critical:
Maximum degree of readiness,
Fault tolerance
Reliability of information systems;
Large companies, exploiting the complex business applications;
Operators of telecommunication services, banks, insurance companies, etc.;
Midsize and small businesses that can offer multi-data center.

What does the data center do?

The data center provides:

Consolidation of processing and storage;
Maintaining a given regime, automate business tasks of the enterprise;
Preservation of corporate information.

Requirements for the Data Center

No matter how skillfully and painstakingly the concept of a data center is developed, the most direct way to the success of the project and the economic efficiency of the data center during its operation depends upon the proper design and construction planning for a data center – so as to reduce the costs for the data center.

Global requirements

The global requirements are the principal regulations put into the data center architecture, its prospects of a data center must:

Find out the real need for the owner of the resource data center;
Business model of the data center;-
To determine the forecasts and data centers, respectively, stages of its large-scale expansion.

Reliability requirements

Getting data center design, you first need to determine what requirements are for business to the reliability of the information infrastructure.

These reliability requirements can be formalized by two parameters:

Time that has elapsed since the last save of data to the point of failure (obviously, all the transactions that have occurred in the system at this time, simply will not exist in your IT environment after recovery);
Recovery time of the system after a crash.

The sum of these two parameters is not working for the system time.

The parameters depend on a set of hardware and software solutions that are implemented in a data center.

The question of risks

There are three groups of risks that could potentially be a source of inconsistency of data center business and IT needs of the user:

Risk of downtime;
Associated with the planned prevention activities;
Related to unplanned events (failures in the network and equipment);
Risks of business and IT needs (business growth, changes in the requirements for the IT infrastructure);
Risk of downtime associated with the human factor.

In order to minimize these risks, the decision of the data center must meet three key requirements:

Performance;
Flexibility;
Simplicity.

Methods to reduce risk

To reduce the risk of downtime and provide the necessary level of efficiency data center should include:

Redundant systems (redundancy);
Fault-tolerant systems (the ability to work offline)

To reduce the risks of changes in infrastructure requirements and the flexibility to provide solutions to its scalability (ability to add modules to the IT and physical infrastructure)

To reduce the risks associated with the human factor, there should be ease of monitoring, control of the data center.

Conclusion

From a long time, issues of building data centers and similar facilities are reduced by finding the appropriate operational area for office space and an equally rapid adaptation to the tasks of IT services. But repetition is systematically encountered unforeseen situations caused by failures of design, have convinced experts that these issues deserve much more attention, knowledge and resource.

Building a data center must be taken seriously and methodically.

A research done by experts from different areas in the data center has published a compilation of the 10 countries that are most conducive in building a data center.

Where is the best location to build a data center?

So, according to experts, the best regions in the world to build a data center are as follows:

Where is it worse to build a data center?

Unfavorable regions for building a data center are based on the following criteria:

• Access to reliable energy sources, taking the growth prospects of the power consumption (data center scalability) into account.
• The use of existing and emerging cleaner, renewable energy
• The possibility of free cooling
• The possibility of submarine cables,
• The presence of stable, scalable network resources
• Favorable conditions in the country as a whole (stability, security)
• The risk of natural disasters with their consequences,
• The project cost (capital and operating costs)
• Availability of human resources,
• Availability of vendors (The official representative of manufacturers of equipment).

The Result For 10 Worst Countries:

Nigeria
Iraq
South Ossetia
Georgia
Yemen
Somalia
Papua, New Guinea
Haiti
Myanmar
Vatican

10 Worst Locations:

Mount Etna
British Antarctic Survey Station, Halley
Pyongyang
Galapagos Islands,
Los Angeles
Harare,
Venice
Kabul
Machu Picchu
Atlantis.

An interesting collection of unfavorable data center locations. Does any one have any desire to build a data center in Myanmar or somewhere on the slopes of Mount Etna?

When we purchase a product or service that requires a significant investment, it is essential to know in depth the characteristics or properties, if you have a product, and the advantages and security provided if a service.

When it comes to data center, there are multiple factors to consider:

First large data storage capacity. Not only that, but good exchange rate for the same. If we shut down  the server, but far from databases, the set speed will suffer.

The physical data center runs on electricity. It should have assured electricity even in disaster conditions (cuts supply network, fires, floods, etc.). It should not just have a efficient UPS but also the authentic electric generators to ensure supply.

Backups of course. The data is stored redundantly and must be accessible in a transparent manner if a database or server goes down.

The redundancy is applicable not only to the above, but for all the physical devices involved in the management and transmission of data.

Very important: We not only have to think about security and communications software , we must also think about good physical security for all equipment and wiring.

A data center that does not have a professional team, or have 24/7 support, the proper operation of the service is not very reliable. The provider should maintain and update the software (this task must be fully supported by this team). The provider must be available to customers to solve any problems that arise.

Increasingly, data centers are concerned to comply with the recommendations within the scope of  “Green IT” and this will benefit customers to lower energy costs through efficiency.

Finally, ensure the financial solvency of the company that provides service and … before you sign the contract rather read the Terms of Service and the fine print.

How to get all this information is easy to imagine. Almost always, gather this data from the service provider.

The development and design of data centers is based on a number of standards, specifically designed for data centers. The most commonly used standard for developing and designing the data center – is TIA EIA 942 standard-Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers. This standard was adopted by the telecommunications industry association, and gave a major boost for industry development and data center. The standard was starting point for developing a European standard EN 50173-5  and the international standard ISO / IEC 24764, concerning the design issues of SCS in the data center.

TIA/EIA-942 Standard consider the following issues related to the design and organization of data centers:

• The general approach to designing data centers;
• Structure and Architecture of SCS in the data center;
• Requirements for premises and territories, is scheduled to deploy data center;
• Architectural solutions for data centers;
• Approaches to the design of cooling systems, power supply in the data center;
• Building a system of cable channels for data centers;
• Redundancy and reliability levels tier3 data centers.

A new version of the TIA/EIA-942 standard is expected till the end of 2012, which will be rewritten and improved, taking the fact into account that the association was adopted by the telecommunications industry and a new standard for SCS TIA/EIA-568C has gained extensive experience designing and creating Data Centers  based on the use of new technologies and technical solutions.

In addition to standards adopted by the European standard EN 50173-5 “Information Technology – Generic Cabling Systems, the second version of the international standard ISO / IEC 24764  “Information technology – Generic cabling systems for Data Centres, was not been accepted and approved by the working group.

The European standard EN 50173-5  and the international standard ISO / IEC 24764 relate to matters of constructing a structured cabling system in data centers.

• The European standard EN 50173-5 covers the following issues:
• Structures, hierarchy and functional elements of the SCS in the data center ;
• Interfaces in a structured cabling system;
• Requirements for the channel and cable lines in the copper and optical SCA;
• Requirements for the connecting and distribution equipment;
• Requirements for cords and connectors used in data centers.

International standards are developed and based on European standards and includes in addition to issues addressed by the standard EN 50173-5 is the question of redundancy, grounding, marking and identification of passive components, making use of high-density optical cable system. This standard provides specific requirements for minimum and maximum length of the cable system.

Despite the fact that the standards of TIA/EIA-942, EN 50173-5 and ISO / IEC 24764 are pretty much similar, but there are differences in standards.

Large or small, every successful company must ensure that your data and information are protected in the best possible way. If already decided to outsource the data center, check that the company has hired a disaster recovery plan on a higher priority. Thus, even if there is any incident, the recovery of all the intellectual and strategic customers will be assured. Otherwise, everyone’s life becomes a nightmare.

There are few businessmen who feel that there is no need to hire a service of DRP, or a disaster recovery plan. Mainly because it takes time and investment. Only if the loss of information happens, it is invaluable. At worst, the company may go bankrupt.

In recent years we have seen many reactions to the nature of global warming, resulting in floods, fires, earthquakes, etc. invasion of urban pests. Poorly managed cities, then, without enough points for the flow of water, are the first to have their homes and businesses flooded. Not to mention the security problems with assaults that are multiplying. Sometimes the criminals are behind cables and wires and end up destroying an entire heritage.

In short, the business continuity plan analyzes each company area and points, including the most vulnerable areas. It is important to indicate where you can count on a secure storage to install, if any, the system of information security, facilitating the back-up journal.

In addition to these incidents, disasters in technology also relate to data loss due to domestic spying, viruses, blackouts, and – very importantly – human error. Imagine running out of a machine for more than ten days. Financial losses may never be fully restored. Contracts can be broken, unfulfilled agreements, deliveries not made, there may be delays in payments to suppliers and employees … All because they did not have a business continuity plan that provides for disaster recovery.

These are some nightmares that can be avoided when the company prioritizes the security of information and knowledge generated by their human capital. So the next board meeting, the smart entrepreneur should not forget to discuss proposals to outsource data center comprising a good business continuity plan.

In recent years, the term “green technology” actively became popular. Already several companies have built “green data center“. Increasing consumption of electricity and the crisis in the energy sector and  a number of states, the constant rise in the cost of electricity forced manufacturers to produce less and less energy-consuming products as well as looking for different ways to reduce energy costs.

Using the phrase “green technology” does not imply a transition to clean energy, for example, such as solar or wind power. The term “green” is used as “use the least energy-consuming ways to use devices while ensuring their highest performance”. This term is commonly used among professionals in the field of data processing centers and, incidentally, in the IT industry, including the leading manufacturers of various computer equipment that are constantly increasing power of computer peripherals and various device to ensure that this technique could use the latest software, games and various programs.

At the same time, software vendors, operating systems, games and educational programs on CD are also demanding more and more powerful computing resources to operate the software and use the latest models of processors in computers and servers. Race in vendors and manufacturers of computer hardware is constantly increasing energy costs.

According to analysts, in recent years, per unit area of computing power has increased by more than 10 times. And consumption expenditures are increasing and growing!

Large amount of energy spent on cooling of servers and various engineering systems.

Experts estimate that efficiency of data centers does not exceed more than 30%. Of course, business as soon as possible seek to profit from the introduction of the data center that does not always coincide with the goals of reducing consumption of electric energy. So, to ensure high efficiency and low power consumption in the data center, you need to buy a server with low power consumption. Must be installed in the new cooling system with a more economical mode of consumption.

In addition, it is desirable to buy and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) with high efficiency. In short, a comprehensive approach involves the introduction of the most energy-efficient technologies in all devices that are connected to the server.

Leading manufacturers of microprocessors from Intel and AMD are constantly increasing its production of energy-efficient microprocessors.

Thus, the introduction of new technologies reduce the clock speed of processors that can significantly save energy. In addition, the automatic shutdown of the peripherals that are not used during operation of the processor, also leads to large savings of electricity.

When information is stored in big server, it often duplicate the same information on different disk arrays. This is a very energy-consuming operation, which leads to a large consumption of electricity. That is why, it is desirable to use a method of preserving information, such as de-duplication .

De-duplication dramatically reduces power consumption while exercising quality duplication of a large amount of information on your server.

Technology to reduce consumption of electricity used in design, there are some leading companies that are producing computer hardware, like HP Blade System, IBM Blade Center, as well as many other.

Aside from the usual air cooling, water cooling can be used, which can reduce power consumption. This technology reduces power consumption by several times in comparison to air cooling. However, the complexity of the design, installation and operation can allow the use of a water cooling system but not in all cases.

Cost reduction is a magic word when it comes to business and IT managers are not left out of this matter. Perhaps the ultimate goal really is to achieve better results, but reducing costs and enhancing business success. And that, thankfully, is no longer a mythical subject – may already be a reality, regardless of business type and company size.

How?

To get the answer we must first address some concepts such as convergence. In IT, more specifically when we talk about networks and servers, convergence can be defined as the willingness to travel with safety, efficiency and security, voice applications, video and data over a single network, wired or wireless. The concept is to mount a network end to all elements virtualized management with automated, optimized resources and guarantee availability.

Generally, corporate data networks are separated. A company has a telephone network with its traditional PBX for communication between employees and the outside world, the other for data network, which runs its data processing systems and shares the internet access.

A third network may exist, for information on video security systems and, finally, there is still a fourth network, via telecom operators to videoconferencing systems, among other specific systems that require connectivity solutions individuals.

Thus, companies reserve twice the energy required for installations and machines, as consumption is unpredictable. But what can be done to significantly reduce operating costs of these networks?

You can monitor how energy is consumed and therefore reduce consumption.

As discussed earlier, yes. This is no longer “something of the future”, but the present. Currently, the market offers several possibilities to obtain a converged infrastructure, ie have a model that virtualizes and converges IT environments of servers, storage and networks with data center facilities, creating a single instance of shared services, allowing greater flexibility and agility to meet new business demands.

A good example is the technology and Converged Infrastructure at HP, which relies on Networking, Storage, Dedicated Servers and Services. Thus, it is possible to serve companies of all sizes, with the most diverse portfolios, offering the best solutions, always respecting the client’s legacy and evolving according to their needs.

On one hand, proprietary infrastructure networks keeps costs high. On the other, many open standards must be followed exactly to make sure equipment from different manufacturers are compatible.

It takes trust in the solutions, they should have greater wealth of functionalities for users, lower cost of maintenance and especially safety. Modern architecture, open standards-based HP, evolving and innovating while consistently decreases the cost curve in enterprise networks.

Thus, reducing complexity, cost and exceeding their expectations in IT Management are the rules, with simplicity and efficiency, with open architecture, with maximum network security, with the converged infrastructure.

As a result, it is possible to guarantee the long-awaited reduction of costs, so simple that you will invest more in your own business instead of worrying about maintenance.

More for less with benefits. So it should be….

Or do you prefer the opposite?