Data Center 2.0: The Next Generation of Colocation Services

(1)

W H I T E PA P E R

Data Center 2.0:

The Next Generation

of Colocation Services

(2)

Choosing the Best Provider for YOUR Business Needs

Introduction

In the past decade, companies in many industries have discovered the benefits of colo-cation. A purpose-built data center provides a safe and stable physical environment for a company’s critical computing systems, with redundant power, cooling, and connectivity to guarantee server uptime and availability. Multiple security layers at the facility ensure the safety of confidential information stored on the client’s servers. Also, with ever-increasing costs of land, construction, power, and labor, it has become far more cost-effective for companies to house their mission-critical infrastructure in a facility owned and operated by a colocation provider than to build their own data centers.

But not all colocation providers offer the same level of customer service. Some major providers think of their facilities in terms of real estate, and not in terms of the customers who will depend on the facility. These types of data centers are often inhospitable places, making it more difficult than it needs be for clients to achieve the results they seek from their IT footprint. ROI is diminished by everything from the physical layout of the facility to the working environment around the cabinets.

In providing IT services to their clients, many colocation providers take a “One Size Fits All” approach. They give their clients space, power, cooling, connectivity, and onsite security, and expect that to be the end of it. If the client requests additional power and cooling for their IT infrastructure, the provider may take weeks or even months to fulfill the request. Some providers may require the client to completely renegotiate their service terms in order to get the incremental power and cooling they need. Very few providers take the time to really understand a client company’s IT and colocation goals, and provide the of level customer service necessary to help the client achieve their goals.

There’s an emerging movement among some providers to address these problems. This movement—which might be called “Data Center 2.0”—represents the next generation of colocation services. Data Center 2.0 focuses on providing improved service through closer relationships with each customer, and on designing data centers as better, more peo-ple-friendly environments.

The principles of Data Center 2.0 benefit all colocation customers, but they are often most appreciated by the second-time colocation buyer. This is a company that has already deployed in a colocation facility. Second-time buyers are usually wiser and savvier about their colocation options. They have a better understanding about how colocation works, or should work, and what they want from a colocation provider. They are looking for providers who offer more customer-focused services beyond the basics of “four walls, power, cool-ing, and connectivity.”

(4)

The “Table Stakes” of Data Center 1.0

To define Data Center 2.0, we should first review the tenets of Data Center 1.0. These are the essential elements and standard features of data centers that colocation providers have developed over the past 15 years. They include:

• Large purpose-built facilities, designed to house multiple cages and/or cabinets

full of IT infrastructure and networking gear. The facilities are usually located in reinforced structures built to withstand certain natural or manmade disasters.

• N+1 redundant power architectures to ensure the facility is always has power,

and servers are always available. A data center’s electrical distribution system usually includes local utility power feeds, onsite generators, and Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS).

• N+1 redundant cooling and ventilation systems to guarantee continuous cooling

of servers and other equipment.

• Carrier-neutral connectivity, with rapid access to multiple types of

telecommuni-cations providers.

• Modern smoke detection systems such as Very Early Smoke Detection

Appara-tus (VESDA) to identify equipment that may be overheating before an actual fire occurs.

• Multiple layers of security. These include physical features such as onsite

secu-rity staff, check-in desks and mantraps at the facility’s main entrance, video sur-veillance monitoring, and locking cages or cabinets on the data center floor. It also includes the use of security authentication features such as picture ID/key cards, PIN codes, and biometric (fingerprint or iris) scanning to identify autho-rized individuals and to control access to certain areas within the data center.

• Industry certifications such as HIPPA, SSAE16, and PCI, which enable data

cen-ter clients to meet regulatory compliance standards by housing their IT servers in an appropriately audited facility.

These are the “table stakes” of colocation. Today, every modern data center in the world

should already have these features. Any data center that doesn’t offer these features will not be considered a serious candidate by companies who are looking for colocation services; certainly not the veteran colocation buyer.

First-time colocation buyers are often dazzled by the sheer scale and high-tech elements in multi-tenant data centers. When they tour a major provider’s half-million-sq.-ft. data center, they are often amazed by the size and spaciousness of the facility, the “futuristic” look of the data center floor, the preponderance of overhead video cameras, the fingerprint and iris scan-ners, the networking “Meet Me” rooms, etc. The data center has “table stakes” in abundance – enough power, cooling, and connectivity to ensure continuous uptime and availability of the client’s IT infrastructure, plus security to keep unauthorized people from accessing data on the company’s servers. That’s impressive!

(5)

But once the first-time buyer moves their infrastructure into that facility, they may realize how much more goes into providing great colocation. Maybe they find themselves constantly arguing with the provider over power and cool-ing levels for their IT footprint. If the provider takes weeks or months to fulfill service requests, it sometimes makes it harder for the client’s serv-ers to keep pace with their business demands. Or maybe the client’s onsite staff reports that the data center’s interior layout makes it cumbersome for them to service and main-tain their IT infrastructure.

The Principles of Data Center 2.0

Data Center 2.0 takes colocation services to the next level, and seeks to minimize risk, maximize economics, and improve time-to-market for the customer through better service and more user-friendly facilities. In Data Center 2.0, multi-tenant colocation becomes a customer-focused and people-focused business, not just a real estate business.

Some Data Center 2.0 concepts are based on technical innovations, while others are based on traditional business concepts. The principles of Data Center 2.0 include:

• Building data centers in practical locations to minimize risk and maximize

economic value for the client.

• Designing the interior layout of the data center as a productive work

environment.

• Using innovations in data center technology to provide a faster response to

clients’ requests for technical services.

• Developing better relationships with clients through regular communication

and more flexible policies.

• Enforcing security standards in such a way as to not intimidate or hinder

people who work at the data center.

• Providing amenities and “creature comforts” to make the data center a more

productive place to work.

Biometric security measures such as iris scanning have become basic table stakes in selecting a colocation vendor

(6)

Practical Locations to Minimize Risk

The principles of Data Center 2.0 begin with selecting a practical location for the facility, to minimize risk and maximize the economic value that clients receive from housing their serv-ers there. While this has been a founding general principle of Data Center 1.0, it’s a principle that hasn’t always been followed.

Data centers should be built in an area that is as disaster-free as possible, to minimize the risk of IT failure due to natural or man-made catastrophes. A facility should be located in an area that is not susceptible to earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, or ice storms. It should not be built next to airports, railroad lines, military bases, nuclear power plants, or industrial chemical plants, to minimize the risk of man-made disasters.

Data centers should also be built in an economically stable area where the costs of land, construction, electricity, contracted labor (for onsite security, maintenance, etc.), and taxation are relatively low. If a data center is built in an area where these costs are high, it usually contributes to a higher cost for colocation services, because the colocation provider must pass on these additional costs to their clients.

In addition, data centers should be built in places with easy access to an international airport, good hotels, and other outside travel amenities, so client companies who are not located in the general area can easily send their technicians to the data center to service their IT footprint when needed.

DATA CENTERS

TM

Business Continuity Planning

U.S. Risk Map

Earthquake Tornado Hurricane

Flood Ice Storm Nuclear Power Plant COBALT DATA CENTER

(7)

Many data centers are now using “green” technologies to pass on economic benefits and savings to their customers. With air-side economization, for example, outside air is brought into the facility through vents, and is used to cool servers on the data center floor. Depend-ing on the facility’s location, and the amount of cool air the area receives annually, air-side economization can provide an estimated 2,000 - 8,000 hours of free cooling per year. Even in summer months, when outside temperatures are at 100°F, it will require less power and be more cost-effective to bring outside air into the facility and condition it down to 72°F than it will to recycle and cool the 110°F exhaust air ejected by the servers. Air-side econ-omization can help to reduce operating costs in the data center—a cost savings that the provider passes on to their customers.

The Layout of the Data Canter

As mentioned, Data Center 1.0 colocation providers have a tendency to build enormous data centers. Then they try to fill up floor space in that facility, cramming as many servers as possible to maximize their revenue. Similar to most industries, hyper-scale data centers create economic leverage that benefits the colo provider but might be suboptimal for the customer.

Some facilities are so big that technicians must walk a half-mile each way between their company’s colocation suite and the facility entrance—making it exhausting and time-con-suming for them to move equipment in and out. Some cram the aisles so close together that it’s difficult to move around—to such an extent that technicians must ask the data center staff to move aside a cage wall just so they can get an equipment cart down the aisle. In Data Center 2.0, the colocation facility is designed to more appropriately balance the productivity of the customers who work there with the economic benefits returned to the operator… “more bang for the buck.”

A data center should be configured so that technicians never have to walk a great distance in order to reach their IT cage or cabinets. It should have nice wide aisles between server cages with plenty of room to move equipment down the aisle. There should also be extra space between cabinets inside the cages, to give technicians room to work. The data center floor should have adequate lighting, making it easy for people to see what they are doing. These layout and design standards not only serve onsite technicians from client companies, they also serve the data center’s own technical staff, minimizing the risk of error.

A data center’s interior layout should not be so sectioned that it makes it hard for authorized people to move between rooms. Multi-factor authentication (using key cards, PIN codes, biometrics, etc.) can be used to enforce security standards while still making it easy for people to get around inside the facility.

Restrooms, breakrooms and other amenities should be conveniently located around the facility. This seems like a small thing until one works in a colocation facility where it’s nec-essary to walk fifteen minutes to a bathroom, making each bio break a minimum of half an hour lost work time.

(8)

Faster Response to Customer Requests

In today’s economy, many companies find their IT infrastructure needs are constantly changing. In Data Center 2.0, providers recognize that clients need to make changes quickly in order to keep up with business growth and peak periods, and are always ready to assist clients with these changes. A client’s request for changes to their IT footprint should not be considered a “special request,” but a routine part of on-demand colocation service. The co-location provider should not require the client to renegotiate their service contract each time they need to add power and cooling, and should anticipate their clients’ needs, perpetually ready to provide technical services as quickly as possible.

This begins with planning. A well-run data center will have an inventory of cage walls, server cabinets, cabling, and extra power distribution units (PDUs) on hand, so their technicians can rapidly provision customer requests without having to wait around for supplies.

Innovations in power and cooling technology, such as Starline®_{Busway and chimney}

containment systems, enable data center technicians to fulfill their clients’ service requests within hours, not days. The Starline Busway is a high-density electrical distribution

sys-tem that works like track lighting. In data centers, the busway is mounted along the ceiling over the server cabinets. Technicians can attach multiple PDU circuits to the busway, just as you might attach light fixtures to a lighting track in your home. The UPSs supply conditioned power to the busway. PDUs connect to the busway, providing the connection point to deliver power to the servers, with-out the need for complex cabling or rewiring of the cage or cabinet by licensed electricians.

In chimney containment, a “chimney” is attached to the top of each cabinet to con-tain hot exhaust air ejected by the servers. The hot air

(9)

naturally rises up through the chimney into plenums in the ceiling, where it can either be recycled to computer room air conditioning units, or simply ejected out of the data center. Using chimney containment eliminates the need for hot aisle/cold aisle separation between server aisles. In data centers that use hot aisle/cold aisle separation, the data center floor is a tough place to work. When working on their company’s IT servers, onsite technicians must constantly move between the two aisles, and thus find themselves alternating between freezing in the cold aisle, and sweating in hot aisles that average 105°F.

But chimney containment traps the hot air exhausted from the servers, and doesn’t let it escape. The entire data center floor can then be set to a consistent temperature, making it much more productive and safe work environment for onsite technicians.

Developing Better Relationship with Clients

Many Data Center 1.0 providers do not take the time to develop good working relationships with their clients, and fail to see the benefits of doing so.

In Data Center 2.0, colocation providers recognize that developing good relationships with their clients adds value for both parties. When clients are negotiating for colocation—either with a new provider or when renewing their services—they are looking for a provider who will be truthful and up-front about contracts and service terms, and about the technical aspects of the data center. The provider’s representatives should be willing to answer all their questions in both areas.

Once the client moves in, the provider should give them regular reports about the status of their IT footprint, and should also notify them about maintenance, testing, and any chang-es at the data center (i.e. if the provider acquirchang-es a new vendor whose technicians will be working onsite at the facility).

New technologies allow clients to have real-time information on the use of power supplies, cooling, and connectivity. For example, smart PDUs provide power to server configurations while also monitoring power, temperature, and humidity levels for the server environment. Some colocation providers enable clients to access this information for their company’s IT footprint through a portal on the provider’s web site, and use it to make informed choices about utilizing power and cooling in their IT infrastructure.

Security

A Data Center 2.0 colocation provider knows how to enforce security standards at their facility without making them burdensome to the people who work there. Authorized client technicians should be assigned unique proximity card badges, PIN numbers, and other security features, including biometrics, to give them easy access to designated areas. A client’s onsite technicians should not be required to sign in at the front desk every time they enter or leave the facility—their biometrics already provide incontrovertible information on their whereabouts.

(10)

Security guards should be present in the facility, but they should not be armed, and they shouldn’t intimidate the people who work there. Visitors should be escorted, but authorized client technicians who work regularly at the data center should not be required to have an escort. Also, security guards should not “hover,” or hang around watching the client techni-cians as they are working on their company’s IT infrastructure.

Amenities and Creature Comforts

Data Center 2.0 providers understand that multi-tenant colocation is a “people business” and therefore it’s necessary to add a few creature comforts to their facilities. When the data center offers a comfortable work environment, client technicians will be more productive working there. This is especially important if technicians are traveling from other cities to work on their company’s IT servers at the data center. These amenities can include:

• Hoteling offices with a desk, chair, Wi-Fi connection, and possibly a sofa, where client technicians can close the door and do a bit of work, or just decompress for a moment after a long day or trip.

• A break room and/or lounge where technicians can relax when not working on the data center floor. These rooms should include, at the very least, tables and chairs, a coffee machine, and a refrigerator stocked with water or drinks. Other comforts, such as a sofa and a flat-screen TV, might also be included.

(11)

• Conference rooms where data center employees and technicians can hold meetings. These rooms should include white boards, Wi-Fi connections and speakerphones so client technicians can conduct conference calls and com-municate with their home offices.

• Other examples of important amenities include ample, free parking in a safe

area and concierge services for out-of-town guests.

Conclusion

The ultimate business goal of any colocation provider should not be to simply sell space on their data center floor: It should be to turn every client into a long-time customer. The technical elements, which ensure uptime and availability, are only the beginning of achieving this goal, but are no longer the end of it.

Colocation clients, especially second-time buyers, are looking for providers who offer services beyond just the technical elements. When a provider makes the effort to develop long-term relationships with their customers, and to provide for each customer’s needs through better service and more user-friendly environments, customers are more satisfied and more willing to renew their services with that provider. When done right, the Data Cen-ter 2.0 philosophy benefits both the client and the provider, and becomes a win-win.

(12)