Data Center Snapshot Assessment
Answers and Guidelines
l Resource l
The Challenge
You’ve taken the Data Center Snapshot Assessment. Now grab a pencil and paper and grade yourself. See totals at bottom for your overall ranking
The Data Center Snaphot Assessment
1. You have had your UPS batteries checked… a. Semi-annually (3 Pts)
b. Annually (1 Pt) c. Never (0 Pts)
Answer: “Out of sight, out of mind” too often applies to data center equipment, and with hard consequences. Critical components like UPS Batteries, air
conditioning condensers, standby generators, transfer switches, back-up systems, etc, need regular maintenance and testing in order to stay at the highest level of reliability. If you score 0 or 1 point you are in the bottom quartile of respondents. 2. How does your data center respond to a loss of power?
a. It goes through an organized shutdown (2 Pts) b. We have a generator that kicks in (3 Pts) c. Most likely it would crash (0 Pts)
Answer: Loss of power is a data center killer. It’s not a matter of “If” you will lose primary power, but “when” and what the consequences will be for your business. For small operations there is a tendency to think that you can get by simply by waiting and rebooting, but many companies don’t realize the unintended
consequences of a power outage: lost orders, lost financials, displeased clients and customers. At a certain size, 50% of companies experiencing more than a 48 hour downtime run the risk of going out of business. If you selected a) you get 2 points, (middle 50%) b) you get 3 points (upper quartile) and c) we feel your pain (bottom quartile.)
3. How many times has your data center lost cooling in the past year? a. None (3 Pts)
b. 1 to 3 times (1 Pt)
c. More than three times (0 Pts)
Answer: Many data centers grow organically and rely on “band aid” fixes to handle the increased heat that comes with high density servers. Often times, these band aids come in the form of bigger ductwork from a building HVAC system, which isn’t designed to support the 24 x 7 x 365 operational duty of a data processing
operation. Sooner or later, an outage is inevitable. A dedicated cooling system, with some consideration for redundancy to “bridge the gaps” can go a long way to reducing your risk. You are either top quartile with 3 points or bottom quartile with 0 or 1 point.
4. Are you following dual cord best practices in your data center? a. We are 100% dual corded ( 3 Pts)
b. We are most likely more than 50% or higher dual corded (2 Pts) c. I don’t know (0 Pts)
Answer: Modern servers are almost exclusively shipped with dual power supplies. The main reason for dual power supplies is to protect against a failure of the power supply causing an outage of the server. But this is only the “tip of the iceberg.” The power plug is the connection point from a server into a much larger electrical power distribution system and if those connections aren’t managed properly, a single event happening on that electrical
distribution system can “fry” all of the power supplies simultaneously. It takes a lot of work to make sure the dual power supplies are connected to minimize the potential for a large scale failure, but it’s worth the effort. Points awarded accordingly. You’re in the top quartile of performers if you answered a. 5. How do you segregate your Test/Dev process?
a. Not at all (0 Pts)
b. On a rack by rack basis (1 Pt) c. Totally separate (3 Pts)
Answer: I.T. staff are busy folks, responding time and time again to requests to “do the impossible” in a very short window. The ability to respond quickly is critical. However, they don’t often have the time to step back, take a breath and get a “strategic” view of the world. As a result, data centers are often organized according to what it takes to get it done fastest. The downside of this is that many times different functions – such as uncrating equipment (which generates a lot of dust and dirt), testing and burning in new equipment, decommissioning old equipment and production data processing are all happening one right next to the other. They represent a risk.
6. What level of monitoring functionality do you have? a. None (0 Pts)
b. Asset management or Environmental (1 Pts) c. Both Asset management and Environmental (2 Pts)
Answer: Data Center monitoring has made the jump to the IP network and this has drastically increased the amount of information that is available to
operators. The SNMP protocol has allowed a raw data stream to be broadcast real time. But managing data from smart plug strips, UPS, web-enabled air
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conditioners, fire panels and security systems isn’t as easy as it seems. Add to this the need for asset management and you have a lot of information to process. The rule here is, “One size does NOT fit all.” The important thing is to think about your goal and objectives and then proceed. So there is no perfect answer, but managing both assets and environment is a start for most top quartile performers.
7. To what degree have you virtualized your server environment?
a. We haven’t (0 Pts)
b. Lightly… on a couple of applications (1 Pt)
c. Optimally to manage performance (3 Pts)
d. Don’t really know (0 Pts)
Almost everyone has done some server virtualization. Knowing this, the
question is really… are you optimally virtualized. There’s only one way
to find out. Run a virtualization assessment. If you understand how
virtualized you are, give yourself three points.
8. Do you have a documented infrastructure inventory
a. In a generalized sense… we know the number of servers, SANs
etc. (0 Pts)
b. Pretty specific… we know the type and model of each server,
SAN etc. (1 Pt)
c. Yes, when we inventory the infrastructure we also inventory the
OS and SW that runs on it. (3 Pts)
No excuses here. This is a fundamental of Infrastructure management.
While straightforward, it can be time consuming and use valuable
resources that could be assigned elsewhere. If you have it, give yourself
three points. If you don’t, this may be a deliverable for you from a data
center assessment. Top quartile performers inventory both hard assets
and soft assets.
9. Do you have infrastructure performance profiles?
a. Not really (0 Pts)
b. We do this periodically (1 Pt)
c. Yes, we have detailed profiles for peak and normal loads (3 Pts)
How do you know you need another server, more memory, or storage?
Learning how your current systems are actually performing versus how
you think they are performing is a factor in not over-buying hardware.
Give yourself 3 Points if you answered c. This puts you in the top 10 %.
10. To what degree are your storage systems retaining multiple copies of
the same data?
a. Don’t know (0 Pts)
b. Suspect we are storing more than we need (0 Pts)
c. Run in-line deduplication and compression to minimize multiple
copies (2 Pts)
The explosive growth of data is one of the biggest issues many
Infrastructure professionals struggle with, though they may not
recognize it. Can you answer this single question… how much copy data
are you storing? In many organizations the average amount is seven
times actual production data and can be higher. The technology is also
changing rapidly in this area and often by non-traditional vendors. So
evaluating the amount of copy data your organization is storing is
critical to an effective data center assessment.
11. Our infrastructure inventory plan tracks maintenance and renewal
licenses...?
a. Yes (3 Pts)
b. No (0 Pts)
It’s a pain, but knowing where you are with respect to your renewal and
maintenance licenses, or even End-of-Life for your hardware and
software, is critical to avoiding surprises. Give yourself three points and
a top quartile rating if you answered a.
12. Our IT Roadmap is…?
a. Seat of the pants (0 Pts)
b. Driven by limited budgets or the periodic crisis (0 Pts)
c. Strategic but not tactically planned (1 Pt)
d. Strategic, tied to business units, and implemented tactically
with a yearly tactical plan (3 Pts)
If you answered a. or b. you are not alone. Many IT professionals are
forced to compromise effective planning for the current crisis. The real
key here: understanding the consequences of a failure to plan or tie you
plan to the business goals of your organization. The first place to start is
understanding where you are today. If you answered d. then you are in
the upper quartile of reporting companies. Pass go and collect $200!
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Your Score:
31 to 36 Points: You are in the top 10% of reporting organizations. Take the
day off and start over again tomorrow.
24 to 30 Points: Congrats. You are in the top quartile. There is still some room
for improvement.
12 to 23 Points: You are in the middle two quartiles with plenty of room for
improvement. You should seriously look for external help in
assessing your data center and helping you develop a plan.
1 to 11 Points: You are in the bottom 25% of reporting organizations. You are
limited by budget, resources or organizational politics. Your
first step is triage in the problems you face. Get independent
help immediately or polish your resume.
The Parallel Data Center Assessment Process Heirarchy:
Develop Business Strategy Determine Business Needs Generate IT Strategic Plan Determine Where You Are Roadmap Tactics and Directions
for Where you Want to Be Implement Maintain and Support
Start Here… Data Center Assessment
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Parallel Technologies, Inc.
800-899-1652
Parallel Technologies designs, implements and integrates critical infrastructure and networks for Data Centers and Buildings. We help our clients improve communications and reliability while reducing business risk, energy and costs. We’ve been in business for 30 years and have 115 engineers, technologists, and professionals ready to help you. Serving enterprise, commercial and SMB clients, just a few of our clients are UHC, Digital River, The Mayo Clinic, Cummins, Medtronic, Target and the US
