5 Most Significant
Challenges Facing
CIOs in 2013
Built for Tomorrow. Ready today.
Colocation Addresses
Oil & Gas Companies’
Rising Performance
On one hand, business is booming across many North American regions and companies are striving to keep up with demand. On the other, rising pressure from government and environmental groups and demand for new geophysical analysis are creating major challenges. Both trends have spawned technological improvements that demand nearly real-time
consumption of information and generate vast amounts of data. How oil and gas companies manage the collection, storage, retrieval and growth of this data will be a primary success factor moving forward.
Colocation offers oil and gas companies more than just an easier way to gain access to
interconnect infrastructure; it also reduces costs and enables new levels of network flexibility and security.
The Oil and Gas Industry Stands at a Crossroads
Competitive pressure to locate new sources of oil and gas has produced powerful IT innovations and, subsequently, a data explosion. Take geostatistical software, for example. To achieve the best fluid dynamics simulation within a reservoir, oil and gas companies rely on increasingly sophisticated reservoir characterization software and tools.
Geostatistical software is used to accurately capture and visualize complexities while providing updated models for flow simulation use. As the software has become more sophisticated, the resultant data has increased exponentially and become vastly more cumbersome to manage with conventional computing hardware.
Oil and Gas Technology Advances Have Produced an Explosion of Data
CIOs need robust infrastructures to handle the unique IT challenges of the oil and gas industry. Extremely high server densities, ample storage capabilities, and complex network architectures are just a few of the components needed to support every geophysical analysis stage.
Oil and gas companies require cost efficient, advanced data center strategies to address the data explosion that is taking place within their industries. As computing hardware becomes denser to allow processing of more data, the equipment requires even more power and cooling. In many cases these enhancements cost twice as much as the equipment itself.
Oil and gas investors know the value of IT innovation. According to “Big Spenders: The Outlook
for the Oil and Gas Industry in 2012,1” a significant number of major organizations with
international business portfolios are working to capitalize on revenue opportunities in the oil and gas industry.
During the next few years, these companies will analyze various oil and gas businesses and identify the best candidates to invest in for future profits. As this trend unfurls, IT innovation will be a deciding factor in which companies receive funding and which the investment community leaves behind.
Technology is a Barrier to Investment
With oil and gas investors identifying IT functionality as a key strategic asset for organizations in the sector, technology must be viewed as a business enabler and not just a background solution that facilitates operations.
In response to these demands, oil and gas companies will face the critical decision to build or outsource data center construction. This decision forces them to work outside of their core competency and divert resources to IT that could otherwise go toward drilling efforts. This is problematic because handling the data and applications associated with geostatistical analysis requires high-density server environments, advanced cooling architectures and network capabilities that can get information between data centers and drilling sites.
1 The Economist, “Big Spenders: The Outlook for the Oil and Gas Industry in 2012,” 2012.
Oil and gas companies face major IT challenges when the importance of geophysical testing converges with investors’ increasing emphasis on IT. Vital functions include tracking seismic activity, simulating fluid dynamics in a reservoir, completing geostatistical modeling processes and applying sequence stratigraphic principles.
Because testing is becoming more complex and conducted more frequently, oil and gas CIOs are managing staggering quantities of data being transmitted between data centers and field workers. This creates major challenges within the data center.
The Volume and Speed of Data Access in Geostatistical Analysis
The initial exploratory process presents major stumbling blocks. The seismic analysis performed during this period hinges on effective seismic data integration, for example, and ensures that information regarding
the scope, continuity and core dynamics pertaining to seismic regions is collected accurately.
In many cases, the process requires almost instant access to dozens of terabytes (and often more), and creates challenges that are even greater than those associated with analyzing mature oil and gas reservoirs.
Exacerbating the challenge is the fact that the data must be transmitted faster and delivered to recipients in real-time. Such data-related challenges are furthered by the need to clearly visualize the information on highly specialized field equipment that allows for rapid analysis and accurate interpretation of geological conditions. To achieve that goal, companies must send parallel packets of information into visualization tools with a level of detail and clarity that field workers can use to make intelligent drilling decisions.
Performing geostatistical analysis is a key revenue generator in the oil and gas industry. Increased political and geological risks are pushing companies to more accurately ascertain the material output of drilling sites. With potential output properly assessed, companies can more precisely divert resources to specifi c projects and ensure the proportion of money spent on drilling processes is appropriate relative to the quantity of oil or gas the drilling site can produce. To ensure consistent revenue and drilling projections, oil and gas companies complete
geostatistical analysis on both early development locations and mature reservoirs – a competency area where data accuracy can be limited.
Information analysis is built around gathering as much information as possible with reasonable precision and then using that information to develop sensible reservoir oil and gas yield
estimates. Accuracy and effi ciency during this process are attained through rapid interconnects between off shore wells and data centers, optimized data fl ow and access to real-time data. Advanced data center application and hardware systems help oil and gas companies gain high-performance data analysis, storage and delivery – all of which contribute to optimized procedures that align with business needs. Increasingly, major oil and gas organizations turn to leading enterprise colocation vendors to provide not only the space, power and cooling of their mission-critical data, but also the expedient interconnects between fi eld and data center locations or between data centers.
Colocation Decisions Align Closely with Revenue Generation
Geostatistical requirements have made the data center a major priority for oil and gas companies – so much so that CIOs want to handle the process themselves, tightly control operations and guarantee a cost-eff ective and high-performance deployment.
While self-control of operations can work in some circumstances, the strategy pulls resources away from other operational needs. Turning to a colocation provider, on the other hand, can give oil and gas companies access to future-proof data center systems that can not only meet their operational needs, but also give them a strategic edge in geostatistical analysis and other geophysical processes.
Oil and Gas CIOs Feel the Pressure of High Performance Demands
Colocation’s performance benefits are considerable and difficult to ignore.
Geostatistical analysis systems and other oil and gas-related IT solution hosting depends on a high-density server environment capable of processing large quantities of data and supporting incredibly complex applications. The high-density servers are difficult to configure, manage and maintain. However, a potentially greater challenge is offering the facility resources needed to foster a high-density computing environment.
Advantages of Colocation and Third-party Data Center Services
Efficiency
The data center’s core purpose is to provide the power and cooling infrastructure needed to keep servers healthy and working at peak capacity. High-density servers often feature multiple processors with multiple CPU cores. The machines’ sophisticated and powerful nature creates an environment in which electricity consumption can skyrocket due to server, storage system, network equipment and cooling infrastructure power consumption. Having an extremely efficient, redundant and resilient power setup is, therefore, essential for data centers serving oil and gas companies.
High-Density Environments
The potential for heat-related problems within components is substantial in a high-density server environment. The data center infrastructure required to support high-density server environments must be able to handle the increased watts per square foot. Typically, high-performance computing systems require at least 250 watts per square foot of data center infrastructure support. As a result, efficient cooling architectures must be combined with robust management tools that identify any hot spots and notify data center managers which, in turn, can respond to the problem and improve airflow before equipment failure occurs.
When supporting geostatistical analysis applications, equipment failure could mean the loss of terabytes of data, contributing to major revenue consequences down the line. Having the power, cooling and management infrastructure in place to prevent these systemic failures is vital for oil and gas companies.
When taking a strategic view of the data center – and factoring in the power, cooling, and interconnectivity requirements – many oil and gas CIOs are finding colocation is the best choice.
In fact, many are already leveraging colocation as a way to mix-and-match data centers, maximize their content delivery networks, and deliver data in a must faster, efficient manner.
State-of-the-Art Equipment, Facilities, and Connectivity
Environmentally Efficient
In an industry like oil and gas sustainable data center operations can make a company stand out for all the right reasons.
Combined, all of the above factors simplify the data center landscape dramatically for the CIO who, in attempting to build a private data center, grapples with performance issues, future proofing, network and sustainability considerations, and staffing management. Colocation providers can completely alleviate these burdens and let CIOs to focus as many resources as possible on the core competencies that drive business success, gaining the positive attention of investors, regulatory bodies and environmental groups.
Today’s oil and gas CIOs are thinking about big data, real-time data connections, interconnection among business partners and customers, and myriad other data-related issues. CyrusOne’s interconnected data centers not only provide the right level of power, cooling, and security, but they also assuage many of the challenges plaguing today’s oil and gas IT departments.
Company-owned servers that were previously refreshed only every five years, for example, are replaced semi-annually by state-of-the-art servers requiring power and cooling
architecture designed specifically for that piece of equipment’s computing specifications. High quality colocation facilities can deftly manage the frequent shifts in the hardware configuration without experiencing availability or power issues.
While the core facility capabilities offered by colocation providers make them an optimal choice for oil and gas companies, the data distribution functionality may be just important. CyrusOne colocation facilities are built to ensure rapid data delivery over fiber-optic cabling infrastructure from the central location to global information distribution centers. With the CyrusOne National IX, oil and gas companies obtain the robust, low-latency connectivity needed to transfer huge data files to help them make strategic decisions in a timely manner.
More and more Fortune 500 leaders are counting upon colocation as the best way to scale IT infrastructure, reduce capital expenses, and allocate more resources on their core business to enable growth.
Optimized for high-value seismic processing equipment for oil and gas companies, CyrusOne’s colocation facilities feature best-in-class data center power systems, redundant cooling
architectures, and unparalleled Internet Exchange capabilities.
CyrusOne’s Seismic IX (based in Houston) together with the CyrusOne National IX platform, enables customers to seamlessly share information with business partners, content providers, networks, carriers and other entities.
Summary
Oil and gas companies may have historically been required to own their own data centers to meet specialized needs, but colocation now offers functionality, savings, and interconnectivity to enable oil and gas CIOs to focus on using IT resources to drive business growth, rather than just keep the lights on..
Single consolidated data center • With all of the eggs in one basket, harden the basket.
Two data centers • Active – Passive • Active – Active
Three or more data centers • Active – Active – Passive
• Active – Active – Active
1649 Frankford Rd. West, Carrollton, TX 75007 + 1 (866) 297-8766 + www.CyrusOne.com 9 20130508v1
About CyrusOne
With 24 colocation facilities across the United States, Europe, and Asia, CyrusOne helps many of the world’s largest global businesses – including 9 of the global Fortune 20 companies and over 100 of the Fortune 1000 – and companies of all sizes take advantage of the latest data center technology and realize top operational effi ciencies through:
• Flexible design – Scalable, customized data center solutions that are
engineered with Massively Modular data center technology to align with your business needs
• Personalized service – High touch customer service delivered by data center experts
• Full transparency –Full transparency in communication, management, and service delivery
• High reliability – Excellent availability using state of the art technology backed by 100% service level agreements (SLA)
• CyrusOne Seismic IX and National IX – Seismic IX provides customers in the oil and gas industry with fl exibility, reliability and a range of choices for massive, real-time data transfer and multi-point accessibility of exploration and operational soft ware. National IX off ers free metro connectivity and low cost city-to-city transit in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Phoenix (with more locations coming soon)
About the Author
Scott Brueggeman oversees the management of CyrusOne’s global marketing, product development, inside sales, and corporate
communications including branding, demand creation, and public relations. His 20 years of marketing and sales experience includes Fortune 50 fi rms, as well as smaller high-growth companies. Prior to CyrusOne, he spent several years with running marketing at CoreLink, a data center hosting and managed services company, as well as Chief Marketing Offi cer at PEAK6 Investments, an international fi nancial services fi rm. Prior to that he was SVP Marketing for Socrates, VP Marketing for CareerBuilder, and also held leadership positions at AT&T and PepsiCo. Brueggeman serves on several advisory boards.
Scott Brueggeman oversees the management of CyrusOne’s global marketing, product development, inside sales, and corporate communications including branding, demand creation, and public
relations. His 20 years of marketing and sales experience includes Fortune 50 firms, as well as smaller high-growth companies. Prior to CyrusOne, he spent several years with running marketing at a data center hosting and managed services company, as well as Chief Marketing Officer at
