In the first part of our discussion on the “converged infrastructure,” we detailed why we agreed with HP that the converged infrastructure represents the data center of the future where all your IT resources and systems exist and function dynamically.

We discussed how this creates a greater need for energy-efficient IT solutions capable of supporting required increases in computing performance and density while reducing overall data center power demand and lowering operating costs.

This brings us to a new point: what is the best way to view the power and cooling impact of the converged infrastructure?

In the HP article on converged infrastructure that originally gained our interest, they say that “a data center is by nature a highly complex system filled with IT hardware and racks, connected by miles of wires and cables, and complex relationships between hardware and software.”

Yes, that sounds like most data centers to us.

Then they go on to say, “IT intersects with another complex system, the data center facility itself, delivering power, cooling and space for IT. For reliability and availability, both IT and the facility are usually over-provisioned. An additional and fixed energy and cooling buffer is usually allotted to make sure that critical peaks of IT usage do not result in IT meltdowns. Plus, power and cooling is “fixed,” usually supplying a constant amount to IT—no matter the data center status or workload.” We think that this “intersection” is critical, since it occurs at the enclosure level. So your enclosures shouldn’t be thought of as a commodity. They are an integral part of the whole system.

This is where we think HP has really captured the essence of the challenge. Most data center facilities are over-provisioned and under-utilized – until they try to support increasing computing densities. While the overall data center may be provisioned to handle the higher densities, hot-spots can develop in individual enclosures. So an enclosure that is smart enough to utilize the available cooling is critical.

We use the “Four Ms for Datacenter Energy Efficiency” as a framework for thinking about how data center professionals can manage power and cooling more efficiently. Understanding the mechanisms of these different components will help ensure greater control.

Measure: For increased efficiency, the supply, server inlet and return must all be measured. Airflow must be measured along with power consumption and air temperature. A lot of cooling is wasted, which is not measured otherwise.

Manage: Airflow management is a key factor in data center efficiency. The flow of supply air should be managed as closely as possible to the computer inlet. Equipment such as variable speed fans at the air-handler or at the rack level, and high-efficiency chilled water pumps help you maintain airflow at the cabinet level.

Monitor: Cabinet level is no longer an option; it is a mandate, especially with increased densities and power/heat loads. This process eases managing the data center against ‘downing’ events.

Maintain: Use of the most successful ‘best practices’ is the best way to keep the datacenter environment efficient and in tune with technology turnover. Systems should be sized and redundancies configured to maximize efficiency, while air-handler systems should be rebalanced.

We focus on using proactive performance tools that utilize a DCIM platform, along with intelligent enclosures to collect, store, share, analyze and report information on power, space and cooling – at the enclosure level, in real-time – across the data center.

What do you think?

HP has been talking quite a bit about a “converged infrastructure,” which our trusty Wikipedia defines as packaging:

“Multiple information technology (IT) components into a single, optimized computing solution. Components of a converged infrastructure solution include servers, data storage devices, networking equipment and software for IT infrastructure management, automation and orchestration.”

We think this means that the converged infrastructure represents the data center of the future where all your IT resources and systems exist and function dynamically.

We’re particularly interested in the way HP maps out the effect of power and cooling in a converged infrastructure. According to HP, a converged infrastructure “creates an intelligent,
energy-aware environment across IT and facilities to optimize and adapt energy use, to reclaim facility capacity, and to reduce energy costs. It collects and communicates thousands of power and cooling measurements across IT systems and facilities in real time to give your organization greater insight and control over energy use.”

Let’s take a look at what they’re saying.

We like the idea of an energy-aware environment that encompasses both IT and facilities. We’ve long advocated that these disciplines be cross-trained and that organizations need to bridge the IT-facilities gap. But we think HP gets to the real heart of today’s data center requirements when it discusses the need to “collect and communicate thousands of power and cooling measurements across IT systems and facilities in real time.”

We mentioned a few months ago that Gartner analyst Ray Paquet had noted the “Top Trends to Watch for the Data Center.” Among these were Energy Efficiency and Monitoring and Converged Fabrics. We’re thinking that the HP Converged Infrastructure and AFCO’s active enclosures align nicely here.

Bottom line: There is a great need for energy-efficient IT solutions - including servers, storage, networking and communications systems, as well as energy-efficient cooling techniques - that support increases in computing performance and density while reducing overall data center power demand. Managing these often competing resources correctly can save a large part of the IT infrastructure bill and lead to lower operating costs.

What do you think?

Let’s start at the beginning, then some tips.

Early Data Center Design – Room Level
Early data center design relied on control in the form of rack layout. Hot aisle / cold aisle (HACA) was an early approach that faces computer intakes towards the cool air aisle in the data center and directs the hot exhaust into a common hot aisle. It works for lower densities, but in today’s high-density computing data center environment, it’s just not enough.

Row-level
That’s where containment strategies come into play. Aisle containment physically separates and encloses either the hot or the cold aisle in a hot-aisle/cold-aisle arrangement. This technique requires keeping two rows of enclosures cooled to match the single hottest server in the range. While more effective than room level control, it can create a hazardous working environment for technicians, result in poor lighting conditions and pose a potential fire suppression challenge as well.

Enclosure-level
The next level of airflow containment is at the enclosure level. This approach uses an adjustable base-plate to let under-floor air enter directly into the enclosure. It directs the air properly to the server intakes by using diverters, air curtains and blanking plates to ensure proper air segregation in the enclosure. This enables data centers to mix high-density enclosures with lower density enclosures, providing optimal, granular control of the cool air resource. One major benefit is that it greatly reduces the server inlet temperature variations common in traditional data centers. And that allows data center managers to incrementally increase the temperature of the supply air – where every one degree (F) increase can net between 3 percent and 4 percent energy savings.

OK, for those of you who cheated, here are three steps that data center managers can take immediately to achieve the benefits of server-level containment:

Three Simple Steps You Can Take to Improve Cooling in Your Data Center Today
Clear your under-floor plenums. To maximize airflow in your data center and ensure that it is directed where it needs to go, first make sure your raised floors are cleared of any obstructions – especially where your CRACs or CRAHs are pushing out the supply air.

Use best practices. Plug enclosure rack mount openings with blanking plates. Make sure the enclosure air is properly segregated with air curtains. Consider skipping the wasteful use of perforated tiles (subject to bypass cooling) in favor of bringing the air directly into the enclosure base through an adjustable base-plate.

Contain your cabling. Ever notice how your server cabling seems to be everywhere? It is, and it’s also blocking cool airflow to your servers. Look for ways to manage them properly to ensure better airflow. Ideally, route them through a side-car attached to the enclosure.

Thoughts or suggestions?

Financial services data centers tend to be high-density environments, so along with privacy and security concerns, we (of course) like to think about cooling and power consumption. It doesn’t matter where the data center is located – it still needs to be monitored and maintained.

Opinions of bank CIOs on whether they are comfortable housing their secure data in the cloud vary tremendously. At one extreme is Michael Harte, CIO of Commonwealth Bank of Australia. In a 2010 speech to the Committee for Economic Development in Australia, he said, “We will never buy another data center. We will never buy another rack or server or storage device or network device again.”

At the opposite—and more common—end of the spectrum are those bankers who are skeptical about using the services of an external cloud provider, according to a survey by Bank Systems & Technology.

We think the folks at Ovum Research have it right: there’s a middle ground where financial services can play safely: so-called “hybrid clouds.”

Ovum predicts that hybrid cloud computing will become the norm for large banks and that those with multiple legacy and mainframe-based applications will be the last to move to the cloud. Equally important, the banking industry is not rushing to adopt cloud computing because of regulatory and security concerns. They expect legal and technical clarity and a big move to the cloud by banks in the 2012-2013 timeframe.

We think that means some computing will reside behind lock and key on the financial services organizations’ premises in private clouds, while some computing – perhaps development and non-customer data-intensive applications – can move “to the (public) cloud.”

What do you think?

Have you heard about Cloud Computing? Probably too much and not enough at the same time. We’ve been laughing about a great post decrying the overload of cloud computing coverage at Cloud Ave: “Cloud Computing is Dead.”

We’ve taken more seriously recent news about Google’s Gmail disruption and what it might reveal about becoming too cloud dependent.

On Wikipedia, the definition of cloud computing seems to say everything and nothing all at once. Plus, the definition contains a helpful note that “this article seems to contain a large number of buzzwords” which is always a warning sign:

“Cloud computing describes computation, software, data access, and storage services that do not require end-user knowledge of the physical location and configuration of the system that delivers the services… Cloud computing is a natural evolution of the widespread adoption of virtualization, service-oriented architecture, autonomic and utility computing. Details are abstracted from end-users, who no longer have need for expertise in, or control over, the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supports them.”

Just Like Your Data Center
We especially like the part that says “details are abstracted from end-users.” It sounds so fluffy and cloud-like that it makes you forget an important fact: the “cloud” isn’t a cloud at all. It’s comprised of physical space, just like your data center. It requires electricity and cooling, just like your data center. It houses high-density computing, just like your data center. And it provides many mission-critical applications and services, just like your data center.

But, unlike your data center, public cloud computing is off premises “somewhere.” Unless you’re a cloud services provider, you don’t get to see and touch your cloud computing infrastructure too frequently. But, it’s still a physical infrastructure. And it has all the requirements and challenges of a physical infrastructure.

Our point? If you’re considering cloud computing – and there are many great reasons to use this technology – then conduct the due diligence! Check to see that the facility is SAS70 compliant, find out where your data will be stored (and who will have access to it), ask about the cloud computing provider’s business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) strategy, and make sure you know the specifics of the physical cloud computing data center infrastructure.

We think this last one is very important: let us say it again:

“Make sure you know the specifics of the physical cloud computing data center infrastructure.”

If you are planning on placing your data and applications “into the cloud” you should take every step to ensure that the cloud infrastructure is as good as – or preferably better – than the data center you have built for yourself. That means power, cooling, rack and cable access, and a host of other concerns are all met.

What do you think?

Farmingdale, NY (PRWEB) February 16, 2011

You may have the latest, greatest blade servers and network switches in your corporate data center, but are they really happy? “We don’t mean happy as in joyful but maybe more content and comfortable,” said Tony Wilson, AFCO Systems Senior Director of Marketing. “As a data center or facilities manager, you have to ask yourself if you’ve provided the right environment for those high-end servers you’re putting into your data centers.” To help information technology (IT) professionals make better choices about the data center enclosures they deploy in their data centers, AFCO Systems (http://www.afcosystems.com), the leader in green data center resource management, has identified Five Ways the Right Data Center Enclosure Can Keep Your Data Center Servers Happy. More information about AFCO Systems is available at http://media.afcosystems.com.

Five Ways the Right Data Center Enclosure Can Keep Your Data Center Servers Happy

They Keep them Cool. One way to keep servers and switches happy is to ensure they receive the proper airflow for cooling. An enclosure that manages and segregates airflow, keeping server inlet air at the optimum temperature and removing exhaust air properly, will avoid pressure build-up or short cycling.

They Keep them Accessible. Tangled cables make for unhappy servers. Make sure your server cables are kept away from blocking server airflow as much as possible. And ensure that your technicians can quickly access, replace or reconfigure cabling on demand without disturbing your servers. Use external cable management or sidecars to ensure access and mitigate airflow disruption to servers.

They Give them Room to Breathe. Enclosures should enable data center air-flow design flexibility. In a hot aisle / cold aisle (HACA) configuration, you’re managing enclosure airflow at the room level. You can increase efficiency by going to the next level and actually containing the air in rows of racks through aisle containment strategies. But bringing your containment strategies to the enclosure level allows you to gain the greatest control and server happiness. This means each enclosure becomes a mini data center environment.

They Keep them Monitored and Managed. Using intelligent enclosures with smart power strips and sensor networks, lets you to collect real-time power and environmental data. This can then be captured in a data center infrastructure management (DCIM) system to observe and proactively manage trends in your data center.

They Get Room to Move. Data centers are dynamic environments and servers are happy when they can be easily moved around. But moves, adds, and changes, can alter the heat density inside your enclosures. Make sure your enclosures can handle widely varying levels of heat density. If they can, not only will your servers be happy, but so will your data center managers.

“Following these common sense ideas can give you much happier data center servers and lead to lowering your costs associated with data center power and cooling,” said Wilson.

About AFCO Systems
AFCO Systems is a global leader in the design and manufacture of scalable enclosure technology for mission-critical data center environments. It has one of the largest globally installed bases of engineered enclosures for high-density server, storage, and network switch applications. AFCO Systems serves the blue-chip customers operating Tier III and Tier IV data centers across industries including financial services, media, manufacturing and education.

AFCO Systems’ Sigma-T™ technologies allow data center managers and IT executives to measure, manage, monitor, and maintain their overall energy efficiency in accordance with ASHRAE standards. Its patented systems control supply-air delivery at the enclosure level, providing cost-effective data center cooling management. AFCO Systems’ services include data center planning and consulting using CFD modeling.

The company is headquartered in Farmingdale, NY with global operating capabilities for its installations in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.afcosystems.com or call 631-249-9441.

©2010 AFCO Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. AFCO Systems, Sigma-T™ are registered trademarks of AFCO Systems, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective companies.

Among the things DCIM systems can help you see environmentally are computer room air conditioners (CRACs) and computer room air handlers (CRAHs), cooling, power draw, and the effect of these systems on the temperature in your data center environment.

If you look at the issues DCIM covers–environmental and power management, the use of floor space in your data center and the nature of how you are populating your data center–you can draw a straight line to your enclosures.  Your critical technology and applications live there, and it’s where cooling is most required.  Monitoring down to the enclosure level is vital to the health of your data center.

DCIM is defined by Gartner as the integration of information technology (IT) and facility management controls to centralize monitoring, management and intelligent capacity planning of a data center’s critical systems.

Furthermore, Gartner predicts a 60 percent market penetration of DCIM by 2014.  This increase will be driven by increased power and heat density, data center consolidation, virtualization and cloud computing, they say.

The concept of the DCIM effort makes a lot of sense.  And the goal is achieved through the implementation of specialized software, hardware and sensors.  Correctly accomplished, DCIM enables a single real-time monitoring and management platform for all interdependent systems across IT and facility infrastructures.

Feedback from DCIM systems users confirms that it can significantly improve data center reliability and efficiency.  In addition to simplified and streamlined capacity planning, DCIM adds efficiency, flexibility, economy and comprehensive power monitoring that ensures the security and resilience of your data center.  DCIM systems enable users to understand overall energy efficiency and discover opportunities for recapturing power, cooling and space capacity.

Data center managers are demanding greater insight into the complex environments they manage.  As stated above, such monitoring should go all the way down to the enclosure level. DCIM provides the granular power monitoring needed to optimize power systems and report detailed usage statistics.  It allows data center managers to observe how much power their servers are using over time.

ARM technology (formerly known as the Advanced RISC Machine) is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA). Just as open source software enables software programmers to leverage the work of others to deliver unique value within a common software architecture framework, ARM technology lets multiple ARM-licensed companies develop vertical solutions optimized for narrow problem sets around a shared baseline: the ARM architecture and ecosystem. And this baseline architecture is going to bring some fast changes to your world.

That’s right, the frantic pace of innovation more often seen in such products as mobile phones and tablets is maturing to the point where it is becoming very compelling to the conservative minded CIO and data center manager and the fiscally astute CFO.

The idea is that the Original Design Manufacturer combines the ARM core with a number of optional parts to produce a complete CPU that can be built on old semiconductor fabrications and still deliver substantial performance at a lower cost. And since ARM-based servers will require less power and space while providing greater performance density than today’s servers, get set to reap big capex savings. (ARM is for specific workloads that do not require access to memory arrays grater than 3.6GB, aka very specific workloads, like webserving, VPN appliances, etc…)

ARM technology in the data center: Loading many low powered processors into a single box to deliver significant computing power to the datacenter, and approaching a processor design with reduced power consumption as a primary design consideration, even ahead of performance. Both Lean and Green!

A major data center driver is the IT hardware Lifecycle, aka technology churn, and churn happens quickly. Your data center technology usage will change over time. Development in the ARM processor area may provide a way for the data center to keep up with technology churn and change.

With more efficient ARM processors in your data center, you need to ensure you have the resources to maintain all areas of your data center. ARM is great for specific processing tasks, but it can’t do the heavy lifting that blades do. You’ll need enclosures that can handle both scenarios, since you’ll probably have a mix of processor hardware in your next generation data center.

Over-pricing and under-performance issues have slowed the growth of smart appliances in the past. But manufacturers LG, General Electric, Whirlpool, Panasonic, Electrolux, Bosch and others are making great progress in the ability of smart appliances to save energy and communicate with owners and utilities.

Although it’s true that smart appliances may cost more than traditional appliances in the beginning, increased utility rates and government rebates are expected to incite consumers to replace their old appliances. Eventually, it will be a common sight to see people monitor their washer-dryers, ovens, refrigerators and robotic vacuum cleaners using their smartphones or tablet PCs; everything will be connected to the smart-grid.

Currently, it’s a major challenge to rely on the smart grid to deliver price information to use appliances at times during the day or night when rates are low. Few smart meter deployments are delivering energy prices yet, but that’s expected to change.

Today’s smart appliances are primarily using ZigBee to network home devices. Wi-Fi is also being used, ensuring that many of the best features of smart appliances will need a more comprehensive rollout of smart grid systems as well as new ways of pricing power to homeowners.

According to Pike Research, the smart appliance global market will grow slowly over the next few years, reaching only $2.2 billion in sales by 2013 and $6.3 billion by 2015. The regular global appliance market was a whopping $230 billion 2009. Whirlpool plans to produce 1 million smart clothes dryers by the end of 2011—one quarter of their Whirlpool’s expected dryer production. But, by 2019, smart appliances are expected to account for one in ten appliances sold and command a worldwide market of $26.1 billion, Pike predicts.

Whatever the market size, the capability is certain to be there. Users of smart appliances will be able to arrive home to a piping hot meal and a dryer full of freshly dried clothes. And the data centers that support the smart appliance market will have to be even smarter than the appliances they support.

AFCO is following this trend and its current data center rack enclosure systems are already “smart”. Imagine the rack, the focal point of data center technology, which senses inlet temperatures at varying points within the enclosure, and adjusts cool air flow according to server need. That’s what an AFCO rack provides, smart intelligence enabling worry free computing.

Over-pricing and under-performance issues have slowed the growth of smart appliances in the past.  But manufacturers LG, General Electric, Whirlpool, Panasonic, Electrolux, Bosch and others are making great progress in the ability of smart appliances to save energy and communicate with owners and utilities.

Although it’s true that smart appliances may cost more than traditional appliances in the beginning, increased utility rates and government rebates are expected to incite consumers to replace their old appliances.  Eventually, it will be a common sight to see people monitor their washer-dryers, ovens, refrigerators and robotic vacuum cleaners using their smartphones or tablet PCs; everything will be connected to the smart-grid.

Currently, it’s a major challenge to rely on the smart grid to deliver price information to use appliances at times during the day or night when rates are low.  Few smart meter deployments are delivering energy prices yet, but that’s expected to change.

Today’s smart appliances are primarily using ZigBee to network home devices.  Wi-Fi is also being used, ensuring that many of the best features of smart appliances will need a more comprehensive rollout of smart grid systems as well as new ways of pricing power to homeowners.

According to Pike Research, the smart appliance global market will grow slowly over the next few years, reaching only $2.2 billion in sales by 2013 and $6.3 billion by 2015.  The regular global appliance market was a whopping $230 billion 2009. Whirlpool plans to produce 1 million smart clothes dryers by the end of 2011—one quarter of their Whirlpool’s expected dryer production. But, by 2019, smart appliances are expected to account for one in ten appliances sold and command a worldwide market of $26.1 billion, Pike predicts.

Whatever the market size, the capability is certain to be there.  Users of smart appliances will be able to arrive home to a piping hot meal and a dryer full of freshly dried clothes. And the data centers that support the smart appliance market will have to be even smarter than the appliances they support.

AFCO is following this trend and its current data center rack enclosure systems are already “smart”.  Imagine the rack, the focal point of data center technology, which senses inlet temperatures at varying points within the enclosure, and adjusts cool air flow according to server need.  That’s what an AFCO rack provides, smart intelligence enabling worry free computing.