Archive for the ‘F5 Tornado Resistant Data Center’ Category
Why do hardened data center facilities matter? Hardened data centers reduce the risk of a prolonged outage due to natural and man-made disasters.
On the west coast, data centers are hardened by a number of different technologies to withstand the frequent shaking of earthquakes. In the Midwest, hardened data center facilities protect against natural disasters such as tornadoes. F5 tornado resistant data centers protect your mission critical facilities and equipment from natural disasters.
Although the risk of a natural disaster is low, the risk of a prolonged outage in a natural disaster is very high.
Is your enterprise data center protected by a hardened data center building?
Does wholesale colocation simplify data center management? Does outsourcing the facilities side of your data center make it easier to manage the data center?
Consider the what it takes for 99.995% uptime enterprise data center facilities management:
F5 tornado resistant data center building- for Midwest colocation
Full data center power redundancy – multiple power feeds, generators, UPS systems and rack feeds
Data center cooling redundancy – multiple, concurrently maintainable cooling systems
Physical security – two factor authentication and multiple layers of loggable physical security
Fire suppression – Reliable, industry standard systems with regular testing and maintenance
Data center compliance and certifications – from SAS 70 to SSAE 16, HIPAA, Sarbanes Oxley, FDA, FISMA and NIST certifications are just a few of the standards
Telecomm redundancy – Multiple telecommuncations feeds with separate entrances into the building
These requirements have nothing to do with Information Technology. They are facilities problems. If a colocation provider can take these requirements off your hands, you’re free to focus on data center management of your business, the applications that support it, and your underlying IT infrastructure.
Yes, wholesale colocation providers can simplify data center management. And if you’re selective, you can use the colocation provider to engineer higher data center uptime levels. Look for a wholesale colocation provider that delivers hardened data centers, N+N data center redundancy, multiple carriers, no cross connect fees, and 99.995% uptime. Power billing based on utilization is key. And don’t forget to shop for low data center power costs.
Wholesale colocation lets you stop worrying about data center facilities management.
Is your in-house data center nickel and diming you to death?
Is your internal data center expensive to operate? Forget what’s in the racks. I’m not talking about servers, networking equipment and storage. I’m talking about facilities: your raised floor, your security, your power, your cooling, your telecommunications infrastructure and your fire suppression. How expensive is it to maintain?
Operating a data center in-house is expensive. Real estate floor space costs, raised flooring, reliable air conditioning systems, specialized security and fire protection all drive up the data center capital costs. Small data centers can easily exceed $1 million in capital up front.
Data center power and cooling redundancy is expensive. Multiple UPS systems are fairly common. Dual generators are rare. Rarer still are in-house data centers have two utility feeds. Data center capital costs are high, but the costs of maintaining and operating generators and UPS systems are high as well. N+N data center redundancy (two of everything) is prohibitively expensive for many organizations. You can’t deliver high uptime without power and cooling redundancy, yet uptime requirements continue to rise.
Staffing is expensive. Do you dedicate half an FTE or more to the maintenance of the data center?
Data center compliance and certifications are expensive. SAS70 (Now SSAE 16) data center certification audits start at about $20,000. Other certifications like the Uptime Institute’s Tier IV data center certification can cost more.
Not only are the data center capital and operating costs high, they’re also unpredictable.
How do you control costs?
Wholesale colocation offers an interesting solution. Wholesale data center providers build and operate high-tech real estate. Here are a few of the reasons that organizations choose to outsource the data center facilities.
You can rent the space you need in these giant data centers.
You can still have full control of your IT equipment and telecom infrastructure.
You can benefit from N+N data center redundancy in power, cooling, and telecom to improve uptime.
In a select few outsourced hardened data centers, you can protect your mission critical systems from F5 tornadoes and other regional risks.
Some Midwest colocation providers offer you access to multiple telecommunications providers with no cross connect fees. You can build telecom hubs to better manage the money spent on telecommunications.
You can trade capital costs for operating costs.
You can build a highly predictable cost model that allows for growth and change.
Sick of getting nickel and dimed to death? Call the outsourced data center experts.
Data center building, power, and cooling disciplines are not IT disciplines.
Your expertise on applications, software architecture, network, server and storage design is not expertise on building tier IV data centers with 99.995% uptime.
Likewise, experts on mission critical facilities like hardened data center buildings, data center power redundancy and cooling are rarely experts on mission critical systems and applications.
A best-of-breed CIO strategy would include expertise in both information technology systems design and highly available data center facilities. How is this done?
If your organization likes to “roll your own” enterprise data center, you probably hire design/build experts to help you accomplish your goals of high data center uptime. Although the capital costs associated with in-house data centers can be enormous, internal data centers offer the highest level of control.
If your organization is considering outsourcing the facilities disciplines, wholesale colocation offers a simple way to offload the “landlord” side of the data center without losing control of the systems.
It’s often best to outsource data center facilities when you’re great at IT but not so great at building data centers.
Midwest colocation facilities like Lifeline Data Centers offer F5 tornado resistant buildings,N+N power and cooling redundancy, and access to many telecom providers. Midwest data centers offer low power costs also give you peace of mind that you’ve done the best job at solving the data center downtime problem using an affordable colocation solution.
Are you trying to be an expert in both facilities and IT? Talk it over with the mission critical facilities experts.
Do you need a hardened data center? If you are trying to protect your data center’s ability to withstand natural or man-made disasters and acts of terrorism, then the answer is yes. The term “hardened data center” described computer room facilities that are designed to withstand tornadoes, earthquakes, and man-made disasters.
Many data center strategies includes using hardened data centers to achieve 99.995% uptime. Hardened data centers, along with redundant data center power and cooling all play a part on maximing reliability and increasing data center uptime.
Not all hardened data centers are alike. Many believe the best type is a reinforced concrete structure. Reinforced concrete offers the best protection against tornadoes, the most common natural disaster in Midwest data centers and Midwest colocation. F5 tornado resistant data centers help companies protect against wost case. Reinforced concrete also offers excellent protection from earthquakes.
Some hardened data centers are constructed as a building within a building, based on the thinking that a natural disaster might destroy the outermost building while the inner building protects the data center. This approach is often used when an existing building is being refit as a data center facility. The effectiveness of the protection is completely dependent on the type of building and construction.
Hardened data centers can be used as primary (production) data center facilities or as disaster recovery sites. Many consider a hardened facility more important for the production environment in order to minimize service interruptions.
How important is a hardened data center? It is critically important if you are trying to avoid downtime and if your area is prone to disaster.
Is your organization considering Chicago disaster recovery data centers? Chicago colocation and disaster recovery providers offer many options. Are these best for your organization?
Many factors play in to the selection secondary data center and office space locations. A good CIO strategy includes multiple geographies in an evaluation of disaster recovery centers. For some organizations Midwest colocation outside of Chicago might be a better solution.
Standard features that many organizations look for when considering disaster recovery centers include:
Hardened data center facilities – With Midwest colocation, F5 tornado resistant data centers building are important, along with earthquake resistant facilities in some areas.
99.995% uptime or better – This is the uptime level expected from Tier IV data centers. Some IT professionals consider the uptime is a DR center to be less important than in the primary data center. If your organization is doing real-time or near-real time data replication, data center uptime in your disaster recovery center is likely as important as in your primary enterprise data center.
Multiple carriers with no cross-connect fees – Access to multiple telecom carriers ensures diverse and reliable connectivity in the event of a disaster, or on an ongoing basis with real-time replication. Data centers with no monthly cross connect fees significantly reduce ongoing costs.
Data center compliance and certification – Compliance and certifications in the disaster recovery center are just as important as the primary data center.
Data center pricing model – Simple is better. Most organizations seem to prefer to pay for power, cooling and space incrementally as they use it.
Advantages to Midwest data centers located outside of Chicago include:
- Geographic diversity, especially for Chicago-based organizations.
- Overall lower costs, including, lower data center power costs, lower costs of construction labor, and lower data center capital costs.
- A theoretically lower risk from placing the disaster recovery center outside of one of the USA’s five largest cities.
Wholesale colocation providers offer the most flexibility for organizations that prefer to own and control their own telecom connections, network, servers and storage. Some wholesale data centers offer disaster recovery office space. This space can be custom fit by the organization to use for emergency call centers or workspace recovery.
Considering disaster recovery options in Chicago? Consider Midwest colocation providers outside of Chicago in your search.
Is a simpler data center pricing model better? Is the data center pricing model itself a decision factor when companies are reviewing colocation? We believe the answer is yes. Let’s look at the history of outsource data centers, also known as colocation, for some perspective.
In the early days of colocation (the mid-1990s) many colocation providers grew out of the telecommunications space. A Director of Operations at a local telecom branch office probably looked at some empty space in his building. He then called the Sales Manager and asked if he could find a client who might be interested in renting the space. The Sales Manager found a client, so they had to come up with a pricing model. As many of us already know, telecom providers have some of the most complex and convoluted pricing models of any vendor. Many of the complexities of telecom pricing models came to the colocation world. Colocation seems to have been born with a complex pricing model.
How many line items are on the typical monthly colocation invoice? I’ve had clients who use other data centers tell me that they have 10 line items to rent a single cabinet and a little bandwidth.
But an outsource data center is really not that complex. All colocation facilities provide real estate, power, cooling, and access to bandwidth. Midwest colocation provides hardened data center facilities and F5 tornado resistant data centers. West coast colocation is often earthquake resistant. The offerings seem simple enough. Why should the colocation pricing models be complex?
Here are some features to look for in a pricing model:
How is real estate delivered? Many outsource computer room providers dictate the amount of floor space each rack is allocated. Some allow you to purchase extra space for a less dense footprint or for growth over time. Does the data center give you the flexibility you need to grow and change?
Is the power pricing based on actual draw? It is common for outsourced data center providers to bill based on a circuit size rather than the actual power used by a client. This circuit size billing method is inherently inequitable, because power needs shift over time, and circuit utilization is never more than 50% in a highly reliable data center. Look for pay-as-you-use-it power pricing.
How is the power for cooling calculated? Data center equipment (servers, network gear and storage) require about 1 kW of cooling for each 1 kW of power to operate the equipment. Does the pricing model charge you for the cooling power in a sensible manner?
How is the capital overhead of generators, UPS systems, HVAC charged? Every rack in every data center uses a portion of the power and cooling infrastructures, along with the staffing and the data center compliance overhead. Are you being charged fairly for your share of these complex and expensive infrastructures?
Does the colocation provider charge monthly cross-connect fees? Many data centers offer access to multiple carriers. But most charge you a monthly fee for the privilege of connecting to these carriers. A few data centers charge no cross connect fees. This can be a huge savings over time, especially when companies employ multiple carriers in a complex wide area network.
Use these features to compare data center outsource costs. A simple data center pricing model lets you understand what you’re spending, better forecast changes, and control the overall cost of operating your data center.
What’s the difference between wholesale data centers and cloud computing?
Cloud computing and cloud services receive so much press that many people, even IT professionals, assume that most outsource data centers deliver cloud services including virtualized servers, storage, network and IT services. But not all data centers offer cloud computing.
Data center services fall along a simple spectrum. At one end is colocation, also known as wholesale data center, outsource data center, or off-site computer room facilities. Colocation offers a few key features:
- Hardened data center facilities – sturdy F5 tornado resistant data centers
- Power redundancy – dual utility feeds, generators, and UPS for 99.995% uptime or better
- Cooling redundancy – Multiple chiller loops and air handlers with concurrent maintainability
- Fire suppression
- Security
- Access to multiple telecommunications providers.
At the other end is a pure service model where clients own no hardware and “rent” software, hardware, network, and storage. Common classifications of cloud computing include:
- Software as a service – software applications available via the Internet
- Platform as a service – development and delivery environments for specific software platforms
- Infrastructure as a service – everything but the kitchen sink: network, security, servers, storage and IT services.
Today, most outsource data centers live somewhere in between. These data centers offer space, power, cooling, security and fire suppression, along with IT services such as shared or dedicated routers, switches, storage and servers.
Wholesale colocation is like a high-tech landlord. Clients who want the ability to own/lease and control their own hardware tend to choose colocation. They’re happy to let the “colo” worry about power, cooling, sturdy buildings, fire suppression and security. But they want to retain control over hardware, networks and storage.
Cloud computing is more of a full service offering including hardware, software and services. Clients who want to reduce the IT burden inside an organization choose cloud computing. There are often cost savings in leveraging shared infrastructures that cloud computing providers deliver.
Wholesale data centers are often the backdrop for cloud computing services. Colocation does not offer cloud computing to its clients, but it’s a great place for implementing a cloud .
Your high-tech landlord – Is affordable colocation your company’s most important real estate?
Your data center is probably more important to your business than it was 10 years ago. Organizations of all sizes have come to expect 99.995% uptime (the same level as a Tier IV data center) to keep revenues flowing and to retain customers, and to communicate with key vendors.
But it is shockingly expensive to build an enterprise data center with such requirements. Some of the requirements to meet such high levels of uptime include:
- Hardened data center facilities: In Midwest data centers, F5 tornado resistant data centers are important.
- Data center power redundancy: Can you afford two utility feeds, two generators, and two UPS systems?
- Data center cooling redundancy: You’ll need at least two air conditioning systems with double the air conditioning your require.
- Data center compliance and certifications: Vendors, clients and the government are requiring expensive certifications such as SAS 70 certified data centers and TIA 942 compliant data centers.
- Security: Physical data center security includes the costs, implementation and maintenance of access cards, PIN pads, locking cabinets, and security cameras with staffing to monitor them.
Some companies choose to “get out of the hardware business” and move their critical applications to cloud service providers like Rackspace and Amazon. Many find that the cost of such a move can be expensive, variable, and hard to forecast.
Other companies choose the high-tech landlord route. They search for an outsource data center with key features:
Experience – Companies are choosing outsource colocation facilities that have a track record
Leadership – Are the owners involved in day-to-day operations?
Carrier neutral data center – Multiple telecom providers are available
No cross-connect fees – No monthly fees to remain connected to the telecom carriers
Simple data center pricing model – Easy to understand and easy to forecast
Ability to grow and change – Can you get extra space if you need it?
Do you have the IT expertise you need to make your business successful? Do you need a venue to deliver your mission critical applications? If the answer is yes, contact a high-tech landlord to find out more.
99.995% uptime and affordable colocation are not mutually exclusive. How do you find a high reliability outsourced data center that is affordable? Use the checklists below.
Checklist for 99.995% uptime
Choose a hardened data center facility
Data centers should be designed to protect against the most common risks of the region. With Midwest colocation providers, F5 tornado resistant data centers are important.
Understand the data center power infrastructure
Power is the most common cause of downtime for both in-house and outsourced data centers. Study how the data center has designed the power system. Look for two power feeds, two generators, 2 UPS systems, and at least two outlets per rack. Power should be totally separate for each power feed to the rack.
Understand the data center cooling redundancy model
For data center uptime, cooling is a slightly lower risk than electrical power, but equally important. Without cooling, servers and network equipment will shut off or fail in just a few minutes. Cooling systems should not only be duplicated, they should be designed to be concurrently maintainable.
Understand the telecommunications paths and redundancies
Telecommunications circuits are critical components of uptime. Two or more entrances for telecommunications circuits allows you to build diverse path communications into your data center. Does the data center have two entrances?
Look at the data center downtime track record
Forget the design for a moment. What is the actual downtime track record of the data center? Single power feed failures should be designed to be a non-issue. Is that what has happened in actual practice?
Checklist for affordable colocation
Look for a simple data center pricing model
Colocation pricing models are often complex. Variable charges, too many line items, and overages can make costs variable and unpredictable. Look for providers with a simple data center pricing model. Floor space, active racks, and power usage should be the building blocks of the data center pricing. Watch out for telecommunications monthly cross-connect fees, along with other monthly add-on fees.
Pay for power as you use it
Any other power pricing model is likely to be in the provider’s favor.
Find a facility in a region with low data center power costs
Midwest colocation has some of the lowest power in the nation. You must clearly understand how power is measured and billed.
Find a carrier neutral data center
Access to more telecom carriers is better. Carrier neutral data centers offer multiple providers with no favoritism.
Find a data center with no cross connect fees
A few wholesale data centers provide access to telecom carriers with no monthly add-on fees. If your wide area network is complex, savings in cross-connect fees can pay for your colocation costs.
The real benefit comes when you find an wholesale colocation facility with both high data center uptime and affordable pricing. These data centers are rare. In the Midwest colocation market, Lifeline Data Centers fills the need. Interested in learning more? 317.423.2591.
