Reliability is becoming the most important commodity in the data center. Most of your customers would agree that reliable access to your computer systems is more important that application features.

IT staff are good at supporting applications. They are usually talented at designing reliability into your most important business software: application, server and connection redundancy, along with data replication and fail-over procedures. How good is your staff manage the facilities side of reliability?

The lion’s share of outages are related to data center downtime. Power, cooling, security, fire suppression and building failures account for the majority of outages in the enterprise data center.

Large and small companies alike are investigating alternatives to the in-house data center. Some consider outsource data center facilities for high data center uptime (high reliability). 99.995% uptime (27 minutes of downtime per year or less) is the level expected of tier IV data centers. Many CIOs feel that their most mission critical applications require mission critical facilities with 99.995% uptime.

Selecting outsource data center facilities can be tricky. Also known as colocation facilities, these outsourced data centers come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some focus on IT services. A few focus on providing high-tech real estate with flexible options, so that savvy IT organizations can grow and change without barriers.

Wholesale colocation facilities like Lifeline Data Centers in Indianapolis, Indiana

• Affordable colocation
• 99.995% uptime
• Hardened data center facilities
• Low data center power costs
• Pay as you grow rack and power pricing
• Fifteen telecom carriers in a carrier-neutral data center
• No monthly cross-connect fees
• SAS70 data center compliance
• Data center compliance: HIPAA, FDA, NIST and TIA 942 compliant data centers

Need more reliability? Use wholesale colocation facilities. Leverage decades of experience at Lifeline Data Centers, 317.423.2591.

A number of factors, many of which are the direct result of the recent economic downturn, are combining to make increased data center construction and renovations increasingly likely. Forecasts by IDC and Gartner point to a significant uptick in server sales for 2010, suggesting that a corresponding increase in new data center construction projects and renovations of aging data centers may follow suit.

Reuters has reported that Gartner is forecasting server shipment growth percentage in the range of mid to high single digits for 2010; the research firm predicts that the revenue growth rate will lag slightly behind shipment growth, however. These encouraging numbers follow a rather dismal 2009, which saw server revenue decline by 18.3%, with a unit shipment decline of 16.6%, according to Gartner. Research firm IDC estimates server revenue decline at 18.9%, down to $43.2 billion, with unit shipments down 18.6% to 6.6 million units. Thus, IDC’s estimate suggests that unit shipments and revenue kept fairly close pace in their decline, despite Gartner’s estimate that revenue demonstrated a larger percentage decrease than did unit shipments.

more of the Data Center Journal article from Jeffrey Clark

With a state-of-the-art data center recently opened in Georgia, PricewaterhouseCoopers is on the prowl for a few good people. The challenge looms just about as large as the 80,000-square-foot building housing the IT infrastructure.

PwC is looking for IT professionals to fill vacancies on its network operations, security and facilities staffs, for example. Some positions are suitable for those with just a bit of experience while others require a much richer IT background, says Rick Ancona, deputy U.S. CIO and CTO at PwC, a professional services firm with U.S. headquarters in New York.

“The problem is, not that many people out there right now are versed in the data center of today,” he says.

By “data center of today,” Ancona means a highly automated, dense and virtualized IT infrastructure that relies on the most advanced electrical and mechanical components for ultra power efficiency.

The modern data center demands that IT professionals understand multiple disciplines as well as the facilities infrastructure — and that’s one of the big issues giving rise to the hiring difficulties.

more of the CIO.com article from Beth Schultz

Enterprise data center construction has slowed to a crawl in the recession, but there is one spot that’s growing brighter every day. That’s because most companies aren’t building their own data-center space, but they are leasing it in ever-increasing numbers.

In turn, businesses like Digital Realty Trust — which offers move-in ready, enterprise-scale data center facilities that include security and rack-ready raised floor space with redundant power, cooling and network infrastructure — find they can’t get new space online fast enough to meet demand. These firms, sometimes called wholesale data center facility operators, typically cater to large enterprise customers and high-tech firms that need large amounts of floor space.

For its part, Digital Realty Trust has begun focusing more on the enterprise data center market by offering custom data center design, construction and management services. Some enterprises are also working through co-location providers, which provide smaller, caged space in a shared facility and offer less flexibility on the design.

The increased demand for leased data center real estate is being driven by reluctance on the part of IT, and on their executive management, to make the capital investments needed to buy and build the infrastructure for themselves.

more of the ComputerWorld article from Robert L. Mitchell

CIOs are reducing risks by employing outsource data centers to solve their compliance problems. CIO strategy now includes leveraging outsource data centers and the certifications and compliance they maintain to help the enterprise meet government regulations.

CIOs have used outsource data centers for years to drive higher uptime and reap the benefits of lower data center capital costs. Now, many companies are using outsource data center facilities to keep compliance costs under control.

Physical security is one of the main data center compliance benefits that outsource data centers provide. Outsource data center facilities employ multiple levels of physical security to meet state and federal regulations. It’s usually less costly to “rent” the physical security than to build physical security and managing the ongoing physical security costs in-house.

Some data center compliance centers around service levels, or uptime. High reliability for enterprise computer systems can only be achieved in “mission critical facilities” that employ N+1 data center power redundancy and other tier IV data center characteristics. Service levels of 99.995% uptime (27 minutes of downtime per year or less) can be be found in affordable colocation facilities. The cost of building an enterprise data center with similar levels of data center uptime usually reaches into the millions, even for a small facility.

Data center compliance pressures are coming from vendors and clients as well. Many companies now require that vendors and clients operate SAS 70 data centers, TIA 942 compliant data centers, tier III or tier IV data centers. The cost of maintaining these certifications alone can pay for outsource colocation facilities.

Would it make more sense for your organization to use compliance-centered outsource data center facilities rather than building and maintaining your own? Call the data center compliance experts to learn more.

Blogger’s note: Baseline’s slideshow below revolves around difficulties with budgets and competent data center staffing. Many IT operations groups are trying to manage two complex lines of business:

• information technology operations
• mission critical facilities infrastructure.

Many IT operations leaders have come to realize that these two disciplines are too much for their staff. These organizations outsource the mission critical facilities discipline (data center compliance, hardened buildings, power, cooling, fire suppression, security, and telecom) to improve service levels and focus on building and delivering reliable IT infrastructure.

Baseline: Hard Times in the Data Center

IT leaders say they’re having trouble keeping their data centers staffed with competent, trained employees. Budget strains, training woes, and recruiting issues are among the issues at hand. These statistics come from the 2010 edition of Symantec’s annual State of the Data Center report.

Baseline Slideshow

Affordable colocation and 99.995% uptime are NOT mutually exclusive. Make sure you understand your outsource data center’s levels of redundancy and the uptime service level agreements in order to get the best combination of uptime and affordability.

Your staff, your clients, and your vendors are expecting a zero downtime data center. But your budget may not be big enough for that level of data center uptime. How do you balance uptime and affordability in your selection process?

If you’re shopping for an outsource data center, you may be asking providers about their Uptime Institute tier rating. Some might say they are tier III data centers. Others may call themselves tier IV data centers. Most are not certified by the Uptime Institute. The cost of certification is prohibitive for many providers. The Uptime Institute Tier Standard: Topology, and its associated white paper are available FREE of charge at http://uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/302/281/ . Likewise, the cost of Uptime Institute membership is prohibitive for many IT organizations. There are a few other rating systems exist for data center redundancy, including the TIA 942 data center standard. How do you evaluate outsource data center alternatives for uptime?

We believe that the better approach to selecting your outsource computer room provider is clearly understand the provider’s specific levels of redundancy and uptime service level agreements.

How do you find out what levels of redundancy exist? Ask tough questions about:

-Hardened data center buildings
-Data center power redundancy
-Cooling systems redundancy
-Telecom entrance redundancy
-Availability of multiple carriers
-Physical security
-SAS 70 data center compliance

You may need to do your homework to learn about critical power and cooling. But understanding the strict detail of a data center’s architecture and the differences between two facilities can make all the difference in the event of an unforseen problem.

If you’re looking for Midwest colocation and affordable data center space with 99.995% uptime (36 minutes of downtime per year or less), give Lifeline Data Centers a call.

Data center uptime demands are increasing. Floor space is holding steady or slowly increasing. Power requirements per cabinet are on the rise. Data center power costs are moving up. If any of these trends are happening in your enterprise data center, read on.

The enterprise data center is changing. APC predicts that 90% of all businesses will have outages caused by power limits, power failures or power availability. Imation predicts that 25% of all businesses will experience a data center downtime event serious enough to affect the company’s ability to continue business as usual. Small companies are not immune. Demand is on the rise for data center space, power and cooling.

If your business processes are driving change in your enterprise data center, how are you positioned to deal with these changes? Let’s look at a few options:

-Add on to the existing data center
-Build a new data center
-Use in-house virtualization
-Use cloud computing

Using a flexible data center outsourcing provider can help with all of these options. You can use outsource data center facilities for the space, power and cooling you need from growth. You can move your enterprise data center to an outsource colocation facility to improve uptime and allow for growth. Using the right outsource data center can help you consolidate resources and better manage virtualization and cloud computing services.

But not all outsource data center providers are alike. Look for data center outsourcing providers that offer:
-Data center power redundancy at ALL levels
-Hardened data center facilities built to withstand regional risks
-Carrier neutral data centers offering multiple telecommunications options
-In house expertise on power, cooling, fire systems and security
-Data center pricing model that allows for incremental growth and change
-Data center compliance to meet government regulations

Are you facing barriers, obstacles or challenges when it comes to change in your data center? Affordable colocation can help. If your data center is changing, call the experts in data center facilities delivery and learn how to drive higher data center uptime while driving down ongoing costs.

New year, new data center strategy: The coming of the new year offers a time for both reflection and for planning. Data center strategy is changing for many organizations. What changes do you envision for your data center in the coming years?

Your customers, staff and vendors expect your information technology applications to be available immediately and always. Expectations aside, if your company depends on your computer systems for your business processes, you need to assess your cost of downtime. In 2008, Amazon’s cost of downtime was $122,260 per hour. Downtime calculators are out there; every business is different. Assign a dollar figure to your cost of downtime so you can determine how much to spend on high availability, also known as data center uptime.

Your cost of downtime helps you determine what your uptime levels need to be. Data center industry people talk in terms like 99.995% uptime (also known as 4-1/2 9′s), which translates to 36 minutes of downtime per year or less. Is 99.995% uptime what your company needs?

Large and small companies are using outsource data center facilities (colocation) as a higher uptime alternative to the computer room at their headquarters. If the cost of downtime means lost revenue, lost credibility, and lost clients, using outsource data center facilities offers an easy way to improve uptime. Data center outsourcing takes care of mission critical facilities details like N+1 data center redundancy, security, HVAC and fire suppression, so you can concentrate on your mission critical applications and executing your business processes.

Companies who are required to maintain regulatory compliance can greatly benefit rom outsource computer room facilities. SAS 70 data center facilities can offer many tiers data center compliance. Data center compliance experts can help determine how your regulatory requirements affect your data center.

Affordable colocation has also been an incentive for many companies to move their main computers out of their headquarters. Prices are very competitive for midwest colocation. Outsource data center pricing models can offer both incremental grown and a drastic reduction in data center capital costs.

Check with outsource data center facilities experts to learn more about data center strategy.

We’ve been talking to many companies who want to get out of the enteprise data center business.  Most of these folks have had some pain that came from their enterprise data center.  Common pain points include:

Data center capital costs -  the capital required to own and operate a data center can be exhorbitant.  Changes in data center uptime requirements have driven the equipment requirements (and the associated costs) higher every year.

Data center power redundancy – the costs of multiple power feeds, generators, automatic transfer switches, UPS and cooling equipment can exceed to $500k for even a small data center.  Hardened facilities with security and fire suppression can easily reach $1 million.

Ongoing FTE burden- mission critical facilities expertise is expensive to maintain in-house.  The disciplines of power, cooling and telecommunications are very different from Information Technology disciplines.

Are you anticipating a change in your enterprise data center?  Does it make sense to consider flexible outsource computer room facilities?