Archive for the ‘N+N Data Center Redundancy’ Category
99.995% data center uptime, also known as “four and a half 9′s” is 28 minutes of downtime per year or less. That’s low downtime. But how do you achieve it?
Tier IV data centers are expected to deliver this level of uptime via two of everything in the power, cooling and telecom infrastructures. This “two of everything” approach, also known as N+N data center redundancy or 2N data center redundancy, reduces the risk of downtime to 28 minutes per year or less.
But two of everything is expensive. And difficult to maintain. Most in-house enterprise data centers do not build to this high standard. CFOs tend avoid high data center capital costs and look towards cutting where they can. Which means an increase in downtime.
How do you achieve 99.995% uptime without building your own? Employ cloud computing data centers built with N+N redundancy. Use wholesale colocation facilities that build to the Tier IV and TIA-942 data center standards.
The illusion of data center uptime
Most of the mid-size companies that visit our Midwest colocation facility already have a data center. It’s the one in their home office. These companies have built a data center inside the four walls to take advantage of real estate that is already leased, along with cheap, fast network access for all of the employees in the building.
Redundant generators protect against data center downtime
Some companies value data center uptime more than others. These companies are in markets where their computer downtime can cost them sales, profits and clients. These companies often have in-house data centers with more sophisticated equipment to keep the computer systems up and running in the event of a power outage. These companies invest tens of thousands of capital dollars in battery backup, power conditioning and generators to protect from downtime. A few even spend thousands more in capital dollars to makes the air conditioning more reliable.
But do all these data center capital costs improve uptime? The answer is yes, but in many cases, not enough. Many of us mistakenly look at the last five years of actual downtime to judge whether our data center is highly reliable. This is a mistake. Your data center may not be reliable, even though you’ve been lucky for the last five years.
What does it take to keep your downtime to less that an hour per year? It takes data center with two of everything that is critical for operation: power, cooling, and communications systems. This two of everything model is also called N+N data center redundancy. Without it, companies should expect hours or days of downtime per year.
Uptime Institute uses a structured system to classify data centers. Tier IV data centers are built with N+N redundancy (two of everything) to maximize reliability. These Tier IV data centers are designed to deliver 99.995% uptime, which is 28 minutes of downtime per year or less. But building a Tier IV data center is expensive. A second power feed into a building can cost a quarter of a million dollars. CFOs routinely reject the idea a second generator because of the exorbitant capital costs. Without N+N data center redundancy, the uptime numbers just don’t add up.
What’s the answer to high uptime and manageable costs? Many companies use affordable wholesale colocation facilities. Some of these outsource data centers offer 99.995% uptime in exchange for monthly operating expenses rather than exorbitant capital costs. Many IT staffers use colocation to reduce their workload, get out of the power and cooling business, and focusing their data center management on their critical computer systems.
Colocation is not for every company. Applications, users, geography and other factors play into whether colocation or cloud computing might improve the reliability of your data center. The bottom line is the cost of downtime to your company. If you need 99.995% uptime, don’t fall prey to the illusion of data center uptime. Consider wholesale colocation to solve the uptime problem and manage data center costs.
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.
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 .
Why might Midwest colocation may be your best choice?
- Low data center power costs
- Low costs of construction
- Great access from the rest of the country
Why might Indianapolis be your best choice for your colocation provider?
- Dense concentration of telecommunications fiber
- Low data center power costs
- Strong pool of talented information technology professionals from Purdue, IU and Rose-Hulman
- Vibrant, easy to access technology community
Why might Lifeline Data Centers be your best choice for a Midwest data center provider?
- Ten years of history delivering affordable colocation with 99.995% uptime
- Privately held and owner-operated by veteran IT professionals
- Fifteen carriers with no monthly cross-connect fees
- SAS 70, TIA 942, HIPAA, FISMA, NIST, PCI, FDA compliant
- N+N redundant architecture (equivalent to a Tier IV data center)- better design means less downtime
- Private cages or shared space
- Secure office space on a 41 acre campus
- 10,000 square feet available
Want to know more? Call Lifeline at 317.423.2591
Can you simplify your computer room with wholesale data center facilities?
First, what are the benefits of reducing complexity?
- Less labor required for managing IT and the data center
- Better reliability; less data center downtime
- Faster time to resolution when problems arise
- Better focus on the business issues that IT supports, rather than equipment, facilities and compliance
- Removal of the barriers to growth and change in the business and in the IT that supports the business.
The complexity of your computer room is largely dependent on the level of computer system reliability that your company requires. This reliability is known as data center uptime. For this post, we’ll assume that your business requires 99.995% uptime, which is 28 minutes of downtime per year or less. This is the same level that Tier IV data centers promise to deliver. Why so high? Because data center downtime can mean lost revenues, lost profits, and lost clients.
How complex is your data center? There are three broad categories of complexity: information technology, facilities, and compliance.
The complexity of your information technology includes:
- Servers
- Storage
- Switches
- Firewalls
- Security appliances
- Monitoring devices
- Virtualization software
- Operatiing systems
- Business applications
The complexities of the information technology alone can be daunting. Since the business applications are what drives all the other information technology components, business applications will be the first factor in determining the level of complexity. More applications mean more complexity. Interdependence of applications means more complexity. Data interchange with clients and vendors adds complexity.
When high reliability (the goal of zero downtime data center downtime) is important, things get even more complex. High data center uptime requires dual power supplies on IT equipment, and duplicate equipment for the most important servers, storage units and network devices. This duplication is known as data center redundancy, and it requires more management, maintenance, capital and operating expense than a less reliable approach.
On the data center facilities side, the complexities include:
- Hardened data center buildings (F5 tornado resistant data centers in Midwest data centers)
- Data center power redundancy (two power feeds, two generators and two UPS systems supporting IT equipment
- Data center cooling redundancy
- Fire suppression
- Physical security
Again, higher data center uptime requires more complexity. N+N data center redundancy (two of everything) is the best way to minimize downtime. That means two utility feeds , two generators, two UPS systems and two power paths to all IT equipment . Two air conditioning systems reduces the risk of downtime due to cooling failures, one of the most common causes of downtime in computer rooms. Fire suppression for computer rooms needs to be different than standard fire protection. And physical security can be very complex to administer.
This N+N data center redundancy reduces downtime but greatly increases complexity and costs. Data center capital costs can easily reach $500,000 or more when building an in-house N+N redundant data center. The complexity of owning and managing a data center can be even more daunting that the complexities of the information technology in the data center.
On the compliance side, more regulations are coming as the government seeks to legislate privacy and security in certain industries. The most regulated industries are:
- Financial services
- Credit card handling
- Health care
- Utilities
- Government data
- Life sciences
But these industries are not the only ones requiring data center certifications and compliance. Clients and vendors are requiring SAS 70 certified data centers and TIA 942 compliant data centers. Obtaining certifications and meeting regulatory compliance requirements can add complexity, cost, and additional in-house labor burden.
How does a wholesale data center facility reduce the complexity? With the right wholesale data center, you can outsource the facilities and compliance complexities. Most companies don’t have in-house expertise in power, cooling, sturdy buildings, fire suppression and physical security. handing over these disciplines to data center professionals simplifies the data center and reduces complexity. Many companies are required to maintain levels of data center compliance and certification. The cost of a SAS 70 certification alone can range from $20,000 to $50,000 initially and $20,000 per bi-annual audit. Outsource data centers can also provide information technology support to assist or replace in-house staff.
What’s the benefit of outsource data center? Your IT staff can stop worrying about facilities and compliance problems, and focus on business applications and the information technology to support them.
Looking for a simple data center solution? Call Midwest colocation provider Lifeline Data Centers at 317.423.2591.
When data center people discuss N+N data center redundancy, they are discussing how two a data center maintains “two of everything.” The reason? Two of everything means less data center downtime.
Tier IV data centers are expected to deliver 99.995% uptime. That’s 28 minutes of downtime per year or less. But power feeds fail. Generators fail. UPS systems fail. Air conditioning fails. The only way to assure high levels of uptime is to maintain backup or redundant systems to take over in the event of a failure. With these backup systems, known as N+N data center redundancy, an enterprise data center or a wholesale data center can lose two generators and one power feed, or two power feeds and one generator without an interruption in client power.
Data center power redundancy is the keystone of N+N redundancy. But cooling redundancy is just as important. Computer equipment will heat up in a matter of minutes when cooling fails. Along with power and cooling, multiple telecommunications paths protect against line cuts and failures. And multiple security systems protect against data loss.
This “two of everything approach” is not only important for protecting against failures. Power and cooling systems must be maintained. With two of everything, systems can undergo preventative maintenance with no downtime.
The problem is that maintaining two of everything is not only expensive, it’s complex. Companies rarely have the hardened data center, power and cooling engineering experience in-house. And even if the company hires the expertise in for an internal data center build out.
Is downtime too expensive to tolerate? Does it make sense to simplify your data center? Affordable colocation like Lifeline Data Centers can help companies improve uptime and deliver simple reliability. Contact Lifeline today for more information.
Why are companies moving primary data centers to wholesale colocation facilities like Lifeline Data Centers? The nine reasons outlined in the paragraphs above were:
• Reaching limits on power, cooling, or floor space
• Improving primary data center uptime (reliability)
• Meeting data center compliance or data center certification requirements
• Consolidating data centers
• Moving out of an existing building; moving a data center
• Reducing power costs
• Swapping primary data center and disaster recovery center sites
• Centralizing the hub of a wide area network
Selecting the right wholesale data center is one of the most critical strategic IT decisions a company will make. A sensible CIO strategy would include these data center requirements:
• Industry veteran data center leadership, directly involved in day-to-day operations
• True N+N data center redundancy with 99.995% uptime (Tier IV data center uptime levels)
• Data center certifications – SAS 70 data center, TIA 942 compliant data center, and industry-specific compliance
• Highly-customized data center consulting and managed services
• Simple data center pricing model
• Low data center power costs, billed on usage
• Private cages for security, high density and long-term growth
• Access to multiple telecommunications providers
• Carrier neutral data center with no cross connect fees
The primary data center is the heartbeat of a company. The wrong decision on data center providers can cost a company dearly for the life of a contract. Choose a wholesale hardened data center facility that works to support the company’s specific data center requirements. Consider affordable colocation options. Consider Midwest colocation provider Lifeline Data Centers.
