Archive for October, 2009

Reduce Power Consuption in Data Center

In the complex business problems in the IT smaller problems often goes unnoticed, one of such problem is Power Consumption. Power Consumption is a small problem, still its an area which needs improvement. “Energy Conversation” is one of the most recognized phrase in every industry. It is simple and easy to implement strategies and can result in immediate savings for any kind of business. Most important if all “Power Consumption” is total free of the modern day technology features, its simple traditional ways of saving energy. So here goes some of the ideas will help you:

  • Appropriate Humidity and Temperature –  it’s the correct temperature and humidity which decides the proper airflow in the server rooms of Data Center. Many people are living in the misconception that serve rooms should be cold for the best output of the machines and also very less monitoring should be done. Thermostat is the only temperature sensor device in many Data Centers. Its good to keep the servers rooms cool but not below the room temperature of the whole site. Best suited temperature for the server rooms is between 65 to 75 Degrees. Very often temperature is lowered to 65 degrees in many Data Centers, but its not suggestible. Computer equipments work properly only in a particular temperature range. For keeping the Data Center warmer by a single degree can save upto 5% of power consumption. There are some machines which works in rather higher temperature ranges say upto 95 Degree, but most of them works in lower ranges. Overheating of the machines can damage them and can cause the expected downtime, which is definitely not good for your business. Other problem that can arise from lowering the temperature below the range is  increase in Humidity levels. Best suiting humidity for a Data Center ranges between 45%-55%. Too much cooling can increase humidity and thus leading to condensation which further causes hardware failure. If you want to detect humidity and temperature throughout the Data Center, you will have to install proper sensors. To ensure all equipments are working properly, sensors should be installed throughout the Data Center. One of the detectors suggested is CRAC units which not only works for longer periods also they consume very low power.

Perforated tiles-1

  • Hot or Cold aisle – its is suggested to configure your computer equipments in either cold or hot aisle in a Data Center. Hot or Cold aisle layout supports proper flow of cold or hot air, overall reducing the work of HVAC ( Heating, Ventilation, and Air Condition) cooling system and equipments. In these layouts servers are placed facing each other in pairs, back of one pair of server face the back of the other pair. All the computers and other equipments are made in such a way that cool air enters from the front part and leaves from the back of the equipment. Placing servers facing each other promotes the flow of cool air from the front and flow of warmer air from rear parts of the racks. Hence this process is called “cold” aisles and “hot” aisles. Using the properties of both hot and cold air hot and cold aisles reduce the work, which other mechanism  do with the help of power consumption. In other mechanism every time when hot and cold air is blended together, heavy work has to be done by the internal cooling machines and CRAC units. Computers which are not able to inhale cool air from front, should be placed away from the racks. They have to be installed in such a way that direct warm air wear out toward hot aisle. Other option is using special cabinets which are capable of redirecting either side ventilated or top wear out of the rack.

Raised Floor-2

  • Circumvent Air — any air conditioned air that is not utilized by the server equipment is called Circumvent or Bypass air. Bypass air leads to airflow inefficiencies inside the layout of the Data Center. Air is ascended through pierced tiles on the ground. Often Bypass air enters through small irregularities in the floor, like holes created to permit network or electric wires. If possible keep these holes sealed to minimize the effect of the bypass air. One more place other than the floor where you can find bypass air is cut-outs on the back of the server cabinets. Cable wires which escape from the rear of the cabinets should be sealed properly.
  • Floor Tiles – Cold Aisles require perforated or punctured tiles to promote the flow of air from the floor to the servers. These perforations take advantage of the property of cool air and reducing the work of HVAC units. On the other hand Hot aisles don’t need these perforations as warmer air which returns to the air condition ducts is not disturbed. When the machinery is moved in the Data Center respective grates is the clod aisles should also be moved to support the free flow of the cooler and hot air at maximum intensity.

Bypass Air-3

Tags: , ,

Why Colocation Hosting is Beneficial

Colocation Server and Dedicated Server are completely two different scenarios. While a company owns a Dedicated servers and in its you who owns a Colocation Server. Below given are few points which will try to cover the advantages or benefits of Colocation Hosting.

  • Reliability -  life of a Hardware is well supported by the good power conditions, climate controlled environment. Colocation Hosting offers reliable hosting with clean, consistent and uninterruptible power with the help of generators, multiple power grids in combined with one another, and best maintenance.
  • Independent Location -  Data Centers are not easily build and needs heavy expenses and time. Also you have to pay the staff who will control your Data Center. If you have a small business best option for you is Colocation Hosting.
  • Ease In Connectivity -  There is no share in bandwidth as you are Colocating. Other resources including hardware and RAM are also not shared thus allowing your server to run at highest capacity. Colocation companies offers high bandwidth and redundant Internet connections, making your information readily accessible to your customers according to their demand. Speed of the Colocated server will be higher because of the high bandwidth and therefore your customers will enjoy a quick response increasing your reputation.
  • Savings -  If your server demands in-house requirements then it will cost you a lot. A lot of money has to invested in internet connectivity, personal maintenance and other facilities. Companies which provide Colocation servers already made the investment in the field and you can concentrate your money on other serious purpose.
  • Flexibility – Once you sign up for Colocation servers, you can easily upgrade your resources as your business grows. Thus making Colocation greatly flexible.

Above given points are enough to make you feel the advantages of Colocation hosting.

Tags: , ,

Colocation Hosting

Colocation Hosting is one of the most love hosting plans of the modern times. In a Colocation Hosting multiple customers locate servers, storage and networks to telecommunication providers and various other network service providers and likewise reducing cost and complexity. Data Centers should be monitored throughout the year. All of your systems should be placed in a Data Center with appropriate cooling and filtering systems, proper options to work even in the case of power failures. It should be strong enough to face natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. Colocation is highly flexible option for both small and large buisnesses. Not just being flexible Colocation Hosting is cost-effective and best solution for your buisness. With Colocation Hosting as the option you can excel world leading buisnesses. Whether you owns private dedicated server or just a single rack make sure the Data Center they are placed are well managed and secure. Also make sure there are no issues of cross connection fees, since many times the servers is hosted with one and internet connectivity is provided by someone else. It is the resposible of the host to provide uninterrupted connectivity and that should be without any major disturbance. Colocation facilities majorly use two kind of dedicated cooling systems CRAC (Computer Room Air-Conditioninf Units) units and chillers. CRAC is a system which controlles air-conditions and ask them to never stop. Continuously working servers can heat up a thousands square foot of room only in minutes. CRAC units prevent heat buildup server rooms by continuously cycling. Chiller system is somewhat tradtional way of cooling with lots of pipes circulating chilled water throughout the server rooms.

Tags: , ,

Importance of Backup Plan

backup plan 2

All the large businesses and companies have large number of clients and customers. When you are operating large number of clients, first thing that comes to your mind is backup for all customer database because if you loose that you will loose everything. Every document of your company should be protected and backed up. If some unexpected disaster strikes and you lost of data, this may result you pay huge amount of fine to your clients. Instead of paying a thousand of dollars registering with disaster recovery plan which will make virtual copies of your files. Another way of not loosing your data is to have complete recovery of an entire technology infrastructure. However this plan can cost you a lot of money and can only be used in most serious case. In such case everything is recovered hardware, data, IT equipments, application and communications. This whole procedure takes a lot of time and it is not possible for the companies which works round the clock and consistently. To solve the problem, most of the companies have their own Data Center, all the Data is protected and kept safe. Data Centers are mostly located in the outskirts of a city away from the traffic and chaos of the main city. Data Centers are heavily monitored and protected since most of the companies depend on them considerably. Building material of a Data Center should be strong in order to stand still against the most fearful natural threat earthquakes and also other serious threats like bombs and weather condition. In recent years not just bigger companies but smaller ones keep backup data for their clients. If your company survives after loosing data in some disaster consider yourself in the list of lucky ones. Some time back a survey showed that only mere 6% companies which lost data in some kind of disaster continues in business. 43% failed even to open again and 51% were closed after two years. Initially you feel that a data recovery plan will cost you some extra bucks, but later on you will this save from alot of expenditure that could be a lot more then what you have invested.

Backup plan

Tags: , ,

Data Center Failures

It is important be aware of reasons a Data Center can fail or cause some malfunction cos it can cause you serious frustration and problems. If you are aware of the failures you will also become familiar how to solve and what to do when under attack. Sites retrieved data from Data Centres more then they retrieve from the computers running online, it becomes important that the Data Centers keep running. If a Data Centers goes down computers which earlier retrieving data from the data center from all over the world goes down. This is one of the worst ill-effects for your business, you may loss a great sum of money as well as your reputation. There may be many reasons why a Data Center fails or start’s malfunctioning. Some of them are:

Wear Out‘ Phase – A time when a Data Center approaches its end of its life that phase is called ‘Wear Out’ phase. Care and regular maintenance only add to its woes making it more slow and all the major parts finally stops working. If you look forward to avoid the tragedy which can be caused by the wear put phase start monitoring systems regularly.

Wear In‘ phase – Opposite to the Wear Out phase this phase dealts with the start of a Data Center. Many things may when they try to be fully operational. Start of the machines should be gradual, slow and with minimal use. It needs complete testing as to fix a problem system usage shouldn’t cross the barrier and became a problem itself.

Generators are often termed as heart of a Data Center, as 100% power can’t be possible 24×7. So when power goes out generators came in action. But if the generation goes out everything goes out.Metal Whisker – Most of the Data Center have the center hardware placed on metallic surfaces, this increase a possible threat of Metal Whiskers ( spontaneous growth of tiny hairs on metallic surface). These whiskerrs can cause short circuits in Data Center, which are more severe then virus for a computer system. These whiskers depends on the metal used for the base, as zinc will cause zinc whiskers, silver for silver whiskers and gold of gold whiskers. Solution for this problem is installing large fans at the base that will suck these whiskers. Other solution is replacing a the base material with some other material which is whisker proof. However the second one can cost you much as zinc tin e.t.c. Are traditional Data center base materials and replacing them is not a good idea.

Keep these faults in mind while working with a Data Center and be prepared for them. Prevention is better then cure.

Tags: , ,

Data Centre Disaster Recovery Plan

You never know when a disaster can ruin your business plans and future, specially when your business data is stored in a Data Center or Colocation Center. Not looking for a data center disaster recovery plan. Many of us believe that a disaster is the least thing which will happen to us. Other point is we feel that we don’t rely much on soft data. Most of us who are not aware of the working process of a Data Center think that a data center disaster recovery plan is not at all practical. Below are few of the points which will make you to focus on the fact that Data Center Recovery Plans are indeed practical.

DISASTER RECOVERY

  • File Security: Confidential or top secret files needs security and safety. Viruses and Worms threats act as the biggest threat to these files, not only slowing your business but also affect the output quality. Solution is of you have computer backup in the Data Center you will not have to worry about these problems. Computer backup system will save your files from worms or viruses attacks and also restore corrupted files. Thus allowing your business to keep going with your quality of production.
  • Affirmation: If your customers are aware of the fact that their data will be safe in data center they will be happy to do business with you. A Data center disaster recovery plan will not only help you to be loyal to your existing customers but it will also be helpful as a major selling point to new clients looking to expand their business.
  • If Disaster Strikes: You will be extremely happy to know that your data is safe with backup on online computers, when the data center is hit by a natural disaster. All of your lost data will be restored as soon as possible.
  • Savings: Yes that is true, bucks loosed while registering for a data center disaster recovering plan are much less than what you may loose if your data is destroyed in a natural disaster.
  • Potency: Potency of your work will be boosted with the help of computer backed systems as these systems will quickly restore the damaged and deleted files. These backed systems are so quick that they barely five a chance to the customers to notice the change.

DisasterRecovery 2

So, next time when you are registering with Data Center make sure they have Data Center Disaster recovery plan to make sure your data is safe even in a natural disaster.

Tags: , ,

What is a Colocation center?

International Server Colocation What is a Colocation center?

Colocation Center is a type of data center. Sometime Colocation Centers are also known as Carrier Hotel. Here customers look for server, storage and network. Colocation Centers also help customers to connect with other network providers. Why Colocation Centers are love all over the world is because of the fact that they offers their services with least complexity and on very less price. You will get most of the NAPs (Network access point) facilities. All the Colocation Centers are heavily guarded because of the information and the vital data stored in the racks. Physical security is very high in the Colocation centers. Most of the colocation centers allow a PIN code system to the customers so they can access into the building. Many other use Biometric system like voice recognition and fingerprints. Cooling is one of the most important part of Colocation Centers. Computers and other telecommunication equipments need continues cooling and their performance deteriorates according to the tempearture. For the best performance they need a stable temperature. Popularity of colocation centers is increasing on an exponential rate because of the fact that it saves a lot of time and money to company because of a shared data centre infrastructure. Many colocation centers hace large colocation facilities ranging from 40000-100000 square feet. When all your communication and IT facilities are secure and safe, you can focus on core business.

Data Centres or Colocation Centers are easily recognizable because of the large amount of cooling equipments installed on the roofs of the Colocation Centers. Other features which will help you to recognize a colocation center are as follow:

  • Cooling or Air Conditioning is one of the most notable feature which will help you to recognize a colocation center.ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers) recommends a humidity range of 40-60% and a temperature range of 20-25 Celsius as the optimal range for the performance of electronic equipments. Any temperaure or humidity more than that will result in the damage of the electronic components. Electric power used by the electric component is converted into heat, which is inturn is rejected to the ambient air in the data center space.
  • Very few or less windows.
  • Racks used are of two different size 23-inch racks for telecom equipment and 19-inch racks for data equipment.
  • Fire can be dangerous threat for a Colocation Center, so fire protection is yet another important part of a colocation center. Fire protection system includes active and passive design elements. Smoke detectors are the most common part of a fire protection system.

server colocation

Tags: , ,