Archive for January, 2010

Top 10 Trends of Data Centers in 2010

Jan 30

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2010 will change many things about data center, it is expected that some powerful and strong technological advancements will change the view of data centers. 2010 will be completely different for data centers from the previous few years. Here are the few points which are expected to be changed in data centers:

  • Cooling System -  first and the most important one is cooling, slowly data centers are moving towards the liquid cooling. Credit for this change goes to IBM for bringing much revolutionary Z11 mainframe which are provided with water cooler options. It is believed that liquids are 4000 times more beneficial than air when it comes to removing heat. This kind of liquid cooling is suitable for the highest density deployments like (High Performance Computing) HPC.
  • Because of the reason that cooling, data feeds and power will be supplied from above the importance of raised floor plans will drop. Raised floors were never loved in the areas where rolling and static load is high. And after all it is much easier to deliver and maintain power inputs and cables from above.
  • Flywheels will take place of the traditional lead acid batteries and UPS for AC power protection executions. This is also important from the perspective of competence and preservation specially in the developed countries where rules are very strict about correct disposal of heavy metals.
  • Layout for the data center will change forever as the importance of manual patch pattern will reduce and will be replaced by join edge networks with some smart switching options.
  • DC power options will be more famous in data centers for the IT equipments. Some modern data centers will even offer both DC and AC options. This will help in utilizing better efficiency of DC and eventually increasing reliability.
  • Dependency on data center infrastructure will reduce as reliability will continuously sift towards application layer. Important basics will concentrate on repetition of the technology and high quality networks in order to allow swift migration of data between sites.
  • Backup generators will be replaced by new technology called CHP ( Combined Heat and Power) plant, specially in the data centers situated in city centers. This is because of the fact that power grids are no longer famous and efficient as they were few years ago.
  • Virtualization will continue to grow let it be network, server or storage. Operational efficiency will be replaced by operational flexibility and this will be important for the change in critical application space.
  • Colocation will loose importance to data centers hosting. Data centers hosting will be preferred by IT as a service offering since business will most probably shift to cloud computing models.
  • Locality of data centers will change and they will be no longer be in situated in outskirts of cities. Myth of choosing data centers near corporate headquarters will not be preferred any more. Moreover because of the power restrictions in city centers Data centers will be left with the choice of providing receptive applications only.

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Misconceptions about Automation in Data Center

Jan 28

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Automation brings many benefits to the data center like better service levels, less operational costs and above all an improved performance for the data center. But still organizations are afraid of adapting to data center automation. Ignoring the current some of the advancements made in automation in data centers previous developments added pointless complications and frailty to the whole process which resulted in some misconceptions about the data center. Some of the most common misconceptions about automation in data center are as follows -

Large amount of money is needed for professional consultants and services.

This is one of the common disbelief about automation in data center that you need a large staff of experts and various types of services to start automation in data center. With a commonly available automation tool your technical staff can easily start the automation progress and within few days can start production. This as simple as it looks you don’t need long scripts, coding, or any kind of special development.

Automation will result in job loss of many employees

There is no need of evaluating whether your staff is talented enough to handle all the projects you have. IT staff is not removed by automation, instead it frees the staff from some of the important repetitive tasks. Once free from such tasks they can concentrate on other important and logical working processes which will be helpful in development of business.

Automation will increase complexity

Automation is not for increasing complexity but it eased down many processes. Another common misconception about data center automation is that it is not for all the processes. Automation offer flexibility and it can automate whole process or few steps within a process, whichever suits you better. Also in both the ways you can add checkpoints at suitable intervals to make it more simple.

Automation will change everything

Automation works in such a process that it will increase productivity and won’t change your process significantly. A successful automation tool will help you to automate and arrange all your existing process taking care of the operational measures which are followed in your company.

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Virtualized, Green and Efficient Data Center

Jan 27

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Green Data Center 2 400x142 Virtualized, Green and Efficient Data Center

What are the requirements of a Effective, Green and Competent Virtual Data Center? You will get the answer to the question in below given paragraphs. A data center can be made virtual, efficient and green by referring to various necessities and matters. The best technique to merge the less utilized resources of the IT equipments like I/O networks, Servers, Storage, decrease cooling demands, and reduce consumption of energy. Virtuality and Green these two terms are seen as future solution for every business around the world. Likewise Data Centers which are green and virtualized are called as next generation data centers and they are better than other data centers in performance. Also these kind of Data Centers are supple, flexible, economical and environmental friendly. Today only virtualization is the solution for to solidify there business and customer service, but in the future there are wide chances of other technologies to grow as well which will help data centers to improve the quality of application service provided by them, with the conditions of reducing costs and not negotiating with the performance factors such as ability or availability required for processing and storing more data.

In order to improve the performance of the data center Virtualization and Cloud needs software as well as physical resources. These available physical and software resources are responsible for economical and environmental friendly performance of a data center. Worldwide components of green and virtualized data center are as follows:

  • Services, hardware resources, and software options should be installed on wide area, remote and local basis.
  • Processes, rules, best practices, and procedures should be followed in order to enhance the performance.
  • Managements should also measure the effectiveness of service delivery and resource usage.
  • Servers, racks, software, storage devices, I/O networks accesses and data protection layers all should be arranged in a tiered manner.

Data Center Optimization 1 304x300 Virtualized, Green and Efficient Data Center

There are many points which are expected from Green, Virtualized, and Cloud Data Centers. The list goes like that:

  • Should be fast in controlling and adapting to the new technological advancements.
  • Without the increasing cost and loosing performance it should maintain efficiency and effectiveness.
  • With the factors of energy efficient and environmentally friendly it should be economical in maintaining.
  • Automation is required throughout the data center and it should be seen as information plant not like a money eating center.
  • Secure from any kind of known risk to the data center let it be mechanical or physical.
  • Most important of all should be flexible, stable, easy to scale changes, and should be self healing.

Economical Data Center 400x288 Virtualized, Green and Efficient Data Center

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TCO for a Data Center

Jan 26

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Before starting a business it is important for you to predict the Total Cost Ownership (TCO). TCO becomes more important in the business of Data Centers and Colocation facilities. For the data center you need to measure the total cost ownership for network rooms and complete physical infrastructure. TCO helps you in predicting your future decisions and also what is your Return-on-investment and also TCO helps you in controlling your costs. Like other businesses there are no special methods of predicting TCO for Data Centers. Instead there are simple methods of calculating operating expenses and other capital investments which will help you find out total cash expenditure. There is a disadvantage for this technique however it is unable to provide you complete utilization of the equipment. Say for example there are two data centers same in infrastructure and both of them are using 500kW of energy. First data center is using all the power and space and housing large computer systems and equipments, while the other is just housing few racks. Now the cash of operating is same for the two data centers, but the revenue generated and the investments returned are completely different. For the first data center whole TCO is divided amongst the large IT equipments. On the other hand in the second data center whole weight of the operating cost is on those few racks. In such case if you calculate TCO for network room infrastructure or complete physical infrastructure from the standpoint of positive work done in relevance of total IT equipment supported underperformance can cost you very much and your profit ratio will fall. most of the processes to find out TCO starts with calculating TCO per square foot of data center or per kW of data center. However these kind of scales fails when it comes to determining useful work done.

TCO 312x300 TCO for a Data Center

One unit of data center which is easily and commonly understood by rack unit. From a facility point of view all the important parts of a data center can be well managed like area, power and cooling. Now one can easily understand quantity IT equipment and the functionality that can be fitted in a rack. Because of the ease which is provided by racks to the customers and owners in understanding the facility performance, facility infrastructure is expressed in terms of “Rack Units.” So the actual definition of the term “rack” is rack enclosure or open frame rack. According to researches normally data center can only utilize only 30% of its capacity. Although there are some data center which utilizes up to 90% of energy, but then there are some which are using only 10% of energy. Utilization of power in a data center fluctuates during its lifetime in a relative consistent style. For the first five years power required grows on a regular level and then remains constant later on. To find put Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) you require a large data. TCO calculates average cost of installation, equipment, operating and engineering costs. To determine all these factors you need exact data of power rating, life cycle, power density, redundancy, and average rack power. Find out all these factors accurately and you will be able to calculate TCO for your data center. Average cost utilization for a data center looks like that -  Racks 2%, Service 15%, space 18%, Monitoring 2%, Project Management 2%, Power 20%, Cooling 5%, Installation 15%,  and Electricity 20%.

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Grid computing a review

Jan 14

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Grid computing is a type of distributed computing system which is connected to port which is a interface for network to Ethernet or something similar to Ethernet.In grid computing provides these computers an option to combine together and can give performance almost equivalent to a super computer these computers have an option of combining together and these can be individually controlled this concept was developed by Ian Foster who is denoted as “father of Grid”.
grid 320x300 Grid computing a review
Grid computing has this superb feature of sharing system resources otherwise known as CPU scavenging unused system resources it basically steals unused CPU time its like getting a job done 10 computer with low configuration instead of getting it done by high end computer it speeds up the process increases the efficiency resulting in better results.Presently IBM is working on a project called Kittyhawk which will based on the concept of shared computing. Grid is fabricated from open standard  interfaces like TCP/IP protocol.Grid give flexibility of sharing not only CPU power but other system resources like disk space,Database,software application with help of grid computing.Its like a parallel computing and performance depends on the size of the network its connected to.shared computing creates a grid which uses unused resources in a network (organisation,worldwide,local).Future of Internet will be based on grid computing and this technology is highly efficient whole world which uses Internet is network and scientist have a vision of developing it into a grid computing that means each desktop each laptop or any gadget which is connected to Internet will be in that grid and will be sharing resources that will take user experience to next level.That is why it is said future of Internet will be Grid.

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Understand Cloud Computing?

Jan 13

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It is not necessary that you have to be a tech guy to learn about Cloud Computing, nowadays everybody knows everything about  Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing is just like the previous technologies which changed the whole concept of web world, like Internet, Web 2.0 and wireless computing. They completely changed the way we work and live. These technologies made it easier for us to make our way into public consciousness using articles, magazines and other polar press items. Cloud Computing helped tech industry rejuvenating, authorizing consumers and making the field equal for small and large business. But before going for Cloud Computing you should analyze what your business need. Cloud Computing can be different for business that  is lively and can be different for dormant one. The conduit to liveliness needs a change of attitude from internal to external internet based technologies. This what is known as Evergreen IT. According to this new definition there is no option for working systems where heavy work is done using old systems that are so costly and complex that often people change their business. Evergreen IT generates possible ways to energizing new IT capabilities that works perfectly for your business and that to without disturbing your business path. There are three basic concepts of Cloud Computing, it helps us to understand what are the sore points of business for the large organizations. But first we should understand what Cloud Computing really is? It’s a basically a model in which a company outsources the management and ownership of the some part of the companies IT.

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Drawbacks of Cloud Computing

Jan 12

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Its Cloud Computing which allows you to access all your documents and application anytime and anywhere in the world. Releasing you from detaining you from desktop every time. Cloud and computing and Colocation services are seen as future of web world. But nothing is perfect in the world and just like that cloud computing is not for everyone, there are several pros and cons associated with cloud computing. Here is brief descriptions of which type of user can enjoy the benefits of cloud computing  which should avoid using cloud computing. Few of the disadvantages associated with cloud computing are:

High Speed Internet  Required -  Cloud Computing’s performance in slow speed internet connections is absurd. Slow connections like dial-up make is Cloud computing  a pain for the user or it can be say it is impossible for the users to enjoy cloud computing on slow connections. Large documents and web-base applications need a lot of bandwidth to download. Is you are using a low speed internet connection then you may feel Cloud Computing will take more than a lifetime to be operational on that type of connection. In simple words Cloud Computing is not for slow connections.

Constant Internet Connection – Cloud Computing without proper internet connection is just like lifeless body. Because you are using internet for accessing both your documents and applications, in case if you don’t have an internet connection you can’t even access your documents. Departed internet connection means no work on the cloud computing and areas where internet connections are slow and are unreliable it can affect your business. Cloud Computing simply stops working without internet connection.

Limited Features – today many web-based applications are not fully featured when compared to their desktop versions. Just for an example there are n-number of things which can be done using Microsoft PowerPoint with the help of Google Presentation’s web based feature. Basics of using Microsoft PowerPoint on Cloud Computing are same but it lacks many of the advanced features of PowerPoint. If you are specially fond of power features, you will not look at cloud computing.

Data Stored is not secure – All the data in Cloud Computing is stored on Cloud. Its your duty to make sure how secure Cloud is? Whether only authorized persons are slowed to access to your confidential data. Concept of cloud computing is new and even if hosting companies say that the data is secured it can’t be a 100% truth. If you will see theoretically data on cloud computing is unsafe as it is replicated along multiple machines. In any case if your data goes missing you don’t have any chance of local or physical backup. Simply depending on cloud can let you down and there is always a risk of failure. In order to save the data only solution is downloading all cloud documents on your machines. However this is a lengthy process and every time your documents upgrades you will have to download a new copy of the application.

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Three Steps To Secure your Data Center

Jan 12

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Its Cloud Computing which bought server-oriented, virtualization and new Internet applications. With Cloud Computing Data Centers are now more active with flexible boundaries. However this change towards Cloud Computing also added new levels of intricacies. IT managers now have to work more hard in order to secure equipments in Data Center so that precious data of the customers will be safe from spiteful attacks. Organizations are now asked to check all the operations in a Data Center are working correctly, also all the equipments are secure. Not just the equipments and applications but technologies, people and policies should also be kept under the eye of organization which are required to keep the Data Center active and functioning. Based on the expert views there are few points or steps which if followed can secure your data center against all the malicious attacks and also make it  more active then ever. Here are the steps:

Set up a secure zone for Network

Once the physical security level is installed the real hard work of securing network  starts. Securing network systems begins with development area followed by test subnet which is separated from the traffic of the development area. Production which is the third area is considered as the most boring area and most of the efforts and time of system administrators is wasted in this area. Since this zone works on approved production equipments administrators are asked to imply new systems to control production network. Administrators can organize virtual or physical systems to the sub-networks which are attached to the virtual area network. Other than that strict rules related to outgoing and incoming traffic are also deployed. Before applying rules managers of Data Center should find out the different requirements of the different business which are handled by sub-networks. For example traffic related with production should be restricted to irrelevant websites and other services like e-mail should use ports with outgoing links. Wireless access points should be avoided in Data Center because even with two factor authentication and wide working radius they are difficult to control. In the security of Data Center there are three steps to be followed, first one is operational framework is ensures global information grid is available which should have integrity and protection. Technical protection is second and third and last is certification and accreditation of applications to be used in data center.

Physical Access should be Secure

Each layer and system in your data center is important, secure access to every room of your Data center. It is seen that commonly data center managers start with other complex tasks like controlling access to systems and mostly forget the physical security measures and concentrate on network side. In a perfect security systems, measures should be taken at every point of the Data Center. Physical security for a Data Center includes ID cards, fenced campus, bio-metrics system and video surveillance, specially for the outer entrances of the Data Center. Inner Layers doesn’t need all security measures mentioned above and two important security measures should be taken care of are video surveillance and biometrics. One more important type of access to the inner parts of the Data Center is proper locking on the server. This is done to avoid any accidental error which can be caused by any wrong person working on the servers.

Organize Communication among security devices in Data Center

Cloud Computing and Colocation services has changed nearly every style of working in web world, security is also included. Most important thing in cloud computing is securing the data that is flowing between client systems, virtual machines within the data center and also between two data centers. In order to secure everything something more than port protocols is required like application identification technology. Application identification technology apply signatures which helps in determining which application is peer to peer program or a shareware program. Application denial of service attacks should also be included in your security measures. Traditionally denial of service of attacks was programmed to fight of attack by using the “black hole” technique. Drawback of this technique was that administrators have to remove all the traffic from the server that is under attack. Nowadays there are other solutions available which helps in determining which traffic is legal and which is illegal.

Taylor Momsen

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Importance of SQL Server Replication

Jan 6

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Just like the SQL Server replication of SQL server is also important. SQL Server replications allows administrators to divide data to various servers all over an organization. Importance of replication can be understood by following below given reasons:

Offline Processing – there are many users round the world who wish to change data from your database on a machine even when their status is offline i.e. when they are not connected to the network.

Redundancy – with the help of replication you can build a fail-over database server, in case of any failure it can pick up the processing, even on a minute’s notice.

Load balancing – with the help of replication you can divide your data on large number of servers and thus you divide the query load between those servers. Replication therefore helps in enhancing the quality of the server.

SQL Replication Importance of SQL Server Replication
Snapshot Replication – it works just like the name indicates. All what publishers have to do is take a snapshot of the entire replicated database and share that with subscribers. Snapshot replication is not used by most of the administrators because of the reason that snapshot replication is resources intensive process. Most commonly snapshot replication is used in those database which rarely undergoes any change. Other use of snapshot replication is to establish replication between systems at the same time as updates are broadcasted with the help of combined replication.

Merge Replication – this type of publisher allows subscribers to make changes independent to the database. Spatiality of these two applications is that they can work without network connection. When connected again the merger replication feature confirm changes made on both sides and make changes in each database. In the case of changes contradict with each other, there is a provision of conflict resolution algorithm which concludes the suitable data. Most common users or merge replication are laptop users, who didn’t get chance to connect to the publishers continuously.

Transactional Replication – best advantage of Transactional replication is it allows database to undergo any change on a regular basis. With transactional replication publishers can monitor changes occurring on the database an then transmitting those changes to the subscribers. This kind of replication can work immediately or on a periodic basis.

SQL Replication 2 Importance of SQL Server Replication

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What is DCML (Data Center Markup Language)?

Jan 5

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The Data Center Markup Language or better known as DCML is a an XML based condition which is used for representing main contents of data centers and also the information used in managing all those components. With the combination of OASIS DCML is developed by Data Center Markup Language Interest Group. Development of DCML started in early 2004, when it was first seen in its draft form. To understand DCML can be used for linking a server monitoring system with server provisioning system. By doing this next time when a new server is provisioned it will be monitored automatically. In such case the DCML document that is transmitted to the monitoring system includes information regarding the IP address and all the other special services running on that machines and special ports that will be monitored as well. Other important information like the application server belongs to and in the case of server goes down whom should be contacted . All the information is imported into the system of NOC personnel, which can use in the case of any alert occurs. Framework specifications of DCML are used to define overall concepts structures and approach to DCML’s manipulation of all the Data center elements along with policies governing their management. DCML allows people and systems managing data center and other IT environments to exchange policy, operating information and configuration in a standardized manner which works on a wide range of products and processes. Below given are the few process which are possible with a given set of unified DCML description:

  • Replace or remove components
  • Permit communication between various data center management systems
  • Expansion of functions like adding services or servers
  • Configuring and reconfiguring newly added software and hardware

DCML What is DCML (Data Center Markup Language)?

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