Sunday 15 November 2009

Microsoft's Chicago Datacenter Photo Tour

CNet has a photo tour of the new Microsoft datacenter in Chicago.



Pulling out all the stops will a truly ground breaking approach of how to roll out new datacenters this is for sure worth a look if your in the datacenter industry.

See - http://news.cnet.com/2300-10805_3-10001679-1.html?tag=mncol

Friday 30 October 2009

Datacenter Tiers explained

Tier 1 to 4 data center is nothing but a standardized methodology used to define uptime of data center.

Tier 4 data center considered as most robust and less prone to failures. Tier 4 is designed to host mission critical servers and computer systems, with fully redundant subsystems (cooling, power, network links, storage etc) and compartmentalized security zones controlled by biometric access controls methods. Naturally, the simplest is a Tier 1 data center used by small business or shops.

Tier 1 = Non-redundant capacity components (single uplink and servers).
Tier 2 = Tier 1 + Redundant capacity components.
Tier 3 = Tier 1 + Tier 2 + Dual-powered equipments and multiple uplinks.
Tier 4 = Tier 1 + Tier 2 + Tier 3 + all components are fully fault-tolerant including uplinks, storage, chillers, HVAC systems, servers etc. Everything is dual-powered.

See the below Datacenter Tier attribute chart for more detailed information.



datacenter_tiers

This is useful for measuring:

a) Data center performance
b) Investment
c) ROI (return on investment)

Thursday 30 July 2009

The rise and rise of search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

The acronym "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.

3C Solutions can provide you with an excellent SEO package costing you alot less than you think. If your interested in making your website get on top of matters, drop us a line and we'll talk you through our SEO service starting at £140 all inclusive http://www.3csolutions.co.uk/sub/seo.html

A minor cost for major results.

Good initial planning of data center facilities

When initially tasked with creating a data center environment the most basic constraint, the one that will form the foundation of your solution is to understand the relationship between available space, power and cooling.. While there are different approaches as to deciding which side of the triangle is the most important, there is universal consensus that these are most important design considerations.

Before the deployment of blade server technologies, average power consumption per rack was typically 3-8 kilowatts (14 Compaq Proliant DL380 G1 Servers with two 275W power supplies = 7700 watts). With the advent of blade server implementations, power requirements skyrocketed to up to over 20 kilowatts per rack (6 Compaq C-Class Blade Enclosures can require 3255 watts each = 19530 watts). Couple this with the price of electricity steadily increasing you can see why power is a critical design element for any data center.

In complement with the calculations of kilowatt power per rack in your data center, there must be proper cooling. There are two specific factors to consider when sizing cooling requirements; first the actual amount of BTUs (British Thermal Units) required to dissipate the generated heat, and equally as important is the amount of airflow which is measured in CFM (cubic feet per minute). Unlike determining power requirements, which can be easily figured out as multiplying the number of power supplies with the watts generated from these supplies, calculating the amount of BTUs can be a bit more complex.

A good rule of thumb in determining the amount of heat generated per rack is to take 30% of the total wattage and assign that as the heat cost. So to use the above example of the 6 C-Class Blade Enclosures 19530 watts generates 5859 watts of heat. To convert this into BTU’s, multiply the kilowatts by 3412.14. (5.859 KW * 3412.14 = 19,991 BTU), or this can be expressed in cooling tons by dividing the BTUs by 12,000 (19,991 BTU / 12,000 = 1.66 Tons).

The second step is to determine the CFM of cooling. Legacy chiller solutions cool the entire room and as such are the least efficient ways to go as you are applying energy to cool the room, and not the equipment inside of it. Today’s chillers reside either inside of the rack or off to the side of it, or you will find situations of an enclosed area made up of the racks creating hot aisles and cold aisles. This is a more efficient solution as you are directing the chilled air directly on the equipment and not the ambient air in the room.

To accurately measure how many CFM per minute that you need in your rack, it is a bit more complex, in fact you may wish that you stayed awake in high school physics. First, you need to determine the maximum “hot” temperature – meaning air leaving the rack, for example (30°C/86°F). Next determine the “cold” temperature – meaning the air going into the rack, for example (15°C/59°F). Lastly, you need to calculate the total amount of heat generated in kilowatts (5.859 kW). Calculate the amount of air that is needed to be moved using the specific hear of air (1 kJ / kg K). 5kJ/sec means that you will need 5kg/sec for a 1 degree rise, however in this case, with a 15 degree rise this converts to .33kg /sec. To turn .33kg/sec into CFM you multiply .33kg to 1.3 m3/kg for a total of .43m3/sec. There are 35 cubic feet in a cubic meter, so you need about 15 cubic feet per second, or about 900 CFM.

After two segments of the triangle have been calculated, usable space, and its relationship can be examined. Referring back to the Identification of the components of a data center, there are specific components to plan for in a data center design: The room that the server racks reside in, room for the power and mechanical services, the communications demarcation point, and the operations command room. The dimensions of these areas are dependent on the requirements of the data within the data center but after this initial allocation, the remainder of the physical location is determined to be your “available space”, which is measured in rack spaces or 3’x4’

When combined together, one can quickly understand how the combined factors of power, cooling and space form the most important factors in designing a successful data center.

If you would like more advice or want to bring your datacenter or comms room to an international standard, visit our site for information

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