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ProcessorMag-08.10.09.pdf

Tech & Trends
July 31, 2009 • Vol.31 Issue 20
Page(s) 36 in print issue

Aging Data Centers: A Plan
Breathing New Life Into Elderly Spaces Requires Solid Strategy

Some things get better with age. But while wine and wisdom can benefit from years gone
by, data centers generally take the opposite route, struggling through grave challenges in
processing, power, space, and other areas over time. Industry experts estimate that the
average age for data centers today is 12 years, which represents an eternity in terms of
technology and the infrastructure required to support it.

"Today's servers have tremendous processing capabilities but require more electricity and
generate more heat than what legacy data centers were designed to support. Consider that
12 years ago, data centers were being designed with about 50 watts per square foot of
cooling, while today, 200 watts per square foot is typical, and designs of 500 watts per
square foot aren't unheard of,” says Douglas Alger, IT architect for physical infrastructure at
Cisco (www.cisco.com) and author of “Build the Best Data Center Facility for Your
Business."

Moreover, shrinking servers result in more equipment packed into cabinets, in turn boosting
power and cooling demands, overwhelming an older data center's cable management
system, and even testing the weight-bearing limit of floors, Alger says. Add to that the
overall less-efficient designs of older data centers, which often lack hot and cold aisles and
other cooling and power optimization features, and you quickly have IT teams scrambling for
solutions.

Stay On Schedule

Most data centers are well aware of the aging environments around them, but targeting
potential age-related problems while dealing with day-to-day business requirements can be
difficult. Matt Kightlinger, director of solutions marketing for the Liebert Products business of
Emerson Network Power (www.liebert.com), notes that data center managers have a
tendency to be a little slower in making infrastructure investments, but that practice can
prove costly.

“A regular equipment refreshment schedule is important. If [data centers] spread out the
expense over time, they can keep their IT systems relatively current. I would also suggest
keeping the big picture in mind. For example, considering a room-level UPS may mean a
larger initial investment, but it would be scalable and more cost-effective in the long run,”
Kightlinger says.

When introducing hardware, Alger suggests choosing energy-efficient systems and
virtualized servers, because IT organizations can painlessly implement them. “There's no
downtime—you just introduce them as part of your company's normal hardware refresh
cycle. You lighten the load on your older data center's electrical infrastructure and its cooling
systems, and—in the case of virtualization—you can even reduce your cabling density,”
Alger says.

Not all attempts at keeping a data center current necessarily require equipment purchases.
Because two of the critical issues tied to aging are power and cooling, it's possible to take
simple steps that can prevent problems. For example, Alger recommends boosting
efficiency by sealing gaps where air can leak out of the data center plenum (typically via
floor tile cutouts where patch cords and other power cords pass through), installing blanking
panels, and neatly routing patchcords so that hardware isn't obstructed.

Special Needs

Data centers in every industry inevitably face the trials of aging, but some are more sensitive
to the effects than others. For example, Alger points to organizations in the education and
government arenas, which don't have the profit-driven business model of other
organizations and can't justify infrastructure upgrades to their data centers based upon the
promise of more customer revenue. Joshua Aaron, founder of Business Technology
Partners (www.btp.net), says that some market verticals, such as financial services and
health care, are nonetheless consistently under the gun to keep their infrastructures up-todate.

"[They] have more rapidly advancing needs in storage and processing power and
tend to be faster adopters of new technologies to meet these needs," Aaron says.
“This means that their core data center infrastructure often has a shorter shelf life
between each new iteration than in some other industries, such as education and
government.”

Christoph Wilfert, general manager of SMB solutions for Microsoft, agrees, explaining that
“the extraordinarily high demands on the data center in today's healthcare environment can
limit IT managers' options as a result of 24/7 system availability requirements and privacy
standards. In education, IT managers face administrative peaks as the student populations
turns over,” he says.

Regardless of the industry, meeting aging-related problems head-on with best practices can
help to diminish their effects. Alger reminds us that all data centers need proper monitoring
and management, but legacy environments require extra attention to avoid overtaxing their
resources. After all, just because there is an available electrical outlet or cabinet space
doesn't mean there is adequate power and cooling to support more hardware. “Assuming
there is can lead to a tripped electrical circuit or a hot spot that is detrimental to hardware
over time,” he says.

by Christian Perry

Key Points

• As servers continue to shrink,
  demands for power and
  cooling expand, in turn placing
  an increasing burden on older
  infrastructure designed to
  handle less-demanding
  servers.
• Adopting a regular equipment
  refresh schedule can help to
  keep data centers current and
  spread the costs required for
  that new equipment over
  longer periods.
• Data centers in certain
  segments, such as education,
  can find it more difficult to
  justify upgrades, but good
  practices go a long way toward
  boosting the overall
  effectiveness and efficiency of
  legacy infrastructures.