FOCUS DCD IN SAN FRANCISCO
Issue 5, Aug/Sep 2009
BRIDGING THE SCHISM BETWEEN IT AND FACILITIES
DatacenterDynamics San Francisco 2009 heard a panel debate on the disconnect that exists between the operations of a data center and how IT and facilities must work together for the future of the industry
Moderator: James Staten Principal analyst – Forrester Research
Panelists:
Tom Furlong Director of site operations – Facebook
Mike Manos Senior vice president of technical services – Digital Realty Trust
Jon Haas Director – The Green Grid, Eco-Technologies; Initiative manager – Intel Corporation
William Mazzetti P.E Vice president of engineering & chief engineer – Rosendin Electric
The panel debate in the main hall was packed, with standing room only.
James Staten introduced the debate by questioning whether or not building a single- tier classification data center for multiple-tier applications made sense in today’s world. He also asked why sub-floor space in raised-floor environments so often ended up being used as extra storage space – for everything from cables to beer.
Tom Furlong said he needed to be more efficient at Facebook but that he also had the advantage of working for one large application, which was under the control of his company, giving him “the luxury to work with a custom-built data center”. Of those who are working with diverse applications from different vendors, Furlong said: “Whether the current vendor pool can customise their offerings to your business needs remains to be seen. You have to look at the facility, IT and the application.”
Mike Manos was invited by Staten to discuss what was happening at Microsoft, but declined the offer because he no longer works there. Instead he focused on design and the current needs of the industry. “The application layer plays a pretty big part in the design of your facility. If you really looked at your data center and took an inventory, some applications need lots of redundancy, and some are for testing and probably don’t even belong there. Obviously, most people don’t
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have the luxury of working with a single application, and when you look at the challenges of that space and its different needs, it puts some interesting constraints on whether you build or buy. How many people actually know what is going on in their data center? Take an inventory of your applications and find out what the needs actually are.”
Bill Mazzetti pointed out the disconnect that exists between the stakeholders in the data center. “From a construction perspective, the data center is a facility that scales over time. There is a disconnect between the stakeholders. As an engineer, the idea of availability is assuming ‘I need to stay at this level, whether it be an ATM or a facebook’. Mazzetti pointed out that facilities are accustomed to delivering 2N systems so understands redundancy, but questioned what was happening on the other side of the rack: “Why not make the IT process more effective, have less things plugged in, sweat the assets and drive it all at optimal efficiency?”
Jon Hass noted that Intel is putting in more and more instrumentation. “We want to look at the objectives from a facility and IT standpoint, which allows us to look at real energy use. Data center power is becoming a competitive issue. Intel does its thing and drives up energy efficiency per watt. “We are working in the Green Grid for best practice in the data center design working group and are looking at everything from the hardware to facilities to the applications layer. It is a long journey and the data center needs the kind of metric that informs us of how we are really using our IT.”
Mazzetti said: “There is no right or wrong answer to scale. If you overbuild you can trap a lot of capital. When matching the modularity of the build to the use, people tend to be a little plant-focused. They focus on plant-based equipment and find that over time application needs grow. Don’t look at what is coming in, but look at what is happening to it once it arrives.”
Manos said: “Most people in IT and facilities have no idea what planning is. The day most enterprises realise they need more capacity is near, or actually on, the day they run out of capacity. Integration of IT and facilities and understanding what planning looks like is key to the future of our industry. The burden moves to the software industry and the software industry is relatively ignorant of the data center. Why aren’t we putting more pressure on the software industry. I’m putting $50m into a facility so that I can run a $1m piece of software.”
Furlong said: “Applications can sometimes hem in general enterprises. For people who operate at the facilities level it is about monitoring the power consumption, and for those working at corporate level it is about educating them on what kind of things they need to tell you. Get through the basics and eventually you will teach them what is happening.”
Finally each panelist offered some advice on one simple action to drive efficiency:
Jon Haas: Sub meter. Mike Manos: Plug the holes in your floor.
Bill Mazzetti: Airflow analysis – and take a look at electrical and mechanical load.
Tim Furlong: Cooling – wholesale electrical changes are expensive – do the basic things.
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