Issue 2, February 2009
FOCUS NEWS TECHNOLOGY
MANAGEMENT
Norwegian company Cfengine upgraded its open source data center management engine after what it says were five years of research and development. Under the technical direction of its long-time author Mark Burgess, a professor of network and system administration at University College Oslo, the recently formed support company Cfengine released a major software upgrade based on its innovative Promise Theory technology. The company said: “Unlike would-be alternatives, cfengine is not about producing alarms and reports to notify about errors and misalignments in the data center: it is a fully self-repairing maintenance engine capable of fixing them without human intervention.
HARDWARE
DELL’S DOUBLE-DECKER MOVE INTO CONTAINERISED DATA CENTERS
Dell was already on the record as saying it had built to order and shipped a containerised data center for customers, and now the company has revealed a double-decker container that is expected to ship in March or April this year.
Dell will stack containers CONNECTIVITY
Telehouse Europe is extending its global interlink virtual LAN service, which offers transatlantic Ethernet connectivity, to all customers in its London, Paris and New York facilities.
Rackable Systems has shipped an enclosure for use as a fully contained data center for initial deployments, expansions and data recovery usage. “MobiRack is a self-contained, cabinet-level enclosure that combines servers, storage, networking, UPS and DC power distribution in one unit,” according to Mark Barrenechea, president and chief executive of Rackable Systems. “MobiRack truly frees users from the deployment limitations of fixed ‘bricks-and-mortar’ data centers, and is ideal for fast HPC deployment, a small office data center, mobile trade shows and events, and in disaster recovery and military environments.”
Telehouse will also serve as the full-scale point of contact for all data center and connectivity operational support. Global Interlink subscribers’ transatlantic VLAN connectivity will be managed with 24/7 network monitoring and service desk assistance. In the event that a customer requires attention, Telehouse’s on-site engineering team will be automatically alerted to provide technical support.
SOFTWARE
Raritan today introduced new reporting and analytics capabilities to its Power IQ energy management software to help IT and operations managers analyse issues ranging from IT energy costs to rack capacity to IT equipment health.
Power IQ provides a consolidated view of power information gathered from IT devices plugged into Dominion PX intelligent power distribution units (PDUs) and a wide range of other rack PDUs, including APC, ServerTech and Geist.
The supplier is shipping two containers on top of each other. Dell’s approach is to have one container housing the server, storage and networking
POWER BACK UP
Rittal has unveiled its ready-to-connect modular fuel cell for backup power.
RiCell is available in two different power classes, with the larger system supplying cascade power of 5, 10, 15 and 20kW.
As the needs of industry in regards to UPS reside not only in the realms of kWs, a smaller version of 300, 600, 900 and 1,200 watt output fuel cells will soon begin serial production.
The emergency power supply system is fully integrated into a Rittal Toptec CR climate- controlled enclosure and may be supplied with hydrogen directly at the place of installation. The oxygen required by the system is obtained from filtered ambient air.
The broader operational temperature range of the fuel cell stack, which varies between -33°C to +50°C, is far less sensitive compared with conventional battery-buffered back-up systems, offering a major advantage since batteries require a constant internal temperature. The fuel cell consumes 16% less hydrogen than previous models of the same output (from 75 to 63 standard litres per minute for the 5kW model). In standby mode the new RiCells require minimal power.
IT equipment, and the other holding the power and cooling facilities equipment.
Depending on configuration, prices will be around $500,000.
HP’s POD data center is expected to ship in Europe in April 2009.
FURTHER READING
See ‘Contain Your Excitement’. A detailed look at the containerised data center market at
www.datacenterdynamics.com
CAPACITY MANAGEMENT
Terremark Worldwide upgraded its Enterprise Cloud web application to include Dynamic Capacity Management, which allows users of the software to access computing capacity on demand.
Dynamic Capacity Management provides a flexible burst mode for Enterprise Cloud-based computing environments, allowing clients to access additional computing power as needed.
The feature, which can be enabled for processing and memory resources as required, addresses transient spikes in usage. “With the enhancements we are introducing, the Enterprise Cloud has taken the next step in offering increased control of IT environments to our customers,” said Randy Rowland, general manager of Managed Hosting Services for Terremark.
“The Enterprise Cloud’s combination of highly scalable, dedicated cloud-based resources with a real-time burst mode gives the enterprise a more agile and economic IT engine than ever before.”
www.datacenterdynamics.com 11
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56