D ATA CENTRES
The need for effective power management Power for a converged future By Tatu Valjakka, EMEA Software & Connectivity Product Manager, Eaton
Intro IT professionals will hardly need reminding of the rapidly growing popularity of converged and virtualised IT infrastructures, yet many may be unaware that the full benefits of these infrastructures will only be realised if careful attention is given to their power systems. Tatu Valjakka looks at
Tatu Valjakka looks at power management in a virtualised world…
the requirements for these systems and explains the perils associated with two common misconceptions…
Modular converged IT infrastructure
provides those who adopt it with proven pre-integrated building blocks for use in their data centres, which makes expanding or reconfiguring those data centres a fast, straightforward and relatively inexpensive task. Converged hardware infrastructure is
the perfect complement to virtualisation, with the combination of the two providing exceptional levels of flexibility,
economy and, if properly structured and managed, resilience. There are, however, two common
misconceptions about the best way to power converged hardware. The first is that, irrespective of the application, there is no reason to move away from traditional power system architecture. The second, which is rather more radical, is that power protection and power management are not particularly important with converged infrastructure. Let’s examine how these misconceptions have arisen, and why they are incorrect. To do this, we must consider
something that is a fundamental requirement for every data centre - resilience. Traditionally, resilience has been
seen as an issue that relates primarily to the hardware and operating system, and much time and money has been spent on making these as reliable as is realistically possible. The power train is configured to
support maximum hardware availability, and is usually built to a very high
specification with redundant UPS systems, redundant generator sets, a dual power bus and a generously sized Static Transfer Switch. Let’s be clear that this traditional
approach is perfectly valid and, for some users, especially those who must have guaranteed 24/7/365 availability and who cannot tolerate even short-term performance degradation, it remains the most satisfactory solution. With converged and virtualised
infrastructure, however, it is possible to implement resilience in layers other than the physical hardware layer. In many cases, this is an attractive option. There is a growing belief that if
the software layers of an IT system can handle hardware failures in the physical layer, power protection and power management become optional or even completely unnecessary. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Irrespective of where resilience is
achieved, power protection remains essential for many reasons. Properly implemented, it will, for example,
The virtual world in your hand 20 NETCOMMS europe Volume IV Issue 3 2014
www.netcommseurope.com
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