edward van leent - epi - benchmarking data centers · • eu-coc (european code of conduct) ......

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BICSI Conference


Benchmarking Data Centers

&

Data Center Personnel

Presented by:

Edward van Leent

Chairman & CEO


The Data Centre Market Outlook

• A new report by Tier1 Research finds that the global multi-

tenant datacenter market has shown remarkable growth in

the past 12 months. Demand is up 14% on a global basis,

while supply is up only 6%, exacerbating an already lopsided

supply/demand curve.

• Frost and Sullivan; Data centre hosting services are a huge,

growing business - one that has remained largely insulated

from the recession. In 2009, the data center services

market’s size in the region was about $8 billion, growing at a

rate of about 12.8 percent year-over-year. Wu expects the

market to grow by 14.7 percent in 2010 and by 16.4 percent

in 2011


The Complexity of Data Centers


The Mission Critical Site and $$$$

• The Mission Critical Site is the foundation of every IT-

Infrastructure and therefore business

• Failing to address this could lead to serious losses


Benchmarking; The Definition

Benchmark: A standard of excellence or

achievement, against which

similar things must be

measured or assessed


Data center Standards

• The Bad News……

– The Bad News is Really Bad….

There is NO world-wide accredited/official Data Center standard



• Data Center related standards could be separated in two categories

• Availability related

• ‘Green’ related


High-Availability / Green ?


Data Center Standards

• The Good News� Best practices / “semi-standards”

• Uptime Institute guidelines

• ANSI/TIA-942 (Telecom infrastructure for data centers)

• BICSI-002 (Data Center Design and Implementation Best Practices

• SS507 (BC/DR for Service Providers)

• ISO/IEC-24762 (International guideline for BC/DR)

• Vendor Specific (SUN, IBM, HP, APC and others)

�Other organizations are working on potential new standards such as energy efficiency for data

centers etc.



Uptime TIA

942

BICSI

002

SS

507

ISO

24762

Origin USA USA USA SIN INT’

Official Standard No Yes No Yes Yes

Ownership Private Public Public Public Public

Specs Publicly Available

No Yes Yes Yes Yes

Type of Compliance

Tier Tier Class Pass/

Fail

Pass/

Fail

Main coverage Power

Cooling

Other

considerations

in “Operational

Sustainability”

Power

Cooling

Architectural

Telecoms

Power

Cooling

Architectural

Telecom

Power

Cooling

Architectural

Telecom

Process

Power

Cooling

Architectural

Telecom

Process

Availability Standards


Availability Standards

Uptime TIA

942

BICSI

002

SS

507

ISO

24762

Scope of Audit Design

(Onsite is

optional)

Design &

Onsite

Design &

Onsite

Design &

Onsite

Design &

Onsite

Availability of

Auditors

USA Regional Unknown Regional Regional

Adoption Mainly

USA

Worldwide Worldwide Mainly SIN Worldwide

Audited Sites Limited Many unknown Limited Limited


Green Standards

SS564LEED

EU-COC

BREEAM

EPA

Green Grid

DCEEF

GDCA



Green Standards

• LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)• Building related standard

• Data center standard still work in progress

• BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method)• Aimed at Data Centers

• SS564• Data center Environmental Management Framework

• EU-COC (European Code Of Conduct)• Best Practices based

• Aimed at Data Centers



Issues around data center standards

• Many data centers make ‘Tier’ or ‘Green’

compliance claims but little can be substantiated

as they are often self proclaimed…

• Tier levels go beyond Power and Cooling

– Architecture

– Power

– Mechanical/Cooling

– Telecommunication

• PUE declarations based on non-standard

measurements


Are suppliers objective?

• Suppliers tend to tell you what is best for them…


Audits can be more than what is

expected• Extensive and rigorous process to assess

compliance to the requirements of the

standard

• Example for ANSI/TIA-942

– Over 2,600 criteria will be assessed

• Architectural

• Electrical

• Mechanical

– Security

– Safety

• Telecommunication


The output


Benchmarking data centers…

• A simple guidance;

– Ask for the certificate

• Which standard is benchmarked against

– Ask for the detailed audit report

• And don’t forget…. Validate the auditor….


What do these jobs have in common ?

They need to be:

Certified Professionals


Certification required??

• What certification do

you ask him for when

you let him run your

mission critical data

center ???


A typical data center operations

• Most data center personnel are IT trained

• More and more they are supposed to handle

Power, Cooling etc. for which they have never

been trained

• Information is often obtained from the

internet which is 99%.......Vendors

• Hiring people can be a challenge without

certifications


The issues in today's industry…

• No official certification did exist for key

critical business functions such as:

– Data center managers

– IT-Managers/directors

• Various Data Center Training suppliers have

come to the market

• How to benchmark the provider


Benchmarking Training Providers

• Which accreditation do they carry?

• Be aware….

– Some are merely listings, NOT accreditation

– Some accreditation companies have no focus on

ICT, Organizational Resilience or Data Centers

– Some don’t truly evaluate material and/or the

trainers…

– Who does the marking, exam development etc.


Benchmarking Training Providers

• What is the background of the Company

– Data Center design/build

– Network Infrastructure

– System Integrator

• What is the focus of the Company?

– Any type training or focused on the subject

• Who they work with?


Training should based on international

standards

• The foundation should be based on various international norms such as

– ISO/IEC

– UN

– UL

– ANSI/TIA

• Contains elements from standards such as SS507, TIA-942, TIA-606, NFPA75, 2001, ISO/IEC-20000, ITIL, IEC-61000, ISO24762, BICSI-002 and many others

• Enhanced with best practices and experience of veterans in the industry


Benchmark the Trainer

• Has he/she designed/built/managed data

centers before

– Which part/aspects

– How many years

– What kind…. (size, complexity etc.)

• Is he/she involved in any standards

• How is he/she keeping up-to-date


Summary

• Data Centers, both primary and backup site play a critical role in the ability of business to run and to survive

• Proper standards, where applicable, need to be applied in order to build and run a resilient site and benchmarking can only be done based on standards where applicable/available

• Mission critical sites should be audited and certified to guarantee hi-availability

• Only certified professionals should deal with the complexity of setting up and running mission critical data centers and IT-departments

• Benchmark your training provider

Questions and Answers

Thank you!!

Questions?

www.epi-ap.com

[email protected]

edward van leent - epi - benchmarking data centers · • eu-coc (european code of conduct) ......

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