In this series of Q&As with SearchDataCenter.com’s Steve Bigelow, Uptime Institute weighs in on the top issues facing data center owners and operators today. These interviews also preview next week’s Uptime Institute Symposium content.
Data center construction alternatives: New data center facilities are incredibly expensive to design, build, manage and maintain, but a new build isn’t necessarily the answer in every circumstance. While some organizations can certainly justify the investment in new facilities, there are many others that want options and alternatives that can give them the facilities they need to run their business without breaking the bank or taking years to deploy.
Efficient energy use and energy security in the data center: Efficient energy use has become a central issue in data center design and management. Energy costs are always increasing, and even the availability of power can be a gating issue for data center construction or facility expansion.
Follow us on Twitter @UptimeInstitute and the Symposium conversations at hashtag #uisymp11.
In this latest video from the Uptime Institute Symposium speaker series, we interview David Sonner of Emerson Network Power, one of the underwriters of this year’s event. The topic of this video is alternative power distribution voltages in the data center.
Follow us on Twitter @UptimeInstitute and the Symposium conversations at hashtag #uisymp11.
Uptime Institute and others have noted an emerging trend of large organizations — in industries that have historically operated their own portfolio of data centers — that are now considering for the first time an outsourced facility to serve as their enterprise/primary data center.
According to the Uptime Institute’s Inaugural Data Center Survey results, around half of the respondents will turn to third party data center providers (Colocation or Cloud) to deal with data center growth in the next 12-18 months. For more results from the survey, attend Uptime Institute Symposium.
Recent data from Digital Realty Trust points to a similar trend.
While there is a potential boon for the data center outsourcing industry, third party providers will be challenged to meet this new market demand from sophisticated organizations that have previously been in the data center business themselves. The majority of domestic outsourced facilities that we have reviewed against the Uptime Tier criteria have been Tier II, and organizations need to do due diligence.
This trend has led to an increased demand for Tier Certification from third party data center providers.
From a recent interview with Network World:
James Niccolai, Network World: Why do organizations want to be [Tier] Certified?
Julian Kudritzki: There are three main circumstances. The team that’s responsible for the data center and has been entrusted with this massive amount of money wants to be able to say, “We reached our project goal and here’s someone who had no vested interest affirming that for us.”
The second main reason is colo providers who are in a highly competitive environment where everyone is claiming a lot of things. They can say, here’s an unbiased third party that says we’re capable of high availability. It can also shorten their contract cycles because they don’t have to redo the due diligence exercise each time, it’s been done in the form of our certification.
The third main reason is folks compelling their third-party providers to get certified. We’re seeing more and more of that, and quite a significant uptick in the last 18 to 24 months.
NW: Why do you think that is?
JK: As more and more critical computing goes to third parties, there’s more and more at risk, and there’s more need for an affirmation.
NW: So the tier system becomes more important for businesses as they put more workloads in third-party facilities?
JK: Agreed.
For more info on this topic, register now for Uptime Institute Symposium, and follow along at Twitter with hashtag #uisymp11.
In this video, Uptime Institute Symposium speaker Mark Ascolese, CEO of Power Analytics, defines the terms Micro-Grid and Smart-Grid and discusses how these technologies relate to the data center.
Ascolese also discusses his presentation at Symposium: Your Corporate Power Grid in 2016. Mark Ascolese, Byron Washom, and Kfir Godrich provide a sneak preview of what the future holds for your data center power requirements…including looking into the crystal ball at new technologies that will be ready for prime time in the coming months. The three executives will also provide a virtual tour of the intelligent, campus-wide “micro grid” pilot project at UC San Diego. Supported by the Department of Energy and California Energy Commission as a prototype private-public energy exchange, the system optimizes the microgrid’s power generation, quality, utilization and capacity in real-time; calculates market rate and pricing information; and the manages sale of excess power to the public utility. The result? A campus power grid that is 82% self-sustaining, and treats electric demand as a carbon-neutral, cost-recoverable asset.
Follow us on Twitter @UptimeInstitute and the Symposium conversations at hashtag #uisymp11.
In this latest video from the Uptime Institute Symposium Speaker Series, Panduit CTO Jack Tison discusses his upcoming presentation at Symposium with data center customer Cabela’s: Keeping your aim on the business.
When your business grows beyond your data center capabilities, change needs to occur. Cabela’s built a new data center to ensure redundancy, innovation, and to support their store growth. When your core business is selling hunting and sporting equipment, your remote locations have limited IT resources onsite. The ability to support dynamic changes in the stores can be challenging. Therefore combining software, hardware and intelligence, Cabela’s can focus on the customer’s experience in real time. Join us for an interactive discussion on how Cabela’s and Panduit took a unique approach to solving this business challenge.
To follow the discussion at Symposium on Twitter, see hashtag #uisymp11.
Uptime Institute is now regularly publishing online videos: profiling data center leaders, commenting on new tools and metrics and showcasing data center operational excellence in its Network membership. 
