Notes from the Consultant’s Jungle

The Tier Model for Mission Critical Facilities, created and governed by The Uptime Institute, is the most pervasively referenced data center tier model.  It is, however, not the only tier model for data center facilities, though it enjoys the majority of mind-share in this regard.  We have written about The Uptime Institute’s data center tier model rather extensively in this forum.

The four-tier model from The Uptime Institute was developed through thoughtful analysis and extensive empirical data from facilities of member organizations.  One of the reasons that enterprises have gravitated to this model is that it gives guidance as to what level of availability is necessary for certain business models and business characteristics.  While this is helpful, the level of abstraction of this framework of guidance is high.  A coarse application of guidance can lead to inaccuracy of planning.  In the case of data center projects, this exposes the possibility of over building or at least spending that is not accurately targeted.  For example, a coarse application of these guidelines could cause planning for a facility designed for one segment of the business’ applications at the expense of all the other enterprise applications.

Interesting also is the fact that while a facility may be uncertified or even non-certifiable to a particular tier level, its true availability performance often outperforms even higher tier ratings (especially in the case of quality providers).  The Uptime Institute model has sometimes drawn criticism because it excludes factors contributing to operational excellence, as well as risk management factors that vary significantly based on geographic location alone (as well as other things).  The Uptime Institute is working on modifications to its guidance for precisely these reasons, and we look forward to those developments.

In the mean time,we now have the new BICSI-002 standard released (finally) in June 2010.  The newly released standard is “BICSI-002-2010, Data Center Design and Implementation Best Practices.”  This document is long awaited by the industry, and will likely be adopted as an ANSI standard as well.  The document contains advice relevant to IT telecommunications management, security management, operations management, facilities, A&E, and Construction.

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Across the world there are new opportunities for data center and IT consulting companies to capitalize on the consolidation projects being launched in the Government sector.  Like commercial enterprises, governments focusing on governance (no pun intended) of IT see the benefits of consolidation of the data processing footprint.  Also like commercial enterprises, governments have business silos (perhaps even more so than commercial enterprises), with duplication of functions and roles, overlapping systems and technology, as well as lots and lots of waste.  Consolidation portends cost savings through elimination of non-beneficial redundancies, and better application of good governance processes to the holistic IT environment.

In the government sector, these projects are big.  Really big.  In this second of the series, we’ll focus on the UK government’s data center consolidation activities.

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In my IS Security class at the university, I was recently moderating a discussion thread where my students posted their opinions on Internet content filtering. The question was a simple one, “Some schools and libraries use Internet content filters to prohibit users from accessing undesirable Web sites. These filters are designed to protect individuals, yet some claim it is a violation of their freedom. What are your opinions about Internet content filters? Do they provide protection for users or are they a hindrance?”

The class is composed of a collection of Generation X and a few Boomers.  The opinions collected were very consistent and surprising, at least, to me. [Read more →]

One hundred and twenty one years ago, on June 3rd, 1889, the world experienced its first long distance transmission of electrical power.

The picture shown here is of the hydro electric generating station at Willamette Falls near Portland Oregon.  This plant delivered power to 55 street lights over 14 miles away, in Portland, and heralded a new era of technology and innovation.

Elsewhere in this blog, we’ve written about “The War of the Currents,” in which the battle between DC and AC power distribution was fought by Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse.  The Willamette Falls plant generated DC power, which very soon capitulated to the advantages of AC power transmission, which is done at a much higher efficiency.

The use of hydro energy to generate electricity was a welcomed development over the coal-fired steam plants that were emerging in the eastern part of the country at this time.  Over the ensuing century, hydro plants would become larger and larger, transmitting electrical power further and further.  Today, hydro power plants are an important contributor to the electrical capacity of nations all over the globe.

Across the world there are new opportunities for data center and IT consulting companies to capitalize on the consolidation projects being launched in the Government sector.  Like commercial enterprises, governments focusing on governance (no pun intended) of IT see the benefits of consolidation of the data processing footprint.  Also like commercial enterprises, governments have business silos (perhaps even more so than commercial enterprises), with duplication of functions and roles, overlapping systems and technology, as well as lots and lots of waste.  Consolidation portends cost savings through elimination of non-beneficial redundancies, and better application of good governance processes to the holistic IT environment.

In the government sector, these projects are big.  Really big.  In a series of posts, we’ll cover several countries around the globe in which the government is planning large scale data center consolidations.

Part 1:  United States of America

In the United States (my home country), the federal government has embarked upon a six-month planning cycle to address data center sprawl.  Federal CIO, Vivek Kundra, instructed federal agency CIO’s to embark on a broad consolidation initiative to bring control to the government’s data center sprawl (now counting over 1,000 data centers).  Goals of the initiative include: [Read more →]

Bob Landstrom, CGEIT, CISSP, CDCDP

The Tier Model for Mission Critical Facilities, created and governed by The Uptime Institute (TUI), is the most pervasively referenced data center tier model.  It is not the only multi-level model describing the quality of data center facilities, but it by far enjoys the majority of mindshare in this regard.

The four-tier model from The Uptime Institute was developed through thoughtful analysis and extensive empirical data from facilities of member organizations.  Quality control over interpretation and accreditation of tier ratings to facilities is closely guarded by TUI.   Awarding a tier level to a facility can only be done through designated professional services suppliers sanctioned by TUI.  Self proclaimed use of a tier rating by any company without TUI involvement exposes the firm to legal action by TUI.  Even so, misuse and misappropriation by enterprises world-wide is prolific. [Read more →]

Confusion Persists

Through several posts on this blog, we discussed the many aspects of confusion around the term, “Cloud Computing.”  After attending this year’s Cloud Expo in New York City and seeing the same three-layer stack (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) slide in fifty half of the presentations, I have to conclude that confusion still exists in the minds of the IT community trying to come to terms with the ongoing commotion over “Cloud.”  In this writer’s humble opinion, there is very little new food for thought that’s emerged from the Cloud conversation over the past year.*   The proliferation of genuine commercially available cloud services, and the proliferation of conferences and articles on cloud computing seemingly have not improved the understanding of those who are confused about what is and what isn’t cloud computing.   In this article, we will touch upon those old misunderstandings and some of the new ones. [Read more →]

We’ve just wrapped up day-one of this year’s Cloud Expo at the Javits Convention Center in New York City.  You know, it’s been nearly a year since I attended Cloud World in San Francisco, and over that period of time it surprises me how little new anyone is saying about cloud computing.  It borders on raining sophistry here at the cloud show, and definitions (and redefinitions) of IaaS, Paas, and SaaS are still being drilled into attendee’s heads.  Maybe the abundance of attendance is to be attributed to the possibility that the IT community is still sorting out architectural rationalization of cloud computing, but in my humble opinion it’s high time to move on to meatier food for thought.

It is notable to observe the number of businesses emerging to capitalize on the nuts and bolts issues that arise when an enterprise takes those first steps into a formal cloud computing scenario.  In that regard, one of the few “wow, now that’s cool” moments for me in the conference so far was an introduction to a company called Perspecsys. [Read more →]

We’ve talked about wind power for data centers and mission critical facilities, and often the subject of solar power comes up in those same conversations.  Dedicated commercial solar installations generating more than a megawatt are rare, and as such have very limited contribution as an energy alternative for data centers.  There is growing interest though, in the implementation of solar generating capacity for a slightly different reason. [Read more →]

TelX hosted a financial services roundtable event at their Financial Business Exchange (FBX) data center in Clifton, New Jersey. The panel of industry experts (and TelX customers) was moderated by the TABB Group’s Kevin McPartland, and introduced by TelX CEO Eric Shepcaro.

Mr. Shepcaro introduced the event by giving his own personal background about why we find ourselves hosting and attending an event like this. In other words, what is it that has created this focus on the financial services vertical by so many data center providers with property in locations such as New York City, Chicago, Toronto, and London? One issue clearly is the drive toward automation (of trading and other financial transactions). Electronic automation that is commonplace today was not thought of as recently as ten years ago, even as consumer-focused online trading services were emerging. Changes in technology are also driving this interest. Technology changes at the network level, server level, and even at the silicon level are impacting what is happening within this vertical and within the data center itself. Changes from the regulatory perspective are also in play, and of course the rebounding of the global economy is fueling momentum in the financial services vertical. [Read more →]