Notes from the Consultant’s Jungle

Many firms have gone looking for core/shell property with the intent of renovating these structures for use as a data center.  These projects are very capital intensive, and in many cases the benefits of having the existing structure are almost nil when viewed in the context of the broader project plan and budget.  However, many [...]

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I attended the 2009 IT Roadmap Conference in Atlanta,
Georgia this week and sat in on the presentation by
Johna Till Johnson of Nemertes Research, entitled
“Building a Resilient Dynamic Data Center.” The presentation
was a summary of hundreds of hours of discussions
with data center operators and enterprises with [...]

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The past two years have brought an explosion of activity in the area of data center facilities.  On the provider side, we can talk about services we expect from the Cloud.  The proliferation of XaaS, exponential growth of content for Web 2.0 services, and the interest in Cloud-based services by the Enterprise drives demand for [...]

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Earlier this year we talked about 2008 being a breakout year for container data centers.  We’ve also discussed new developments and new product introductions by the container vendors as well as a number of established and emerging use cases.  It would appear though that the launch of container sales has yet to get underway.  In [...]

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The data center consolidation and construction boom of the 21st century is well underway.  As we work with Clients, helping with planning, advice, and project management of these changes foundational to the future performance of their enterprise, we always encounter the discussion of facility Tier Level rating.
The Tier Level rating refers to an industry [...]

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So many discussions with prospective Clients begin with the subject of data center tier ratings.  Many companies are struggling with data center facilities that no longer adequately serve their Business, and are seeking a path toward better scalability, availability, security, and lower cost of ownership.
In the mid-market segment, while there are exceptions to the [...]

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In April we predicted that this would be the break-out year for container data centers.  In July we posted more information about container data centers when we were working MEP cost models for container-based facilities.  The year is half over now, and though the “break-out” has yet to happen there have been some very notable [...]

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In these times of economic stagnation, IT leaders’ attention turns to cost savings.  Indeed in times like these, the CFO is likely exerting strong authority and demanding budget concessions from departments across the enterprise.
Many companies are aggressively consolidating data centers as one way to address this demand.  There are a number of significant cost savings [...]

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For those of you who are regular visitors to this blog, this topic may seem rather basic.  However, I was recently asked to write an article on this subject and thought that if it’s good enough for that venue then perhaps someone will find benefit in reading here as well.  So here are some highlights [...]

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In earlier posts and conversations, I’ve mentioned my interest in container data centers and the opportunities they bring for certain types of implementations and use cases.  As a big fan of agility in IT in order to meet the dynamic demands of the Business, containers can be a valuable weapon in the arsenal.
In my conversations [...]

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