For most organizations, the data center represents the heart of their technology infrastructure. And just like the hearts of the staffers working there, the data center requires a certain amount of exercise to keep it strong, healthy and performing at peak condition. To help IT professionals improve the performance of today’s data center in their organizations, Logicalis, an international IT solutions and managed services provider, has developed a checklist of the “Fast Five Ways to a High-Efficiency Data Center” along with a microsite devoted to discussing the best practices and technologies involved.
According to Gartner analysts Rakesh Kumar and Lydia Leong, “Demand for business agility is pushing organizations toward data center solutions that have greater flexibility, enabling them to expand or contract their data centers according to business needs.”
“We recommend that IT leaders focus on specific improvements they can make within their existing data centers that can yield the greatest technological impact in their organizations,” says Bob Mobach, practice director, data centers, for Logicalis.
Click through for five ways you can create a high-efficiency data center, as identified by Logicalis.
Straggler hardware, legacy apps and their antiquated operating systems exist in astonishing numbers within every organization. Almost every data center that’s five to 10 years old deals with systems that waste energy and cost many times more to operate than they may be worth. Creating sun-setting technology roadmaps for removing, replacing or upgrading these apps and hardware is the key.
For many organizations, the corporate network is supporting other things than the data center. Storage area network (SAN) and local area network (LAN) resources are separate and disparate. IT professionals must review their network design in the data center with experts able to ensure it is built to run in a modern data center operating model. This should include support for wide area network (WAN), network attached storage (NAS) as well as LAN and SAN resources. And it must include the proper redundancy to support a 24/7 data center operation. Rationalization can also mean an in-depth review of data center distribution models and creating zones following new industry standards to optimize cabling and networking efficiency.
IT professionals should ask whether their data center is running at optimum performance and energy efficiency. They should consider advanced passive containment options for airflow, cabling and cooling that will streamline efficiency, maximize usage of current capacity and better manage the data center environment. Uninterruptable power supply (UPS) efficiency, passive cooling containment and various free cooling options should all be considered.
Leveraging cloud-based technologies to offset cost and create more agile business-oriented IT delivery models should be on the top of every IT manager’s interest list.
Mundane tasks are part of many IT administrators’ everyday lives. Many times these tasks include things like backup management, LAN and WAN management or operating system (OS) level management. Many of these manual operations take valuable time from the IT department that could be invested in focusing on core objectives and client business delivery. Automated toolsets and remote, industrialized and repeatable management options can drastically improve efficiency in the data center and help reduce operational expense.
