With new hardware constructs such as blade computing combined with virtualisation driving greater densities in datacentres and stressing capabilities for the provision of power and cooling in existing facilities, there has been a lot of discussion around the building of new datacentres. This is all well and good during the good times, when such investment can be justified on the basis of the support it could provide to the business in gaining extra revenue.
Now, however, the business discussions are far more around maintaining revenues—or, in many cases, minimising any decline in revenues. For many, this strangles any discussions around the building of a new datacentre before the idea can get off the ground, and the thought of heavily modifying existing facilities is often seen to be a non-starter.
But, retrofitting existing facilities does remain a viable option. Savings through rationalisation of existing application images, consolidating these down to a minimum number of active images, and basing them on a virtualised platform based around a blade construct still makes economic sense in many cases—provided that the existing datacentre can be modified accordingly.
To do this, suitable modelling tools will be required. Two major vendors in the market have been Aperture with Vista, and Global Data Center Management (GDCM) with nlyte. Aperture has been acquired by Emerson Network Power, a major provider of primary and backup power solutions to datacentres.
Although Aperture continues to operate as a separate division, it is apparent that Emerson will want to use Vista as a major tool to open up routes for it to bring in its power solutions to enterprises.
Meanwhile, GDCM has been building up a base of users, and has reacted rapidly to the feedback it has received from them as to where improvements are required in its software. The latest version of nlyte (v5.0) has just been released, and it provides functionality that makes it easier for users to model their datacentres and to play the "what ifs?" that are required when looking at making major and minor changes in such mission critical environments.
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14th November 2008: 'Alex Rabbetts, Managing Director, Migration Soluti' said:
The economic downturn is certainly having an effect on data centres, but the severity of this will depend on how well-maintained the existing data centres are and whether they have signed up to power inclusive contracts.
As has been widely reported, utility prices – particularly electricity – are going up. Many data centres fixed the prices with the customers that they host many years ago ... and they included electricity! In other words, some data centres will have to absorb these massive increases. They probably won’t survive. Inevitably margins will be tighter and this means that they won’t have the money to spend on that much needed maintenance that many are desperate for today. Without the maintenance, they’ll have more unplanned outages and with more unplanned outages, more customers will move away to more reliable facilities. It is a spiral of descent that no business wants to get onto.
So, the credit crunch, is it good news or bad? Well, for good data centres that are well-maintained and can attract e-businesses, which will thrive during the downturn, it won’t have too great an effect. For poor data centres that are already badly in need of maintenance and those that have power inclusive contracts, the credit crunch is very bad news indeed.
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