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Managing the Evolving Data Center
eBook: Times are changing for IT professionals tasked with managing the datacenter. Issues of physical space, virtual space, and power and cooling have taken on importance as the amount of electronic data continues to grow and applications become more powerful. New tools like blade servers, dual and quad-core processors, and virtualization software are available to help. Down this eBook to see how your datacenter can keep up.  
May 6, 2008  
There's no denying that data centers have changed in the past few years. There's been the addition of dualcore and quad-core processors, and new generations of blades and racks. ISmanagers, however, are immersed in the havoc the latest wave of high-density servers are wreaking on an already struggling infrastructure.

Michael May, data center lead associate for the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (ISO) of Carmel, Ind., has witnessed an ever-increasing need to add more servers to satisfy business needs. He manages three facilities encompassing around 10,000 square feet occupied mainly with Windows servers from HP and Sun.

"The added servers are going into the existing spaces, and incoming blades are causing major power and cooling concerns about being able to continue supporting the needs of the business," says May.

To cope, Midwest ISO has had to add six room power distribution units (PDUs) and four cooling units, replaced a UPS system, and remediated/relocated more than 20 racks - all in the past two years. Fortunately, the company managed to accomplish all that while maintaining normal operations (365/24), and in most cases without any outages on existing equipment.

Despite that, May is worried about the possibility that something will get shut down inadvertently. That has been averted, to date, because of dead-on documentation and attention to detail.

"The plus for the business is that it can collect data faster and more accurately with the additional servers," says May. "But eventually, we will run out of the big three - space, power, and cooling."

Download the full eBook.

   
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