CSE Pure Power - Fall 2008 - (Page 27)

to our day-to-day lives and national defense as power plants, nuclear reactors, and drinking water. What makes understanding the role of data centers even more complex is their unique relationship with the movement, storage, and protection of information. One way this peculiar understanding of data centers gets manifested is in the way they are procured, particularly in the public sector. The complications arise because of the relationship that exists at the crossroads of their two most interested constituencies—information technology (IT) and facilities. In most government agencies they are the major recipients and, therefore, the major competitors for precious capital funding. The battleground where these two often have competing interests is in the data center. Is the data center a building or facility, as the design and construction people will argue? Or is it part and parcel to the great IT continuum, as the CIO and the IT director see it? In reality, it is neither and both, and has been one of the major contributing factors to the way data centers are developed in the government arena. At one end of the spectrum, are the typical design-bid-build and design-build projects. From a facilities perspective, these are fairly straightforward. Where they suffer is in development time from programming to design, and from construction through commissioning, and ultimately migration of IT assets. In the government sector, this process can often take 3 to 8 years or longer, depending on the procurement methodology, funding, and approval stream. Understanding that today’s data centers go through technology refreshes at a pace of every 18 to 24 months, one could be three to ﬁve cycles away from the then-current logic on data center design from the time a project is conceived to the time it is actually operational. Designed integration. Reliable uptime Correct power sizing System communication Environmental compliance Effective space utilization Your clients demand reliable power systems to meet their unique needs. You demand a resource that can make your integrated system design a reality. Caterpillar is that resource. FAST-CHANGING STANDARDS Today’s data centers typically employ at least 36 in. of raised ﬂoor, overhead cable management, and even such revitalized ideas as water-cooled IT racks (thought to be blasphemy just a few years ago). However, should one have employed one of these more traditional government procurement processes, they might ﬁnd a newly completed data center today with just 12 in. of raised ﬂoor for the now rarely employed under-ﬂoor cabling) and an energy plant sized to accommodate 75 W/sq ft. As with other forms of computer technology, almost 75% of data centers that are now only 10 years old are projected to be replaced entirely. But how do government agencies deal with brand new data centers that are almost or already obsolete? A second dynamic in the government data center development cycle, particularly in these more traditional project delivery systems, is the separation between “shell and core” and “ﬁt-up.” Not an uncommon concept to those familiar with speculative ofﬁce buildings or retail development, this methodology leaves the expertise on each side of the equation with its corresponding department. The building “shell and core” gets designed and built under the direction of the facilities staff, using architects, engineers, and contractors. The IT space then gets “ﬁt-up” by large-scale IT consultants like technology companies, systems integrators, or defense contractors. Often when the second group gets on-site, they realize how under-provisioned the facility is because it was really designed for a technology three generations removed from the present. These IT consultants must now embark on retroﬁtting the facility to its current requirement, and the government agency has to tap both sides of its precious capital outlay—facilities and IT—to overlap services, extend the process, and ﬁnally get into a working data center. To avoid this redundancy in services, and to reduce the time from conception to reality, many are now turning to more streamlined public-private ventures. This is particularly true in cases where capital funding doesn’t ﬂow in a timely manner and ideas like a long-term lease, collocation, or even full-on hosting or For more information or to download our Power Systems Design Checklist, go to http://go.cateps.com/93b ©2008 Caterpillar Inc. All Rights Reserved CAT, CATERPILLAR, their respective logos, “Caterpillar Yellow” and the POWER EDGE trade dress, as well as corporate and product identity used herein, are trademarks of Caterpillar and may not be used without permission. For more info, enter #412 on the Reader Service Card http://go.cateps.com/93b http://go.cateps.com/93b

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CSE Pure Power - Fall 2008 In the News Commissioning CHP Enhancing Emergency Lighting Data Centers for Uncle Sam Handling a Nuisance Trip Sustainable Projects and Partnerships New Products Ad Index

CSE Pure Power - Fall 2008

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