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Frost & Sullivan
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Not all data centres are equal – Understanding the globalbest practices of data centres that power the cloud
F R O S T & S U L L I V A N
TABLE OF CONTENTS
About this White Paper...................................................................................4
The Changing Data Centre Environment ........................................................4
Cloud Computing and its impact on Data Centres .........................................5
Challenges for Data Centres in Keeping up with Demand ..............................7
Not All Data Centres are Equal ......................................................................11
Data Centre Best Practices: A Global Perspective ..........................................12
Operational Best Practices .............................................................................12
Facility Best Practices .....................................................................................16
Choosing the Right Data Centre Provider ......................................................17
The Last Word .................................................................................................19
Not all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloudF R O S T & S U L L I V A N
ABOUT THIS WHITE PAPER
The amount of data centre space globally is increasing at a rapid rate, as data
centres are becoming increasingly essential to modern organisations and to their
ability to optimise their business operations. Across all types of organisations, data
loads are increasing significantly, due to factors such as heightened compliance
requirements, growth in digital media, proliferation of rich media such as online
video, and the growing adoption of virtualisation and cloud computing. However
these increased data loads are often creating significant challenges for data centre
managers in many organisations.
In order to meet this growing demand and increased complexity, the agility, capacity
and resiliency of data centres is increasing. The first decision any Chief Information
Officer (CIO) often needs to make is whether to "Build" or "Buy" data centre
capacity. There are advantages and disadvantages to both these approaches,
however the "build" scenario – i.e. developing the data centre capacity in house
(“captive data centres”) - has become very difficult - as a result of the difficulty in
sourcing suitable sites, unavailability of skilled staff and, not least, because of the
difficulty of realising economies of scale and high levels of energy efficiency in a
data centre dedicated to serving only a single organisation.
In this white paper we examine global best practices in data centre management,
the main factors that are driving a transformation in the data centre environment
and their impact on the “Build” versus “Buy” decision. We also offer
recommendations to IT decision makers on how to select the optimum hosting
provider if they decide to outsource data centre hosting to a 3rd party.
THE CHANGING DATA CENTRE ENVIRONMENT
Many organisations are adopting technologies such as virtualisation, blade servers
and flat network architectures to meet the rapid surge in data traffic, and this is
effectively transforming modern data centres. The illustration below (Figure 1)
shows the key business and technology factors that are driving this data centre
transformation. Among the various business and technology factors driving the
transformation, we believe that the development of virtualisation and the growing
significance of cloud based solutions are the most important.
www.frost.com4
Not all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud F R O S T & S U L L I V A N
Figure 1: Key Factors Driving Data Centre Transformation
Virtualisation and the emergence of the cloud computing model are the
factors having the greatest impact on the transformation of data centres
While virtualisation solves a number of IT challenges, it also creates numerous
problems for the underlying data centre infrastructure in areas such as power and
cooling systems. Although significant changes in IT equipment and technology such
as servers are occurring, the underlying infrastructure in most data centres is often
not keeping pace with these developments. In many cases, key components of the
data centre infrastructure, such as power and cooling systems, are still outdated,
requiring massive upgrades to match the new IT technology. For instance, blade
servers pack significantly more processing power in a server rack than traditional
non-blade servers, but also emit significantly more heat. As a result, blade servers
have much greater per rack power requirements (often beyond 20KW per rack)
and much higher cooling requirements. Many captive data centres currently run at
an average of 2-4 KW per rack and therefore need to upgrade their power
capabilities significantly to accommodate blade servers. The traditional room based
cooling is also ineffective in this scenario, with data centres needing to overhaul
their cooling systems in favour of row/rack oriented architectures. Another
challenge for captive data centres is getting access to reliable power supply with
predictable operating costs.
CLOUD COMPUTING AND ITS IMPACT ON DATA CENTRES
The IT industry is undergoing a paradigm shift in the way computing resources are
being procured and delivered. Cloud computing is emerging as a key area of focus
for CIOs and IT decision makers due to its ability to save costs, increase business
agility and deliver IT in an on-demand manner. The use of the cloud as an IT delivery
mechanism has increased significantly over the last 12 months, driven both by the
www.frost.com 5
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Not all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloudF R O S T & S U L L I V A N
benefits mentioned above and the growing need to minimise both the capital
expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX) associated with IT
services in many organisations.
Figure 2: Cloud Computing Usage in Australia
Cloud computing has a two-fold impact on data centre demand. Firstly it
significantly increases demand for data centre space as cloud matures as a
technology and as an increasing number of IT service providers start offering cloud
based services. In captive data centres, cloud computing will result in a massive
centralisation of infrastructure, creating the need for additional data centre space.
Secondly, cloud computing leads to improved server utilisation through the use of
virtualisation and greater consolidation of storage infrastructure, thereby resulting
in reduced demand for space in the long run (considering the spatial advantages
gained through virtualisation).
Over the past couple of years, interest in cloud computing has grown significantly
in Australia and cloud is increasingly being discussed in various CXO and CIO level
forums. Many organisations are evaluating the potential adoption of cloud
computing to improve business agility, increase standardisation of IT infrastructure
and lower the cost of delivering IT services. While Software as a Service (SaaS)
adoption has been steadily growing in the past decade, the adoption of
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) has seen a sharp
increase, particularly in the past 12 months. Organisations need to underpin the
investments in cloud computing with proper consideration of backup and disaster
recovery.
Among the factors that will serve as enablers for the delivery of cloud services,
virtualisation has the greatest impact since it provides a foundation for delivering
cloud solutions. Server virtualisation is the foundation for building clouds by
www.frost.com6
�
Source: Frost & Sullivan
Not all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud F R O S T & S U L L I V A N
seamlessly creating logical instances that can be provisioned on-demand. While
cloud computing is possible without server virtualisation, it would be an exercise in
futility.
CHALLENGES FOR DATA CENTRES IN KEEPING UP WITH DEMAND
According to a recent Frost & Sullivan survey conducted in the second quarter of
2011 with 100 IT decision makers in Australia, the following factors emerged as the
primary challenges in data centre operations
Figure 3: Top 5 challenges in data centre management
There are two main operating models for data centres. One is for an organisation
to build, operate and manage its own data centre for internal purposes, known as a
captive data centre. The other model is the outsourced model, whereby
organisations lease space and co-location services from data centre providers. In
the outsourced model a data centre provider provides the facility, as well as the
security, power and cooling needs with clients utilising the space to deploy their
servers.
Given the general trend for organisations to outsource non-core functions and
focus on their core competencies, many organisations are turning to managed
hosting providers or co-location providers to service their increased demand for
data centre capacity. A number of the challenges identified in the above chart could
be mitigated by outsourcing hosting of data centre infrastructure.
www.frost.com 7
�
Source: N=100; Survey conducted in Q2’2011; Frost & Sullivan
Figure 4: Outsourcing of data centre hosting
In response to increased demand for data centre space, there have been several
innovations in the way organisations manage their data centres, utilise their servers,
and deliver applications to their users. The following are some of the challenges
faced by current generation of data centres:
• Many large, hosted data centres in Australia are now running near full-capacity,
hence capacity expansion is a major focus area. In captive data centres, the
move towards virtualisation and cloud computing is resulting in greater
centralisation of infrastructure that in turn is driving the demand for more data
centre space.
• The rapid growth in data traffic has made it very difficult for captive data
centres to keep pace with the increased demand. This challenge is greater for
smaller data centres, which typically struggle with virtualisation due to old or
ageing cooling systems and a lack of necessary in-house IT skills and
• Much of the underlying data centre infrastructure (power, cooling and floor
plan) currently in use was designed for previous generations of servers, and is
usually inadequate to support future data demands and likely advancements in
technology.
The latest power and cooling technologies enable data centre operators to reduce
the overall data centre space requirement through better packing of efficient blade
servers and other high performance computing infrastructure. New data centres
with the latest power and cooling technologies will also attract more demand than
those with more dated power and cooling technologies. This is because data centres
with the latest power and cooling technologies are better able to provide facilities
for hosting blade servers. Therefore, an increased demand for blade servers will in
turn drive demand for advanced power and cooling technologies.
Not all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloudF R O S T & S U L L I V A N
www.frost.com8
�
Source: N=100; Survey conducted in Q2’2011; Frost & Sullivan
In the light of these challenges, organisations generally have two main options in
addressing their data centre requirements - to upgrade their existing data centre
facilities (the “Build” option) and/or to use a third party data centre provider (the
“Buy” option). The advantages and disadvantages of these options are summarised
below.
Figure 5 Advantages of Build and Buy Options
• Upgrade Existing Data Centres (“Build”)
For data centres faced with the limitation of older infrastructure, a complete
upgrade of floor spacing, power and cooling systems are necessary to meet
future demand.
Critical technology and equipment such as virtualisation and blade servers have
significantly higher power and cooling demands than older technology. As a
result, any data centre that is aiming to cater to future computing demands will
need to ensure it can support developments in hardware and software.
Advantages of this model include full control over the data centre as well as all
the factors impacting reliability and compliance.
• Outsource to a Third Party Provider (“Buy”)
While outsourcing data centre hosting responsibilities to a third party provides
clear advantages, only a small proportion of organisations in Australia have
currently adopted this model. Outsourcing is most prevalent among larger
enterprises, with mid-market organisations generally more reluctant to
outsource hosting functions. The main advantages of outsourcing hosting are
more predictable costs, greater scalability and better access to infrastructure
redundancies.
The main issues for maintaining data centre operations in-house include need for
control and privacy. These issues are expected to be significant over the short to
Not all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud F R O S T & S U L L I V A N
www.frost.com 9
Source: Frost & Sullivan
Not all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloudF R O S T & S U L L I V A N
medium term, with many organisations expected to adopt a hybrid model (for
outsourcing) before moving to full outsourcing. The hybrid model allows
organisations to keep sensitive components of hosting in-house whilst outsourcing
non-mission-critical functions. Going forward, improvements in data centre security
and advancements in software and hardware technologies will combine with long
term factors such as the availability of the National Broadband Network (NBN) will
accelerate the shift from a predominantly in-house to a predominantly outsourced
model for data centre hosting.
Data centre operations involve management of a data centre on a number of key
metrics. We summarise below how each metric is impacted by the build and buy
options for data centre hosting. We also indicate the degree to which each metric
is impacted by each option.
Figure 6: Comparison of Build and Buy Options for Data Centres
www.frost.com10
Metric Build (Self-owned) Buy ( 3rd party)
Capital expenditure (CAPEX) in real
estate and infrastructure
High
Subject to unforeseen upgrades and
maintenance fees.
Low
Upfront costs are low due to the
OPEX nature of the lease
agreements.
Time to Market Long
Construction time for Tier 3 and above
facilities may at least take 18 months.
Short
Possible to move in immediately
after the set-up time.
Scalability Low to Medium
Right sizing is often difficult. Many captive
data centres quickly run out of space. If the
facility is too big, cost/rack is higher.
High
Most often can scale linearly and if
the right provider is chosen,
capacity can be procured on an
“on-demand” basis.
Security Low to High
High if proper physical and logical controls
are in place.
High
Most best-in-class facilities are
ISO, SAS and Federal standards
certified.
Redundancy and Disaster recovery Low to Medium
Cost of redundancy is high due to the
dedicated nature.
High
High redundancy based on the tier
chosen with lower costs.
Energy efficiency Low to Medium
Newer facilities that are backed by an
organisational green credo are building
efficient facilities however the older data
centres struggle to achieve PUE’s below
1.5.
Medium to High
Since energy efficiency lowers their
operational costs and makes them
more attractive to customers, co-
location players have placed a high
emphasis on lower PUE and usage
of energy efficient equipment.
Manpower costs High
Often managed in-house, acquisition and
retention costs of skilled manpower can be
high.
Low
A wide spectrum of choices offering
flexibility to customers. Often,
allows businesses to outsource
mundane tasks at a lower cost.
Not all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud F R O S T & S U L L I V A N
1Source: Uptime
Institute
NOT ALL DATA CENTRES ARE EQUAL
With the rapid increase in third party hosting, it is important for customers to
understand that not all hosted data centres are equal. In fact there are significant
differences between hosted data centres in many aspects of data centre design and
operations.
Data centres can be classified into 4 tiers defined by the maximum hours of
downtime per year . This availability measure is itself the result of various aspects
of design and operations of the data centre.
Figure 7 Data centre Tiers
www.frost.com 11�
Metric/Tier Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 4
Availability
(Minimum) 99.671% 99.741% 99.982 % 99.995 %
Downtime
Maximum
permissible annual
downtime of 28.8
hours
Maximum
permissible
annual downtime
of 22.0 hours
Maximum
permissible annual
downtime of 1.6
hours
Maximum
permissible annual
downtime of 0.4
hours.
Redundancy
Single path for
power and cooling
distribution, no
redundant
components (N)
Single path for
power and
cooling
distribution,
includes
redundant
components
(N+1)
Multiple path for
power & cooling
distribution but
with only one
path active,
includes
redundant
components
(N+1)
Multiple path for
power & cooling
distribution but
with only one
path active,
includes
redundant
components
(2(N+1) i.e. 2
UPS each with
N+1
redundancy)
Infrastructure
May or may
not have a
raised floor
space, UPS,
or generator
Includes
raised floor
space, UPS,
or generator
Includes
raised floor
space, UPS,
or generator
Includes
raised floor
space, UPS,
or generator
Build Time
On average
built within
three months
from scratch
On average
built within 3-6
months from
scratch
On average
built within 15-
20 months
from scratch
On average
built within 18-
24 months
from scratch
Source: Frost & Sullivan
Key Points to Consider in Data Centre Selection
The greater availability of an external data centre, which creates greater uptime, is
the main reason for organisations to outsource hosting. Hosting providers typically
have much higher redundancy and security built in to their facilities than captive
data centres, with a singular focus on maximising uptime. Organisations with high
availability/uptime requirements should consider Tier 3 or Tier 4 providers to
realise the full benefits of outsourcing.
DATA CENTRE BEST PRACTICES: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
A number of metrics, codes and models have been developed recently which allow
data centre operators to measure their performance across a number of
parameters, and compare this with their peers. Some of the more important of
these are summarised below;
Operational Best Practices
Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)
To remain cost competitive and socially responsible, many organisations worldwide
have been striving to increase the efficiency, availability, and security of their data
centres whilst at the same time keeping the energy consumption low. PUE (Power
usage effectiveness) has emerged as an important metric for measuring energy
efficiency in a data centre, with most data centres striving to achieve a PUE close
to 1. Unless captive data centres can run at low PUE’s (at least below 1.5) and
achieve industry best practices on other key metrics, there is likely to be a strong
business case for outsourcing hosting.
Carbon Footprint Reduction
To support data centre operators in minimising power consumption, and hence the
carbon footprint of their data centre operations, a number of operational measures
are available. In designing and operating their data centres, operators need to
review and implement these measures where relevant, in order to ensure that both
the operational costs and environmental impact of their data centres are minimised.
The following chart outlines some of these measures that data centre operators
should consider in designing and operating their data centre:
Not all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloudF R O S T & S U L L I V A N
2PUE = Total
Facility Power / IT
Equipment Power
www.frost.com12
Figure 8: Potential Measures to Minimise Data Centre Power
Consumption and Ensuing Carbon Emissions
Australian data centres that rely entirely on the grid power are responsible for
significantly more carbon emissions than their counterparts in other developed
countries due to the nature of electricity generation in Australia. More than 75% of
electricity generated in Australia comes from coal, which amongst electricity
generation fuels emits the highest amount of carbon. Amongst the OECD countries,
Australia has the highest CO2 emissions per kWh of electricity generated. The
following table illustrates the CO2 emissions per kWh of electricity generated for
some of the leading nations in the world:
Figure 9: CO2 emissions per kWh from electricity and heat generation
(grams CO2/kWh)
F R O S T & S U L L I V A NNot all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud
www.frost.com 13
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Through onsite power generation using cleaner fuels (such as natural gas) or by
outsourcing data centre operations to a third party who either generates on site
using clean fuels or who sources power from renewable sources, data centre
owners can both reduce the carbon emissions from their data centre operations
and in many instances save money while doing so. This is because power costs in
Australia are increasing sharply and are likely to continue to do so, driven by the
significant investment in upgrades to transmission and distribution networks, as
well as other factors such as the legislative Renewable Energy Target and the
impending carbon tax. With grid-sourced power a cost increasing substantially, self-
generated power is likely to become increasingly cost-competitive.
Effective operations management
Adherence to ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) best practices
and adoption of data centre infrastructure management tools can lower operational
costs in a data centre. These tools give real time visibility into usage of IT and
physical infrastructure in a data centre by enabling monitoring and collection of
data. DCIM (Data centre infrastructure management) tools enable organisations to
gain greater visibility of the physical and IT assets in a data centre, plan for capacity
in a streamlined manner and ease day-to-day operations. Driven by convergence of
physical and IT assets, DCIM tools can simplify data centre operations and allow
businesses to increase the efficiency of their assets.
Despite the high level of server virtualisation, the adoption of DCIM tools is low in
Australia. This low usage indicates that many organisations are not yet adopting
best practices in management of the IT and facility operations in their data centre,
and this can significantly impact the availability, performance and energy usage of
their facility. Only about one-fifth of Australian data centre operators are currently
using vendor-neutral DCIM tools in their data centre management. Although this is
on a par with other Asia Pacific data centre hubs, it is much lower than should be
the case in Australia given the high degree of server virtualisation here. While usage
of DCIM tools can be invaluable in gaining real-time visibility, organisations need
qualified manpower to harness the information being generated. Outsourcing of
data centre management to skilled 3rd party service providers can significantly
mitigate this challenge.
F R O S T & S U L L I V A N
Not all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud
www.frost.com14
Figure 10: Usage of DCIM tools in major Asia Pacific Data Centre hubs
Data Centre Maturity Model
Green Grid, a global consortium of companies, government agencies and
educational institutions, has developed a data centre maturity model (DCMM) ,
which sets out clear goals and directions for improving operational efficiency and
sustainability in a data centre. The DCMM includes the major components of data
centre design and operations such as power, cooling, compute, storage and
network. The different levels of the model outline current best practices and a
roadmap for the future. The model therefore allows data centres to benchmark
themselves against their peers and provides a robust framework for future
developments.
Figure 11 Data Centre Maturity Model (DCMM)
3Source: Green Grid.
A more detailed
version of the model
can be found here:
http://www.thegreengr
id.org/~/media/Tools/
DataCenterMaturityM
odelv1_0.ashx?lang=e
n
F R O S T & S U L L I V A NNot all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud
www.frost.com 15
�
Source: Frost & Sullivan
�
FACILITY METRICS
1. Power2. Cooling
3. Resiliency4. Others
Efficiency improvement ( Cost & Carbon Reduction)
Inve
stm
en
t
Source: Frost & Sullivan.
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
IT METRICS
1. Compute2. Storage3. Network
The DCMM is an invaluable self-evaluation tool for decision makers to plan their
long term strategies on whether to own or lease facilities. Unless captive data
centres are able to constantly improve their design and operations such that they
move up the maturity curve at a competitive cost, there is a likely to be a strong
case to outsource data centre hosting to reputed specialist external service
provider. External data centre providers focus on offering data centre services as
their core business. As a result of this specialisation and greater economies of scale,
external data centre providers will be able to offer facilities significantly further up
the maturity curve than most captive data centres.
Facility Best Practices
LEED Certification
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is an internationally
recognised green building certification system. LEED certification provides building
owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical
and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance
solutions. Therefore it provides third-party verification that a building or
community was designed and built using strategies intended to improve
performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions
reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources
and sensitivity to their impacts.
LEED certification reduces building maintenance costs and environmental impact. It
also creates an efficient environment to host IT infrastructure. Given the high initial
costs for obtaining LEED certification, captive data centres can still achieve the
same benefits by choosing a LEED certified 3rd party facility.
Data Centre Consolidation
There are estimated to be more than 75,000 captive data centres and server rooms
in Australia and 90% of these are small facilities with very basic power, cooling and
connectivity infrastructure . There are number of strong imperatives for these
captive data centre operators to consolidate their infrastructure in more efficient
and scalable facilities to support the needs of virtualisation and other market
trends. Some of the main trends that are driving the need for consolidation of data
centre operations into a smaller number of larger, more advanced facilities are:
• Preference to incur operating expenses (through outsourcing) rather than the
significant capital expenses incurred with captive data centres
• Higher requirements for data security, data recovery and redundancy often
driven by legislative requirements
• The growing trend towards virtualisation and benefits of economies of scale
4Defined as a data
centre occupying less
than 500 sq.ft. Source:
Frost & Sullivan
estimates
F R O S T & S U L L I V A N
Not all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud
www.frost.com16
• Greater flexibility in space requirements as outsourcing enables organisations
to quickly increase or reduce their data centre space in response to business
requirements
To achieve the benefits offered by consolidation, customers need to consider larger
data centre facilities with advanced power (often as high as 25-30 kW per rack) and
cooling specifications. These facilities have the scale and degree of speciality
required to offer the highest levels of data centre performance in terms of factors
such as latency, security and uptime at the lowest operating costs. Data centre
consolidation can therefore deliver significant cost savings and enhance operational
efficiency to data centre owners.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT DATA CENTRE PROVIDER
Frost & Sullivan believes that there are twelve main factors to consider when
outsourcing data centre hosting to a third party provider. These factors are
summarised below and are not ranked in any specific order of importance. The
relative importance of each of the factors described below will vary for each
organisation based on its individual situation and priorities.
Figure 12 Twelve Factors to Consider when Selecting a Data Centre
F R O S T & S U L L I V A NNot all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud
www.frost.com 17
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Next Generation Data Centres
To support the growing demand for the outsourcing of data centre hosting,
significant investments are being made in new data centre facilities with the highest
levels of performance (Tier 3 and Tier 4). An example of one of these next
generation data centres is Macquarie Telecom’s Intellicentre2 (IC2) facility currently
being constructed at North Ryde, Sydney, Australia. This facility is due to be
operational by March 2012. This data centre incorporates the latest best practices
in terms of design and operations, as summarised below:
Figure 13 Main Features of Macquarie Telecom’s IC2 Facility
The IC2 facility is an example of the latest generation of data centres being built to
cater for the demand for tier 3 and tier 4 hosted data centres. Such facilities
provide a compelling value proposition for organisations faced with the choice of
maintaining a captive data centre, with the costs and complexity involved, or
F R O S T & S U L L I V A N
Not all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud
www.frost.com18
Metrics Macquarie Telecom’s Intellicentre2
Security and Industry Standards
• The Intellicentre2 has advanced physical and network security through 20 metre
offsets from boundaries, two secure loading docks, biometric scanning, locked racks
and secure suite. The facility also has ‘Intruder Resistant’ certification from ASIO.
• The facility adheres to ISO 27001 and AS7799 standards and is PCI DSS compliant.
Power Density • Though the average rack power requirement per rack in a data centre is 2-4 KW, the
advent of blade servers has increased the power requirements for certain racks to 10
to 30 kW. The Intellicentre2 aims to address this demand with the ability to provide
up to 30 kW per rack.
Energy Efficiency • The facility adheres to LEED Gold specification and has reduction of carbon
emissions as one of its main objectives. The data centre has an on-site power
generation facility (Tri-generation), which converts low cost natural gas to deliver
power and cooling to the data centre. The facility delivers cooling at little or no cost
by using an ‘absorption chiller’, which enables it to deliver primary cooling as a by-
product of power generation.
• Intellicentre2 aims to achieve better power efficiencies through a targeted PUE rating
of 1.3.
Reliability and Resiliency
• The Intellicentre2 facility is built to qualify as an Uptime Institute Tier 3 data centre. In
terms of redundancy, the facility uses multiple tri-generation engines onsite and
sources power from two separate substation zones. It uses a Multiple Diesel Rotary
UPS (DRUPS) to enable 72 hours of backup power.
Value Added Services
• The facility provides additional customer services such as an IT staging room,
teleconferencing and meeting rooms. Its IT services include managed security,
managed storage cloud, managed backup and access to Macquarie enterprise cloud
and remote onsite engineering.
Operational Experience
• Macquarie Telecom has more than 10 years of experience in providing co-location
and managed hosting services with a stable senior management team
outsourcing data centre hosting to a specialist provider.
THE LAST WORD
Data centres are increasingly at the heart of today’s IT infrastructure, helping
organisations to achieve aggressive business growth by enabling the delivery of IT
as a service. In today’s highly connected world, where information is critical to
business operations, and the amount of data required is increasing exponentially,
organisations are increasingly becoming dependent on the robustness of their data
centre infrastructure. However unless organisations can improve their data centre
infrastructure to support the increasing range of IT systems, they run the risk of
losing competitiveness.
In response to the growing demand for computing and storage resources, many
enterprises are increasingly considering using a 3rd party facility to supplement or
replace their captive data centres. When deciding to outsource, organisations need
to carefully consider factors such as cost, control, security, availability and
scalability. Organisations should select providers who offer the best value
proposition for the specific requirements of the organisation, and yet who also
provide flexibility in the range of services offered, from co-location to managed
services to cloud computing.
Over the long term, data loads, compliance requirements and energy needs are only
going to increase. More customers are now choosing OPEX based business models
(i.e. outsourcing) due to the greater efficiencies of working capital and improved
asset usage ratios that this model offers. Apart from the ability to pay on a “usage
basis”, outsourcing can also potentially remove and release capital that would
otherwise be used for the initial investment in data centre assets. Frost & Sullivan
believes that this combination of financial and technology advantages will continue
to drive the shift towards the outsourced model for hosting data centres.
F R O S T & S U L L I V A NNot all data centres are equal –
Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud
www.frost.com 19
ABOUT FROST & SULLIVAN
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve
best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service
provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to
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ABOUT MACQUARIE TELECOM
Founded in 1992, Macquarie Telecom (ASX:MAQ) is Australia’s only integrated Managed Hosting, Cloud
and Telecommunications company focused solely on mid-size businesses, corporate IT and government.
Working with and supporting some of Australia’s best-known organisations, Macquarie Telecom is a full
service hosting provider offering managed dedicated servers, managed co-location, and managed private,
hybrid and public clouds. Our fully owned, Australian based data centres are the most secure and
accredited data centres in Australia with ISO27001, PCI Compliance, DSD Gateway and ASIO Intruder
Resistant accreditation. Macquarie Telecom’s offerings are underpinned by world-class customer care
which is delivered by our fully owned and managed customer service centre, MacquarieHUB. Combining
Business-Grade Full line (Voice, Data & Mobile) Telecommunications with Hosting services to offer truly
integrated end-to-end communications solutions, Macquarie Telecom is best placed to help transition
businesses to the new online NBN era, enabling greater agility and growth.
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