Designing data centres for the future

Security demands

Energy efficiency and sustainability demands

Business continuity and disaster recovery needs

Productivity optimisation needs

Data centre demands are rising

Factors impacting global trends in data centres

• Greater utilisation and flexibility in scaling IT resources

• Basic co-location or facility management

• Managed hosting services

• Utility computing

The reliance on IT solutions has increased

Awareness of IT needs in organisations has increased

Organisations realise they need to implement business continuity plans and measures

Responses to global trends

Applications

Data Processing & Storage Platforms

Network

Communications Physical Infrastructure

Facility

The organisation of data centre implementation has changed

Traditional organisation New organisation

vs

•Reliability

•Availability

•Flexibility

•Scalability

•Security

•Safety

•Energy efficiency

Key criteria for data centre infrastructure designs

• White space / Technical space / Useable floor area - m2

• Power density for colocation or equipment schedule - W/m2

• Total facility area / Gross Floor Area - m2

• Physical constraints - available heights and floor loadings

• Any external noise limitations - typically if there are residential areas nearby

• Design day conditions - agree on the acceptable operating conditions

• Service Level Agreement - customer requirements

• Day one load - very important for plant turn down

• Tier rating - Concurrently maintainable/redundancy – certification or strict alignment with Uptime Institute and/or TIA 942

• PUE - expectation for energy efficiency of the facility

• Sustainability - any LEED or other certification required

• Technology - any client specific technology required

• Insurance requirements - Factory Mutual?

Key considerations for data centre infrastructure designs

The data centre lifecycle

Key requirements for building data centres for tomorrow’s processes

• Site location and acquisition

• Technology selection

• Appointment of specialist architects and engineers

• Selection of project managers

• Design development

• Planning applications

Why is it problematic to plan for future IT requirements?

• Large capital outlay for equipment you don’t need yet;

• Paying maintenance bills on low usage equipment;

• Running equipment inefficiently (which leads to wasted electricity); and

• Wasted power increases costs and impacts sustainability targets.

“Staged Growth” is the answer

“Staged growth allows you to design data centre infrastructure for today’s realities and tomorrow’s challenges.” Kasem Nicharoen Technical Director, Aurecon

Full install vs Staged growth Benefits of staged growth: • Deferred growth: Greater

visibility of capital expenditure needs;

• Lower capital costs; and

• Lower total cost as less is spent on maintenance costs.

But we’re still only making an educated guess….

Real operational growth Stage 1

Actual growth Stage 2

Actual growth Stage 3 (fully installed)

Actual growth Stage 4

This could still lead to “stranded assets”

A stranded asset is a plant that is installed but is either underutilised or not used at all.

This is a problem because:

• There is an under utilisation of individual assets;

• Reduced usage of the entire asset;

• It is usually detected when the site is already in operation, making it difficult to rectify.

Plan for flexibility to avoid stranded assets

• Ensure that plant capacity can be delivered where it is needed

• Provide flexibility in white space zones

• Develop detailed upgrade strategies to add in modular plant expansions

• Provide plant expansion spaces – don’t skimp on building space

• Plan for different density zones

• Ensure expansion capability is adequately designed with interfaces and connections

• Consider all systems & all services

• Plan your staging and avoid Stranded Assets at the Design stage not when you are operating

Aurecon’s data centre capabilities include • Site acquisition

• Financial modelling

• Reliability modelling

• Data Centre audits (existing facilities)

• Data Centre engineering

• Test management

• Risk and change management services

• Post Occupancy Services

Contact: Kasem Nincharoen Technical Director – Buildings +66 2 333 322 Kasem.Nincharoen@aurecongroup.com Peter Greaves Expertise Leader – Data & ICT Facilities +61 3 9975 3346 Peter.Greaves@aurecongroup.com

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