A Word to the Wise: Know Your Power

Siting Jeff Spence and Data Center Journal

Power-related issues are a growing predicament on a global scale. The global population and industrial development are growing more rapidly than existing power infrastructure can handle, having a detrimental effect on efficiencies worldwide. The ever increasing global power issues all stem from an international power grid that is, in a word, archaic. Back in the 19^th century electricity was turned from a scientific curiosity into an essential tool for modern life. During that period, names like Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell were leading the way in electrical engineering. And worldwide population continued to grow exponentially, accelerating the use of electricity at a rate no one anticipated. Then, in the 1950s–1970s the first uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and surge protectors were created. But aging infrastructure in tandem with a rise in electricity consumption has resulted in a grid that has not evolved to properly support the population and global infrastructure. Until very recently there was a large gap between the growth of electricity use worldwide and power protection technology.

The Global Issue: Population and Industrial Development Exceeding Existing Infrastructure

The global statistics are in, and the findings are eye opening, as Figure 1 outlines. Over the next two decades, demand for electricity is forecasted to grow by 40 percent in the U.S. alone. Increased demand is most dramatic in Asia, averaging 4.7 percent per year until 2030. And while Africa accounts for over one-sixth of the world’s population, the country only generates 4 percent of global electricity. As a country, India loses 28 percent of the electricity it carries. In South America, demand for electricity is projected to double over the next few years, outstripping generation capacity and the aging infrastructure, thus causing increasing power disturbances.

Electronics Power Protection Landscape

Today’s electronics are pervasive, and the majority of equipment is deployed with insufficient protection, resulting in damage from power grid disturbances, which are surprisingly frequent and destructive. All electronic equipment has two things in common: it needs power to operate, and it is significantly affected by power interruptions. Digital electronics are much more susceptible to glitches, and the evolution of electronics equipment has opened the possibility for more power-related issues. According to Electronic Power Research Institute (EPRI), the consequences of these daily loss-generating disturbances has been called “the most important concern affecting most industrial and commercial customers,” as they cost hundreds of billions of dollars annually to businesses in the United States alone.

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), enterprise companies, data centers and even consumers, until now, have relied on either UPS or surge protection to shield equipment from grid fluctuations, thinking that these devices adequately protect electronics from damage. UPSs offer protection and effectiveness from a technical standpoint by isolating electronics from the grid and powering them by battery. The downside, however, is that UPSs are expensive for most applications and too large to integrate into electronics. Thus, users either choose not to protect their equipment at all or turn to inexpensive surge protection or power strips that only shield electronics from less than one percent of damaging power disturbances. One of the greatest limitations of power strips is their inability to handle high voltage surges, making them practically useless in terms of electronics protection. In addition to risks from an already unstable power grid, digital electronics are microprocessor-based, leaving them susceptible to power fluctuations.

Evolution of Electronics

Although the grid globally remains unreliable, electronic equipment that defines modern life has become highly sophisticated, using a substantial amount of energy—with each new generation of devices more hungry than the last. In addition to its energy consumption, the majority of this equipment is being deployed with insufficient power protection and suffers from an extreme amount of power grid activity that is costing the industry an estimate of tens of billions of dollars annually in lost data, materials and productivity[1].

Grid Disturbances & Fluctuations

Increasing demand for electricity is putting enormous pressure on a grid not equipped to support such heavy usage. In a CNN article[2] regarding the rise in U.S. electricity blackouts, experts on the nation’s electricity system point to a frighteningly steep increase in non-disaster-related outages affecting at least 50,000 consumers. Research performed at the University of Minnesota indicates that over the past two decades, blackouts have increased 124 percent, yet blackouts are merely one of the ways in which the power grid affects connectivity. Electronics are affected by an infinite number of uncontrollable variables ranging from voltage surges and spikes to voltage sags, power outages, overvoltages and brownouts. Even a one-second outage can damage equipment and disrupt operations to the point where labor becomes impaired as systems are reset and brought back online.

In addition to power outages, even a minor voltage fluctuation or other disruption of the electrical signal can wreak havoc. Research indicates surges are not as severely damaging compared with the frequent and potentially destructive disturbances emitted from power grids. Far greater damage can be the result of voltage sags, brownouts, overvoltage conditions and power outages, which may have grave consequences as they relate to reliability and overall lifespan. Electrical disturbances of all types occur frequently, and although we may not see an immediate effect such as a blackout, disturbances on the grid can still have lasting implications on our devices.

Mounting Costs

The Consortium for Electric Infrastructure to Support a Digital Society commissioned a study in 2009 to obtain a definitive estimate of the direct costs of power disturbances to U.S. businesses. The study sought to quantify the cost of brief outages—for example, outages of one second or a couple of minutes long—unlike previous studies that have confined their analysis to lengthier outages of one hour or longer even though shorter outages are more common and can cause data loss and damage to industrial equipment. The study revealed the following:

• The average cost of a one-second outage among industrial and digital-economy firms is $1,477, versus an average cost of $2,107 for a three-minute outage and $7,795 for a one-hour outage.
• Digital-economy establishments report that 49 percent of the outages they experience last less than three minutes.
• Add all that up and the U.S. economy is losing between $104 billion and $164 billion each year to outages.

Additionally, a study by EPRI from 2005 suggests that the cost to the North American industry of production stoppages caused by voltage sags now exceeds $250 billion per year.

Wide Range of Industries Feel the Impact

The grid is relied on by a wide variety of industries ranging from consumer devices including laptops and televisions to sophisticated medical equipment. All of these industries use power to function and are affected differently by an unreliable power source.

Consumer Electronics

Consumer electronics, like all electronics, are vulnerable to power-related glitches such as equipment lock ups and resets, service calls for unknown stoppages and modem problems. According to a report by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and Business Monitor International (BMI), the average U.S. household has 24 consumer electronics products, contributing to the growth in the consumer electronics devices market, which is expected to increase from $253.5 billion in 2011 to $322.9 billion by 2015. The latest projected figures from GfK Digital World, produced in partnership with Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), reveal global spending on consumer technology devices will surpass $1 trillion in 2012 for the first time. This is an increase of 5 percent over 2011’s figure of $993 billion. Consumer electronics devices range from TVs and personal devices to laptops, smartphones and audio equipment, and the industry as a whole can be segmented into entertainment, productivity and communications categories. In addition, consumer electronics accounts for 15 percent of global residential electricity consumption. This continued massive growth of digital electronics creates the possibility for additional power-related issues.

Data Centers on the Rise

Beyond consumer devices, more than ever, companies are moving IT infrastructure to data centers. Emerson, a networking provider who recently commissioned a study on the global data center phenomenon, revealed that there are over 509,000 data centers of varying sizes across the globe. These data centers combined accommodate the 1.2 trillion gigabytes of data created every day. In addition, despite stalled growth during the recession, IDC estimates approximately $22 billion will be spent on new data center development worldwide this year alone. Although downtime may be extremely low at data centers, damaging power disturbances are a very common, costly occurrence. To make matters worse, according to a data center report in 2010, problems with UPS equipment and configuration are the most frequently cited cause of data center outages. As a result, there is a growing movement to discover and implement a solution to add additional protection for these electronic assets without incurring massive cost, size and service requirements.

Invaluable Medical Technology

The need for reliable power goes beyond consumer electronics and data centers; another example is the global medical technology market. The medical device industry is large, intensely competitive and highly innovative, with annual worldwide sales in 2009 exceeding $220 billion according to Zacks Equity Research. A study performed five years ago by the U.S. International Trade Commission discovered that the United States, EU and Japan together account for approximately 90 percent of the global production and consumption of medical devices. The study also discovered that the U.S. medical device industry is the most competitive in the world, having been recognized for its ability to continually design, develop and place medical devices in U.S. and foreign markets. When improving the reliability of technology and services for the medical field, it’s critical for manufacturers and electronic equipment designers to remember the complexity of today’s digitally advanced world, which is largely affected by the power grid. If medical equipment malfunctions, it can have an immediate impact on patients, doctors and nurses. Given the sheer importance and monetary value, it’s necessary to understand the significance of protecting this equipment from power disturbances. The current solutions in place are expensive to acquire, costly to maintain and increasingly difficult and expensive to dispose of when replaced. Owing to these limitations, electronic equipment serving the medical industry is either protected at too great a cost or not protected at all.

A Solution: A New Approach in Power Protection Technology

New technology developed by Innovolt provides electronics power protection technology designed to guard against damage from 99.5 percent of power interruptions and is accessible to and effective for all electronics, regardless of size. This technology manages the impact of power disturbances and effectively increases the lifespan, reliability and efficiency of electronics equipment. According to Innovolt, companies that have deployed its technology have seen a decrease in service calls on protected equipment.

Innovolt has developed an intelligent electronics protection platform that in comparison with traditional surge protection and filtering technologies is a cost-effective, viable and proven long-term option for electronics protection. Similar to UPS systems, the technology provides immunity from grid and line disturbances, yet with a greater success rate, increased functional form-factor and more affordable design. Fortune Global 500 OEMs including Ricoh and Toshiba as well as other companies including Konica Minolta, ECi OMD and Katun have been quick to adopt Innovolt’s technology platform, a move that signifies the critical need for electronics equipment protection.

Electronic disturbances can occur at any time, without warning. With risks such as decreased profitability, productivity and customer satisfaction, businesses and consumers cannot afford to risk leaving their electronics unprotected. As we continue investing in new technology, we must understand the severity and implications of exposing our costly investments before it is too late. Innovolt’s ultimate future goal for electronics protection is to improve performance, reliability and longevity of equipment and reduce the number of service calls.

From the world’s largest corporations to small Internet stores, compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is vital for all merchants who accept credit cards, online or offline. And because nothing is more important than keeping our customer’s payment card data secure, ColoHouse is now PCI DSS compliant.

PCI Security Standards are technical and operational requirements set by the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) to protect cardholder data. The Council is responsible for managing the security standards, while compliance with the PCI Security Standards is enforced by the payment card brands. The standards apply to all organizations that store, process or transmit cardholder data – with guidance for software developers and manufacturers of applications and devices used in those transactions.

The Council helps merchants like ColoHouse maintain and enhance the PCI Security Standards, providing education and training about protecting payment card data with the PCI Security Standards, and by serving as a forum for engaging with the industry on developing these standards.

The PCI DSS follows common-sense steps that mirror security best practices. There are three steps for adhering to the PCI DSS – which is not a single event, but a continuous, ongoing process.

Assess

• Identify cardholder data, take an inventory of IT assets and business processes for payment card processing, and analyze for vulnerabilities that could expose cardholder data.

Remediate

•  Fix any vulnerability.

Report

• Compile and submit required remediation validation records and submit compliance reports to the acquiring bank and card brands you do business with.

ColoHouse is proud to offer this additional compliance measure to protect our most valuable asset, our clients. For additional information about ColoHouse PCI DSS Compliance, please contact us.

ColoHouse Miami Data Center and Hosting Facility Signs Agreement with Digital Realty Solidifying Growth in Downtown Miami

Miami, FL—May 1, 2012– ColoHouse Data Center, the leading SSAE 16 certified, carrier-neutral Miami Data Center and Hosting Facility is pleased to announce an agreement with Digital Realty, a leading global provider of data center solutions. The lease agreement, to take effect immediately, will keep ColoHouse in downtown Miami until at least 2024 with an additional 10 year option. This agreement further solidifies ColoHouse’s unrelenting growth and commitment to the Miami marketplace.

Capitalizing on the opportunity created by the significant progress in the demand for IT infrastructure and services, ColoHouse shifted their focus from traditional colocation services to an expanded list of data center solutions. The growth of these additional service offerings aided ColoHouse in more than doubling their customer base within the last year, which in turn enabled ColoHouse to commit to a substantial increase in the length of the lease the company holds at 36 NE 2nd Street in downtown Miami; a telecom grade, Category 5 hurricane rated building which also resides outside of FEMA’s 500-year flood zone.

Additionally, ColoHouse will expand the amount of raised floor hosting space currently held at their 24,000 square foot facility. The “Phase II” project will add over 6,000 square feet of hosting space and is expected to reach completion in the summer of 2012. Furthermore, ColoHouse Miami Data Center and Hosting Facility will be devoting a substantial investment geared towards employee training and certification programs as well as increasing their staff base, more notably sales and operations teams.

“ColoHouse delivers indispensable data center solutions and this agreement further displays allegiance to our clients as well as our commitment to the Miami marketplace,” states Paul Bint, Chief Executive Officer at ColoHouse. “ColoHouse will continue our dedication to ensuring a highly secure, reliable, and compliant data center and hosting environment for our clients’ mission-critical requirements.”

“We are very pleased to be able to support the growth of ColoHouse business and its commitment to the Miami business community,” said David J. Caron, Senior Vice President, Portfolio Management for Digital Realty.  “Like ColoHouse, we are committed to long-term customer relationships throughout the more than 30 markets in which we operate worldwide.”

Additionally, Digital Realty recently announced that it has completed a SOC 2 Type 2 examination of its U.S. data center operations using the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). SOC 2 is a mechanism for service organizations, including data center providers such as Digital Realty, to report on the design and effectiveness of their security policies, communications, procedures and monitoring based on detailed criteria.  This report is intended to meet the needs of a broad range of users that need to understand internal controls at a service organization. ColoHouse has also recently obtained a Service Organization Control Report 1 (SOC 1) or SSAE 16 providing clients with a level of assurance of corporate controls.

About ColoHouse:

ColoHouse is the premier Miami Data Center and Hosting Facility, as well as the leading provider of carrier-neutral data center services in North America, with 24,000 square feet of carrier-grade space available at our SSAE 16 certified, Category 5 hurricane protected facility in Miami. ColoHouse provides clients with the competitive advantages of industry-leading security, environmental, and connectivity technologies at best-in-class value. For details, visit http://www.ColoHouse.com.

About Digital Realty Trust, Inc.:

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. focuses on delivering customer driven data center solutions by providing secure, reliable and cost effective facilities that meet each customer’s unique data center needs. Digital Realty’s customers include domestic and international companies across multiple industry verticals ranging from information technology and Internet enterprises, to manufacturing and financial services. Digital Realty’s 102 properties, excluding three properties held as investments in unconsolidated joint ventures, comprise approximately 19.1 million square feet as of February 27, 2012, including 2.4 million square feet of space held for redevelopment. Digital Realty’s portfolio is located in 31 markets throughout Europe, North America, Singapore and Australia. Additional information about Digital Realty is included in the Company Overview, which is available on the Investors page of Digital Realty’s website at http://www.digitalrealty.com.

Any company that has ever entertained a Data Center Move project knows the “pain” and risks associated with these types of projects. For those entities that have not had the opportunity, but are currently in the discussion or planning stages for one, please continue reading.

WARNING: Successful Data Center Moves are rarely the result of a 1-2-3 recipe, BUT they can be simplified with the right planning and access to experienced professionals in ALL cases, having a seasoned Engineer(s) and / or Project Manager engaged from the beginning is essential. They will most likely follow a proven methodology consisting of: discovery, planning, resource allocation and project management to mitigate the risks of failure.

So where does one start when planning for a Data Center move? From the 42 that I have managed as DATACORP’s Director of PMO Services, I recommend that you always start with the move completion date and work backwards. There are many dependencies in a Data Center Move (including ‘hidden’ ones) such as the procuring equipment, negotiating space, power requirements, cabling, network design, and so on. The list of considerations can be long and all need immediate intervention to be successful.

Once you have determined the move completion date, consider the following;

1. Data Center location

a. Contract Negotiation

b. (New and Existing) Infrastructure Build out timeframe

2. What equipment is going to be moved (all, production only, half and half etc.)

3. Schedule downtime or Hot cut (know what you can bring down and what you can’t. You may have to build a temporary environment for a hot cut if your production environment has a zero downtime requirements)

4. New Equipment to be procured (End of Life equipment replacement – this is not the perfect time to do this. You have enough going on with the move then to worry about having to reconfigure your environment. Adding equipment because of new technology demands, again not the perfect time but better than a refresh)

5. Space needed to house the equipment (how many racks, cabinets or cages do you need)

6. Circuits

a. Types of circuit required (PRI, T1, T3, MPLS)

b. How many circuits do you need?

i. Data

ii. Voice

iii. Internet

c. How are they going to be terminated (router, panel)?

7. Power Consumption/requirements

8. Cable Management systems

9. Rack Design (from this rack – to that rack)

10. Rails (check your rails – sometime it is easier and more cost efficient to purchase new rails then deal with the broken or bent rails currently in use)

11. Network Design (new circuits mean new public IPs – what affect will this have on your environment)

12. Warranted equipment (I.E. IBM SANs have to be moved by IBM in order to not void the warranty. What other equipment has this limitation)

13. Moving day considerations

a. Backups (some SQL databases and/or SANs can take 12 hours or longer to completely back up – planning a Data Center move around this timeframe can be costly in wait time; however, moving on a weekend can help mitigate this risk if you are not a 24/7 shop)

b. Packing materials for heavy equipment. Some bubble wrap is not enough to protect the equipment due to weight. Blankets are usually the better option

c. Move Insurance

d. Man Power (how many people do you need to move in what time frame?)

e. How are you going to transport the equipment? (There are many companies that are in the business of moving network equipment, ask your local Data Center if they can recommend a few)

f. Power down/Power up procedures (applications that are dependent on a database, have very specific power down/power up processes. Know them.

g. Cabling (replace old worn out cabling during this time just makes sense)

14. Testing (make sure you have people on the move that can test the applications before the next business day. The last thing you want is to find out your email does not work on Monday morning)

15. Post Move Support – provide IT support – it is inevitable that something does not work right regardless of how far removed it may be.

Within each consideration, more tasks can be identified and should be part of the planning involved in moving. The more you can plan, prepare and pre-configure before the actual move date, the higher degree of success you will have.

A few years back, I was involved with a very large Data Center move, this customer planned their move so well that we were able to move 880 servers from one Data Center to another over a 16-hour period during a weekend. These are rare; however, this client had pre cabled the racks, pre-install the rails and even labeled each server and the receiving racks with a pre-defined number just to make sure the right servers got to the right rack and location space. To date, this was the most successful move that DATACORP and I have been involved with. On the other hand, I have had clients put little to no planning in their move and fail miserably. We will save the horror stories for the unprepared!

And finally;

16. IT Staff Access to Data Center – there is a list, called “the ACL” (Access Control List). When all is said and done, make sure all IT staff members who require access to your location at the Data Center are on the ACL. This will save time and frustration when maintenance needs to be done or hands on troubleshooting efforts are required. Check this list every 3 to 6 months or so to refresh the list and keep it current.

All in all, if you follow one simple rule; your move should go smooth and you will have great success

#1 – Plan for everything you can think of and having professional and experienced assistance is the best medicine that can be prescribed to keep “Murphy’s Law” in check.

Secret: Provide food and energy drinks for the Man Power – they will work harder for you and appreciate the fact you thought about their comfort. (Cuban Coffee also helps!)

Best wishes for a well-planned and successful move -

For more information on DATACORP solutions, click here

Webhosting.net is a provider of reliable, scalable and secure web hosting solutions. Since inception in 1998, the company has offered clients exceptional performance and reliability while also ensuring a solid network infrastructure and responsive 24/7 customer service.

Webhosting.net has steadily grown into one of ColoHouse’s largest reseller partners following the procurement of their initial space in 2009. Today, the company has expanded their footprint in the ColoHouse Miami facility from one cabinet in 2009, to six half cabinets, six full cabinets and two cages to date in 2012.

More recently, Webhosting.net is in the news for their partnership with Nimble Storage, a company specializing in flash-enabled storage solutions. Webhosting.net will use Nimble CS-Series arrays to deliver hosted, performance-guaranteed services for networking infrastructure, virtual desktops, and disaster recovery.

ColoHouse Chief Operating Officer Felipe Rodriguez comments, “We are very pleased to have Webhosting.net as a key partner in our Miami Data Center, as the company provides a wealth of experience, expertise, and is well respected in the South Florida marketplace. On behalf of the ColoHouse team, I would like to formally congratulate Webhosting.net on their continued growth within the ColoHouse Miami facility.”

ColoHouse provides world class security, connectivity and layout options; suiting a variety of business requirements. We are dedicated to providing cost effective, flexible solutions and facilitating mutually beneficial relationships with all of our partners. To learn more about the ColoHouse Reseller Program please click here.