To the not so much-informed, the topic of data centres be able to be a daunting one. This is frequently exacerbated by Cloud or managed hosting purpose providers baffling customers with marketing lingo for the time of sales pitches. When talking about their premises centre credentials, some providers may try to conceal their shortcomings by reeling off disorder around their PDUs, SLAs and MTBFs. (protocol facts units, service-level agreements and mean time between failures).
Businesses looking instead of a centre should stay away from these types of providers. What these providers frequently fail to address are the issues that indeed matter, like the burning issues of given conditions centre efficiency, and security. In every age when centre running costs are at an all time high, any provider integrity their salt should be telling customers near everything they're doing to restrain costs down, by introducing energy efficiency measures.
Committing to lengthy-term contracts in last-generation facts centres now could mean additional costs from a thin to a dense state the line. It is critical to public- your data in an energy active, next-generation data centre.
When looking conducive to your next centre, be sure to petition the service provider about the following things:
Free (or fresh) air cooling
Free (or fresh) treble cooling is one of the key efficiency drivers with regard to modern centres. Free air cooling works by pulling in ambient air from superficies the centre via window louvres, that offers a much more energy active alternative to using power-hunger chiller units total year round.
Power availability
Make without doubt the centre is designed with dominion availability in mind. How much authority is available to each rack? 4kW racks are now the norm, with 8kW presentation. Does the in posse provider test their failover procedure to UPS and generators? Is this hebdomadal, monthly or just once a year?
Power efficiency (PUE of <2)
The power efficiency of a centre is measured by its PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness). Specifically, the ratio of total amount of power used by a centre to the power delivered to computing equipment.
The lower a centre's PUE, the more efficient it is. A traditional but efficient centre will typically have a PUE of 2 or above, whereas next-generation centres will have significantly lower PUEs. The more efficient the centre, the less expense to the customer.
Multiple levels of security
A centre's levels of security is one of the most important considerations when choosing a provider. While centres are considerably more secure than onsite storage, they're not without potential security risks: physical risks, such as alarms, CCTV and door access; logical risks, such as user access; and procedural risks, such as visitor access and protocol.
When speaking with potential providers, it's crucial to gauge their commitments to avoiding these risks. The best way to identify those with a serious commitment to security, is to use an ISO 27001 certified provider. The ISO 27001 certification is a mark of confirmation, that the company adheres to the highest possible security standards.
So next time you're speaking with a provider about data centre services, and they're baffling you with industry lingo, ask them about their security credentials, and their commitments to saving power, because power saved by them is money saved on your behalf.
