Tips For Building A Reliable Data Center
If you're getting ready to establish a new data center, you're going to need to do some planning first. Without the experience of operating a data center in the past, you may not know how to optimize the environment. Proper planning will help you to establish a data center that will minimize your downtime and help ensure optimal system response. Here are some things you'll need to consider as you start your data center planning.
Make Sure You Have Monitoring Solutions
The options for monitoring your data center performance are seemingly endless. With so many choices, you can have immediate visibility to virtually every aspect of the data center operation. It's essential that you choose a monitoring system of some sort to keep track of the center's performance, response metrics, capacity and peak activity cycles. Knowing these things will allow you to adapt your center's equipment to meet the needs.
Since traffic can fluctuate so much, you should also look for a system monitoring service that allows you to respond to increased traffic and ease the load on your servers. Sometimes, just having the ability to generate reports from your monitoring system allows you to spot potential problems with peak traffic that could cause wear on your system.
You'll want a monitoring system that is all-inclusive, because it will save you on the costs of implementation and make it easier for you to monitor the performance without having to jump between multiple platforms. This ensures that no aspect is overlooked, and it also reduces your staffing needs, because you won't need multiple people to monitor a comprehensive platform. This monitoring approach helps you to identify and address potential vulnerabilities before they lead to complete data center failure.
Consider Your Energy Demand
It's easy to underestimate your energy demand for a new data center. If you're investing in brand new server equipment, you might think that the new hardware will be more energy efficient. The truth is, new hardware is made to be fast and responsive, particularly when you're buying blade servers, and that response can lead to increased energy consumption. Keep this in mind when you're budgeting your energy costs, because you don't want to be surprised when the first energy bill arrives.
In addition to the costs associated with your hardware, you're also going to need to run a cooling system. The cooling system is vital to protect your data center equipment, because overheating can destroy the hardware. Make sure you consider the energy consumption of each cooling system, and choose one that's as efficient as possible.
Prepare for Potential Equipment Failure
Any time you're dealing with computer and server equipment, you're going to have the risk of complete component failure. When you're establishing a brand new data center, it's easy to get lost in the details of new equipment and not think about the importance of planning for potential disasters. Additionally, most servers have an expected lifespan of about three years, so you'll want to make sure you're prepared to invest in new gear when the time comes.
Don't forget to set aside a maintenance budget for the cooling system and your server backup tools. Your battery backup system is also going to need routine maintenance to ensure that your equipment doesn't go down in the event of a power failure.
Before you complete your data center design, you're going to want to be sure that the entire server infrastructure is sound and ready to respond appropriately. With the tips presented here, you can have the confidence that your data center is adequately prepared. Work with a data center design specialist and ask other data centers, like Cologix, to help you address these and any other unique needs you may have.