Notes from the Consultant's Jungle

Last month I was asked to do a presentation about data center security for a Data Center Dynamics conference in Atlanta.  In my presentation, I offered an explanation of how the traditional CIA fundamental security model projected onto functional dimensions of data center operations and the role of the data center to the Business.  It [...]

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We are conducting a poll to gauge Business’ perception of data center tier ratings, here in late 2011. Why are we doing this?  Well, we are seeing that perceptions about shopping for data centers with tier level as a requirement are changing.  We are seeing that, now that the community has had time to think [...]

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We are conducting a market survey of data centers in India.  This is driven by an increase in interest we are seeing from customers seeking colocation and hosting services in the country of India. If you share an interest in the results of our research, or if you are a commercial colocation or data center [...]

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I’ve just returned from a meeting in Washington, DC in which we were assessing training material for certification on the new BICSI data center design best practices.   Along with the fact that I’ve been approached lately with a number of site security assessment requests, it was interesting to review the guidance on data center [...]

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Many of the engagements that we work involve producing the initial conceptual layout for construction of a data center.  As a certified design consultant, we draw upon best practices reflected in the BICSI-002 standard, TIA-942, et. al.  Even when the raw space with which we’re working is a nice big rectangle, this job can be [...]

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We are working on a book about one of our favorite topics: Data center tier models, availability, and the alignment of business with availability requirements.  We plan to cover the models that enjoy the most mind-share, as well as models that are not talked about nearly as much, but yet are very relevant to the [...]

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We’ve written quite a bit in this forum about containerized data centers, and our hope that in addition to providing great utility in current high density data processing implementations, they would also pave the way for a more pragmatic, modular approach to building data center space.¬† We still feel that there are improvements to be [...]

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This week, I had the pleasure of touring a data center developed and operated by a provider that has sites in only two cities in the US so far.  I’m intentionally not mentioning the name of the provider, but would like to share some of the things they’re doing that impressed me.  I was impressed [...]

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As someone with a strong operational ethic, one of my pet peeves is the colo site that resembles a monthly self-storage facility.¬† I’m referring here, to allowing (or tolerating) tenants storing boxes, material, and debris in their cages. A colocation facility that has cardboard and other such material in customer cages shows very poorly.¬† That [...]

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The Tier Model for Mission Critical Facilities, created and governed by The Uptime Institute, is the most pervasively referenced data center tier model.  It is, however, not the only tier model for data center facilities, though it enjoys the majority of mind-share in this regard.  We have written about The Uptime Institute’s data center tier [...]

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