High Density Devices Strain Data Center Resources

A few weeks back I commented on the current boom in data center development. Spurring this trend is the growing need for greater processing power and increased data storage capacity, as well as new Federal regulations which call for better handling and storage of data.

In the scramble to keep up with these demands, the deployment of high density devices and blade servers has become an attractive option for many data center managers. However, a new report from the Aperture Research Institute indicates that “many facilities are not able to handle the associated demand for power and cooling.”

The study, based on interviews with more than 100 data center professionals representing a broad spectrum of industries, reveals that the deployment of high density equipment is creating unforeseen challenges within many data centers.

Highlights of the report include:

• While the majority of data center managers are currently running blade servers in their facilities, traditional servers still comprise the bulk of new server purchases. Mixing blade and non-blade servers in such small quantities can unnecessarily complicate the data center environment and make maintenance more difficult.
• The rising power density of racks makes them more expensive to operate and more difficult to cool. More than one-third of the respondents said their average power density per rack was over 7KW, a scenario that setting the facilities up for potential data center cooling issues and unexpected downtime.
• Respondents report that the majority of data center outages were caused by human error and improper failover.
• What’s really jaw-dropping is that while more than 22% of outages were due to overheating, 21% of respondents admit that they don’t know the maximum power density of their racks. The report points out that “[o]ver 8% of respondents are therefore using high-density devices without tracking power density in a rack, dramatically increasing the potential for outages.”

High density equipment can help data centers keep up with business demands, but only if you can keep things running smoothly. Proper management of power and cooling is essential for meeting the end user's availability expectations. For more information on the various cooling challenges posed by high density rack systems, please visit our Data Center Cooling Challenges page at PTSDCS.com.

Data Center Move Pitfalls: How to Avoid Them

Data Center relocations are fraught with risks. Unlike other organizations within the enterprise that might have more mundane equipment such as desks, book cases, and file cabinets, data center operators and IT staff must have everything go smoothly. If the move doesn't go as planned, troubles can range from costs associated with replacing or fixing broken servers to company downtime because critical data and applications were lost in the move.

Thus, it is critical to plan. “You cannot plan enough. Poor planning can lead to extended outage, damage to equipment, and all kinds of other problems,” says Michael Petrino, Vice President at PTS Data Center Solutions. “During the preparation for the data center relocation, you need to have many meetings months before the move to ensure that you have all of the backup plans ready to go for the project.”

And remember, since this is not a project you do everyday, make sure to bring all the critical people to the planning events. IT staff must work hand-in-hand with facilities or project management staff employed on these "special projects". The worst scenario is one in which management and/or specific project managers oversee all the elements of the move but don't see or understand the complexity of the IT migration or the need for specialized IT moving personnel.

Also of concern, have your IT staff look at the age of the IT infrastructure. Old servers, switches, and storage devices which are already out-of-warranty are a major risk when subjected to the strains and stressed evident in an IT relocation. Planning activities should consider what, if any, IT infrastructure should be replaced with new, in warranty equipment that is less likely to fail during the data center move. This is also a great time to consider reducing the overall footprint through server or storage consolidation using virtualization technologies. Not only does this reduce the burden in terms of items to move and, therefore, relocation cost, but it's a great way to replace older physical servers with virtualized servers running on new virtualized hosts, eliminating the need to move those old server.

Consider leveraging a reputable third party to support the rare data center move. For example, professional IT movers will use specialized packing materials, such as sea bins with foam, blankets, and plastic, and sometimes use the packing materials from the equipment manufacturer, Petrino says. A consultancy firm will have a proven data center relocation methodology and should also know which firms are certified to move specific OEM products so the company can maintain warranties. “You do not just call up any moving company out of the phone book,” Petrino says. “Most companies are not insured to cover a data center equipment move and associated custom insurance.” 

Finally, even superior planning cannot offset the unexpected failure. Contingency planning is critical when relocating mission critical assets and should be a core component of your data center relocation plan. Know what you will do ahead of time if a server doesn't start-up, a UPS fails after them move and re-commissioning or theft means a lost data store. Planning for a failure is better than scrambling when it occurs.

The Reality of Virtualization

Virtualization is the process of creating a software-based (or virtual) representation of something rather than a physical one, as it applies to applications, servers, storage, and networks. It and is the most effective way to reduce IT expenses while boosting efficiency and agility.  The majority (over 80%) of business workloads today are virtualized, though small- to medium-sized businesses are lagging behind at about 40%.

Are you Ready to Virtualize?

The simple answer is that you can't afford not to virtualize.  You will be spending significantly more on IT than businesses that rely solely on physical resources. Additionally, your IT will be more complex, and thus, far less efficient, and as a result, you will more likely suffer disruptions in business, and experience lost revenue.

Today's Virtualization Platform Prepares you for Tomorrow

New business and IT initiatives will require the right technology platform. Virtualization allows greater flexibility in handling new opportunities, making deployment and scaling of resources faster, cheaper, and more efficient. Cloud, mobility, big data, social media, and IT consumerization are realities of today's workforce, and businesses must virtualize to keep up.

To learn more about PTS’ Virtualization Consulting Services, contact PTS or visit:

• Data Center Infrastructure Virtualization Strategies
• Hardware Virtualization Consulting Service
• IT Assessment Service – Virtualization
• IT Needs Analysis – Virtualization
• IT Site Survey Service – Virtualization
• IT Virtualization Consulting Service
• Server Virtualization Consulting Services
• Storage Virtualization Consulting Service
• Virtual Data Center Consulting Service
• Virtualization Management Consulting Service
• Virtualization Software Consulting Service
• Virtualization Technology Consulting Service

Event Follow-up: Is Your Disaster Recovery Approach a Disaster?

PTS Data Center Solutions, in conjunction with Quorum, hosted a particularly relevant event on December 4th. With over 20 industry executives and Backup & Disaster Recovery experts meeting at the Chart House in Weehawken, NJ, PTS and Quorum discussed the need for improved backup and disaster recovery solutions aimed at the Small- to Mid-size business sector.

"The event was originally scheduled for November 7th but we all know what had just taken place the week before - Hurricane Sandy", said Larry Davis, VP, IT Solutions Group for PTS. "If we could have only spread the word earlier and gotten the Quorum solution out to clients without a clear Disaster Recovery plan, the solution really works for a reasonable price."

Developed by Quorum engineers several years ago as a simple to deploy and use alternative to expensive redundant server, storage, and virtualization platform approaches, the Quorum solution has been a hit within market sectors ranging from:

• Schools
• Banks
• Financial Services
• Law Practices
• Accounting Firms
• Manufacturers
• Municipalities

With premises-based appliances, cloud solutions available for offsite recovery, and archive systems for long term storage requirements, the Quorum onQ solution can be deployed rapidly without any other hardware or software needed.

At the event, Quorum engineers provided a live demonstration of a server failure and the One-Click Recovery™ inherent in the onQ solution's design:

• Current Forever: Each ultra-efficient update is merged into the onQ device which houses virtual machine recovery nodes, full current images of client servers and virtual servers.
• Ready-to-Run: The approach doesn't wait until you need to recover to build your virtual recovery nodes, allowing one-click recovery at any time.
• Point-in-Time Recovery: Even though changes are merged into the ready-to-run recovery node, you can restore files or an entire system to a prior state. This is a perfect fit for business and organizations needing the ability to store and recover 7 years of data for regulatory purposes.

To learn more, visit PTS' website, watch the onQ video on the YouTube Data Center channel, or contact PTS at sales@ptsdcs.com

PTS Announces a Strategic Distribution Relationship with Dell Corporation

I’m excited to announce that PTS has launched a strategic distribution relationship with Dell Corporation which includes the full breadth of Dell products targeted for the small to mid-size business segment.

As a leading data center design and turnkey solutions provider, we’ve been approached by many clients asking us to help them reduce overall data center operational costs through power efficiency analysis and improvements. The relationship with Dell allows us to provide consultative support by focusing upon key technology energy drains in the data center, namely routing, server processing, storage and security-based infrastructure products.

By partnering with Dell, we see ourselves as partnering with a best-of-breed solutions provider for our mid-market clients. Depending upon client applications, a host of solutions such as the Dell EqualLogic iSCSI storage family and PowerEdge blade and rack servers can improve power efficiencies, support growth within the data center and provide superior price / performance returns.

To learn more, please contact us today.

NEW from PTS: Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) Services

Behind the scenes at PTS Data Center Solutions, we’re always working to enhance our products, services and solutions in order to provide our clients with designs that offer optimum manageability and performance.

Our newest consulting service utilizes powerful 3-D Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) software to facilitate the design, operational analysis and maintenance of our clients’ data centers and computer rooms.

Here is an overview of the multiple applications of our CFD Services:

• CFD Modeling as a Design Tool

By building CFD models of a mission critical space, engineers can quickly and efficiently review multiple design options. This allows for early detection of potential problems with air flow and heat distribution, thus permitting designers to provide an optimum solution.

• CFD Operational Baseline Service

After the data center’s IT infrastructure has been populated, PTS uses CFD modeling to map the site and analyze the data center cooling characteristics down to the equipment level. By doing so, we can determine how variations in the position and design of equipment, as well as other factors, affect the room’s cooling profile.

• Maintaining a CFD Modeled Computer Room

To ensure the high performance and manageability of a mission critical site, it is important to understand the effect that equipment changes will have before implementation takes place. Through CFD visualization, simulation and analysis, PTS’s consulting team can predict the impact of operational changes on the temperatures in the room. From there PTS is able to make recommendations for avoiding potential problems while planning for future growth. As part of the CFD modeling process, PTS maintains a complete asset inventory log as well as a detailed change order log, ensuring that infrastructure changes are tracked correctly.

If you’re interested in learning more about this data center consulting service, please visit our Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) Services page.

Request a Quote

To request a quote for PTS's CFD Baseline and/or Maintenance Services, please send an email to CFD@PTSdcs.com with the following information:

1. The physical address of the location
2. The square footage of the computer room to be modeled
3. The number of server cabinets, racks, and stand-alone pieces of equipment in the computer room
4. The number of IT infrastructure devices (servers, switches, routers, storage arrays, etc.) the computer room supports

PTS Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Assessment Solution

The PTS VDI Assessment Solution supports the desktop transformation process across all platforms including the VMware Horizon Suite as well as Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp. We collect desktop and end-user computing details about your environment, and offer granular visibility to support the move to VDI.

PTS's VDI Assessment Solution allows you to:

• Quantify machine, user, application, operating system and infrastructure metrics
• Define "normal" performance thresholds and baseline the user experience
• Gain visibility into user persona and authored data
• Access applications for usage and master image strategy
• Pool users in tiered groups, supporting an optimal desktop architecture
• Support a thoughtful application strategy based on actual use and consumed resources
• Design and right-size the supporting infrastructure capacity (CPU, RAM, GPU, Storage, IOPs)

Register Now for your Free VDI Assessment

Save Time

• Quickly identify the machines, users and groups that will benefit most from a desktop transformation
• Confidently categorize users and groups into appropriate resource tiers
• Easily inventory hardware, operating systems and applications

Save Money

• Right-size the virtual infrastructure design for cost and performance
• Optimize and define the appropriate application and master image strategy
• Lower both CAPEX and OPEX using a proven methodology

Register Now for your Free VDI Assessment

PTS Smart Open Lease for your Next Data Center or Enterprise Project

PTS Offers a Turnkey Leasing Solution

There are many compelling reasons to lease equipment. Implementing a leasing strategy provides benefits that both CIOs and CFOs can agree upon. PTS will help craft a turnkey leasing solution for your business, including Planning, Design, Sourcing, Construction, Commissioning, and IT Implementation. We will help establish scope and budget from an IT and Facility standpoint. PTS are also licensed architects and engineers, so we are able to convert our conceptual plans over to signed and sealed design documents. In addition, PTS are general contractors with lots of experience building tenant space computer rooms, and PTS can handle all the rest, including: A/V, communications, and wireless.

PTS' Smart Open Lease plan offers a single flexible financial vehicle that can include Equipment and Services across IT, Facility, and Cabling. We offer delayed repayment options coordinated with design and construction. PTS’s Smart Open Lease allows businesses to get the exact data center they want, with NO upfront costs. PTS will allow you up to six (6) months to accumulate bills and apply them toward your previously approved “open” lease, so you won't have to pay upfront for any capital expenditures for planning, design, construction management, or commissioning. You won't even have to lay out cash for any new IT infrastructure (routers, switches, servers, storage, etc), or new facility infrastructure (generators, UPSs, air conditioners, cabinets, power strips, etc). Clients don't even have to use cash for the labor (IT implementation, electrical construction, mechanical construction, data cabling, etc).

Benefits of Leasing

• Reduce total cost of ownership
• Manage cash flow and budgets
• Keep debt off your balance sheet and improve your performance ratios
• Conserve working capital and keep lines of credit intact
• Eliminate book write-downs at the end of the equipment’s useful life
• Lease payments may be 100% deductible as an operating expense (please review this with your accountant)
• Keep up-to-date equipment in place with a built-in refresh strategy
• Retrieve and download information regarding your leased assets online
• Gain flexibility to upgrade technology to meet your changing needs
• Simplify asset disposal – just return the equipment to your lessor

Data Center Management Gotchas

As the complexity of IT infrastructure continues to increase in data centers, managers must look ahead to avoid unexpected downtime. A list of 10 common surprises for data center/IT managers was released by PTS supplier, Emerson Network Power, at AFCOM Data Center World Spring 2012.

According to a Ponemon Institute study, an outage can cost an organization
an average of about $5,000 per minute. That’s $300,000 in just an hour.

The 10 common surprises include:

1. Those high-density predictions finally are coming true
2. Data center managers will replace servers three times before they replace UPS or cooling systems
3. Downtime is expensive
4. Water and the data center do not mix – but we keep trying
5. New servers use more power than old servers
6. Monitoring is a mess
7. The IT guy is in charge of the building’s HVAC system
8. That patchwork data center needs to be a quilt
9. Data center on demand is a reality
10. IT loads vary – a lot

For complete details on the Emerson list, click here.
As a Diamond Solutions Partner for Emerson, PTS Data Center Solutions leverages our engineering and architectural experience in designing and building data centers with our IT network, storage, virtualization expertise to avoid the surprises mentioned in the article before they result in significant downtime. To learn more contact PTS today.

Is It Time To Toss The Tape?

The ExaGrid disk-based backup appliance with deduplication replaces tape in the nightly backup process. Customers are moving to disk-based backup solutions to remedy a number of problems. These include long backup windows as data volumes increase, the slow (and often unreliable) process of finding and restoring files from tape, the need for a Disaster Recovery Strategy or remote site replication, and the desire to employ zone-level deduplication in the process to eliminate redundant data and maximize storage capacity. In a recent independent survey, 88% of respondents reported faster backup times using the ExaGrid solution.

The migration from tape to disk-based backups is also being driven by the low cost of disk, the speed advantages of disk over tape, and the long-term reliability of a disk-based solution for compliance and regulatory purposes in certain industries.

ExaGrid solutions are ideal for users with 1TB to 100TB of data and can be integrated and installed by the customer in less than one hour.

Our customers are no longer asking if they will replace tape with disk, but when? If you are considering the move from tape, you might find the “7 Key Steps to Overcoming the Limitations of Tape Backup White Paper” helpful. Click here to download and if you qualify, ExaGrid will send you a $100 American Express Gift Card if you request an individual web presentation with PTS and ExaGrid.

PTS Showcasing Its CloudCover Convergence Platform at NJTC Innovation Forecast 2/10/2015

Tuesday, February 10, 2015 - NJTC Innovation Forecast 

PTS will be showcasing its CloudCover IT/Facility/Cabling convergence platform, with partner SimpliVity, a leader in hyper-converged IT deployment including compute, storage, WAN optimization, backup, replication, and deduplication. The Innovation Forecast will also feature a panel on how new ideas will be funded in 2015 and beyond. After the event, attendees will have an opportunity to take a tour of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, one of the leading technology laboratories in the country.

The event takes place on Tuesday, February 10, 2015, from 1:00 to 5:00PM (Plus Tour) at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, 100 Stellarator Road, Princeton, NJ, 08543-0451

Click Here for More Information and To Register

 

‘Lights Out’ Data Center Management

In a recent post at The Data Center Journal, titled “Save some money – work with outsiders,” Rakesh Dogra discusses the new trend to minimize power bills using Lights-Out data center and remote management. [As a side note, way back in 2006 we blogged about how “dim” data center designs are a realistic goal for most companies. You can read that post here.]

Dogra explains that the use of these tactics can lead to major cost savings. He suggests that, looking at your IT, security and facilities staff, it is unwise to cut back on security personnel but it may be prudent to use remote management to replace portions of the IT staff. Additional benefits may include:

• A lesser possibility of accidents and security breaches since fewer people will have physical access to a computer room.
• Response time is boosted with remote bios level access to a data center’s servers.
• Geographical independence can also be achieved through this system.

A potential downside of this system is that a “data center will need people within its premises too to fire fight something going wrong like outages. Also, a data center manager may not find someone with the required amount of experience and expertise to fend off crisis when it happens.”

It is surely a best practice to consider operating as ‘lights out’ a data center as possible, as the author suggests.

For PTS, the real secret to realizing operational costs savings from reduced energy consumption has less to do with facility based solutions than it does with IT. Our position is that there is far more operational cost savings potential coming from virtualizing servers and storage.

To prove the point, in 2010, PTS will perform a network re-design effort of our own operations and provide detailed documentation and analysis of the before and after conditions of our data center energy usage. So, stay tuned...

Embracing the Expanding Role of IT in Business

I was recently asked by Processor Magazine to answer a few questions about IT’s role in business, and it occurred to me that now might be a perfect time to give a “shout out” to the IT folks out there. A sort of gift, if you will, in the spirit of the season.

First, let me dispel an all too common myth – IT is not just a group of “geeks” typing code all day in the server closet down the hall. Far from it. As technology continues marching forward, IT’s role and its importance to the bottom line continues to grow. And don’t just take my word for it – according to the MIT Sloan Management Review, Information and Information Technology have become the fifth major resource available to executives for shaping an organization, alongside people, money, material and machines.[1] In fact, we’re witnessing all businesses, from large to small, expanding what was traditionally thought of as IT, to a broader corporate responsibility known as Information Systems (IS). This new IS paradigm is responsible for the development and implementation of business processes (BP) throughout an organization. These BP’s are often technology based and therefore the logical domain of the technology leaders of the organization.

IT, or “IS” I should say, is responsible for much more than just fixing uncooperative computers. IS deals with the use of infrastructure including PCs, servers, storage, network, security, communications, and related software to manipulate, store, protect, process, transmit, and retrieve information securely. Today, the IT umbrella is quite large and covers many disciplines. IT professionals perform various duties ranging from installing applications, implementing LAN/WAN networks, designing information databases, and managing communications. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, network security, deploying infrastructure, managing communications, database and software design & implementation, as well as the monitoring and administration of entire systems.

So what’s my point, you ask? Simply to reinforce the value of IT and help shift the corporate perception of IT as a “necessary evil” to IT as an important value center that can help businesses and employees to accomplish more, with greater accuracy, in less time, while utilizing less company resources. For 2008, I encourage companies to make a New Year’s resolution to embrace IT and look for ways to make the most of this extremely valuable resource.

[1] Rockart et. Al (1996) "Eight imperatives for the new IT organization," Sloan Management Review.

What are YOU doing about VM Sprawl?

There is no question that virtualization has revolutionized how we set up our business networks. Greater security, improved IT support, smoother migrations, and huge cost savings are just a few of the many benefits of virtualization. However, quickly set up virtual machines (VMs) are often unplanned, and are created without regard to the resources they consume. Eventually, you end up with many VMs on your network, but without the appropriate IT management or control in place. This is called VM sprawl.

VM sprawl has become a very real concern in data centers. On top of VM sprawl, add to the mix: snapshot sprawl, zombie VMs, orphaned files, etc, and your virtual infrastructure’s overall efficiency is greatly reduced. Left unchecked, the stability of the virtual environment is in serious jeopardy, and is well on the way toward crashing or at least experiencing severe performance hits.

PTS offers a free virtual infrastructure assessment to identify problem areas, reclaim your wasted resources, and optimize your virtual environment. In just minutes, we can identify issues, then help you right-size (cpu, memory, storage) your virtual environment, provide better management, and save money in the process.

Request your Free Virtual Infrastructure Assessment

Top 10 Reasons Why you Should Modernize your Data Center

There are many factors influencing how suitable a given data center is at meeting the needs of the organization that is utilizing it.  Inevitably, executives are forced to deal with the challenges of upkeep, and in considering upgrades, must decide whether outsourcing or modernizing is the better route.  In either case, the existing infrastructure will ultimately need to be upgraded or replaced.

When attempting to accommodate the evolving needs of the company, older facilities might reveal limitations of space (both physical space, and data storage space), inefficient cooling, and/or an inflexible existing power infrastructure. Similarly, end-of-life components pose a risk, as well as a slew of other age-related data center issues.  It may be time to consider modernization options.

Reasons why you should modernize your existing data center:

1. You have a several upgrade options that can be both simple, and cost-effective. Companies can buy time by identifying and consolidating underutilized assets, improving cooling, expanding UPS infrastructure, utilizing high-density PODs, and upping preventative maintenance practices. This can often be done within tight budgets.
2. Modernizing carries a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Owning and operating your own data center is still cheaper than outsourcing (colocation or public cloud).
3. Your current data center is on the brink of failure. If you have been operating for an extended time, you likely have unserviceable parts that may be about to fail.
4. High-density PODs may provide seamless migration options. High-density PODs contain high-density racks with dedicated row-based cooling, and operate as a unit. You can abandon the “room” onsite and move to a POD, allowing for a seamless migration to a new environment.
5. Your service options (including replacement part procurement) are past End-Of-Life dates. When (not if), things go wrong with your current data center, you may find yourself past expiration for vendor support. You may also discover that replacement parts may be difficult to procure, if available at all.
6. Your current data center is horribly inefficient. If you haven’t analyzed your data center consumption recently, the extremely high power bills, among other things, might indicate how inefficient your data center might be operating. Upgraded data center will have dramatically increased efficiency, resulting in lower energy costs, and lower emissions.
7. Your current data center no longer meets your needs. If you capacity and efficiency ratings aren’t meeting your current (and future) needs, then it’s becomes necessary to upgrade.
8. You need a more reliable site. Upgraded data center will greatly improve a site’s long-term reliability, and will provide peace of mind due to its increased predictability.
9. There may be Accounting, Insurance, and/or Tax benefits. Pods may be classified as equipment vs building, potentially offering accounting, tax, and/or insurance benefits depending on the location and policies.
10. Converged IT/OT technologies reduce costs. High-efficiency operations technologies (power, cooling, monitoring) have merged with IT infrastructure, creating massive reductions in data center operational costs.

Can Your Data Center Recover From A Disaster?

Looking for a reliable, cost-effective data protection and recovery solution? Tired of tedious tape back-up? Afraid your data center isn’t disaster ready?

PTS Data Center Solutions announced July 10^th it has been accepted as a Strategic Reseller Partner by Quorum. The announcement comes as Quorum continues to build momentum in delivering its appliance and hybrid cloud backup, recovery and continuity solutions. The award-winning Quorum series of appliance and hybrid cloud disaster recovery solutions makes continuity a reality for small to mid-sized companies, letting them recover from any type of disaster within minutes.

Quorum solutions are simple and cost-effective. If your company avoids just 30 minutes of downtime, the Quorum Solution typically pays for itself. The solutions are scaled to support smaller clients with just a few physical or virtual servers but can scale to support larger mid-size clients. The solutions are offered in a range of sizes to match almost any requirement and include processing, de-duplication, storage, and virtualization seamlessly integrated into the appliance.

PTS' President, Pete Sacco, states he is very pleased to be able to deploy Quorum's solutions to our customers. Coupled with PTS' Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Consulting Services, the Quorum appliance-based and Hybrid Cloud Disaster Recovery Solutions provide PTS clients with peace of mind knowing their revenue, customers, and reputation are safeguarded.

Read the complete press release.

PTS Accepted into Con Edison's New Data Center Energy Efficiency Program

Franklin Lakes, NJ, February 15, 2011 — PTS Data Center Solutions announced today it has been accepted as a Market Partner in the Consolidated Edison of New York (Con Edison) Commercial and Industrial Energy Efficiency Program. Specifically, PTS’ focus will fall under Con Edison’s new Data Center Efficiency Program which Con Edison has launched in conjunction with NYSERDA.

The program is specifically designed to offer data centers an unprecedented opportunity to reduce operating costs, improve energy efficiency, and reduce carbon output. In particular, within Con Edison’s coverage area, PTS will assess data center operations and make detailed energy efficiency improvement recommendations of both a facility & IT infrastructure nature.

New York State contains the second highest concentration of data centers in the US and a Lawrence Berkley National Labs study found that data centers in New York consume an estimated 4.5 billion kWh/year at a cost of $584 million/year. The program looks to support data center operators who are capacity constrained and/or looking to reduce energy usage and, therefore, operating expenses.

PTS will leverage its long history in data center consulting, engineering, infrastructure, construction, and maintenance to deliver Energy Usage Assessments with clearly defined energy savings recommendations. These recommendations may span the facility support infrastructure and IT equipment as PTS incorporates a comprehensive and holistic approach to data center analysis and redesign.

PTS President, Peter Sacco, said “PTS is pleased to join the Con Edison Market Partner Network. We will provide exceptional Energy Efficiency Assessments supporting our reputation in the tri-state area as a leading provider of consulting services related to data center greening and optimization. We are excited to work with data center providers who understand the impact successful energy efficiency improvements will have on the environment.”

Energy savings services offered through the program include:

• Outreach, Education, and Marketing to recruit data centers into the initiative;

• Technical Assistance Studies for data center, computer room, and server room operators interested in identifying their energy efficiency options;

• Energy Improvement Installation Incentives to off-set the cost of energy efficiency improvements. Improvements could include lighting, cooling, insulation, VFDs, server upgrades, virtualization, storage consolidation and other energy-related measures; and,

• Customer Installation Support to provide participating data centers with a complete package that addresses all energy related issues critical to their facilities’ operation.

A customized portfolio of energy efficiency services will be tailored to a data center’s specific energy needs.

To learn more about the Con Edison program as well as other PTS Energy Efficiency services, feel free to contact PTS at 201-337-3833, visit http://www.ptsdcs.com/energy-efficiency-assessments.asp, or email us at marketing@PTSdcs.com. You can also get program information at the Con Edison program website http://www.coned.com/energysavings.

About Consolidated Edison Company of New York (Con Edison)

Con Edison is a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. [NYSE: ED], one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies, with approximately $13 billion in annual revenues and $35 billion in assets. The utility provides electric, gas and steam service to more than three million customers in New York City and Westchester County, New York. For additional financial, operations and customer service information, visit us on the Web at www.conEd.com, at our green site, www.coned.com/thepowerofgreen, or find us on Facebook at Power of Green.

About PTS Data Center Solutions

Founded in 1998, PTS is a turnkey solutions provider specializing in data center and computer room consulting, engineering, infrastructure, construction, and maintenance services. We offer a broad range of project experience in designing data centers, computer rooms, and technical spaces. We employ industry best practices in integrating proven, ‘best-of-breed’, critical infrastructure technologies that result in always available, scalable, redundant, fault-tolerant, manageable, and maintainable mission critical environments.

In today's highly competitive climate where businesses can't stop and downtime is measured in profits lost, PTS offers survey, assessment, strategy, planning, feasibility, engineering, design, construction, commissioning, implementation, monitoring, maintenance, and predictive analysis services for protection against of some of the leading causes of critical systems downtime, hardware damage, data loss, and decreased employee productivity. Highly respected in our industry, PTS sets the standard for ‘always available’ solutions for data center and computer room environments.

To learn more, visit the company’s website at www.ptsdcs.com.

###

Contact Information:
Larry Davis
Director of Marketing
201-337-3833 x123
ldavis@ptsdcs.com

PTS Exhibiting at 3rd Annual HITECH Symposium for Healthcare Related IT Solutions

PTS Data Center Solutions is exhibiting at the Third Annual Mid-Atlantic Crossing the Infrastructure & HITECH Meaningful Divide Symposium. 

The event is Entitled: “Patients, Care Givers, and Technology: Partners in Care" and will take place on March 21st and 22nd at the Radisson Valley Forge in Pennsylvania.

For those of you unfamiliar with HITECH, the HITECH Act was established with the primary goal of improving the population’s health and the quality and cost of healthcare. One particular focus area is in the ability to provide electronic medial records for patients to service providers anywhere in the world via proper, HIPAA-compliant, sharing of these records anywhere the patient may happen to be.

The symposium includes a series of seminars and presentations related to IT issues and problems experienced by IT professionals in the healthcare sector. In addition, there is an exhibit hall for vendors to present solutions targeting healthcare IT.

PTS has world class design, engineering, construction, and management staff across both facility and IT disciplines. This integrated data center facility and IT expertise affords PTS a unique vantage point for executing data center, computer room, and network operations center projects for both healtcare service providers and hospitals as well as many other market sectors. We can build, redesign, consolidate or relocate your computer room as well as provide many IT-related services and solutions:

• Routing & Switching
• Information / Network Security
• Servers & Systems
• Virtualization Technologies
• Data Protection & Storage
• Unified Communications
• Microsoft Exchange & Active Directory
• Application Development
• Software Development

Learn more about the HITECH Symposium or Register for the Event.

Critical Considerations during a Data Center Migration

If you've got more than a rack or two in your data center or computer room, a data center migration is rife with risk. Who wants to lie awake in the weeks before the migration wondering if they've missed something? Will everything go smoothly? Did I make the right choices for services companies, infrastructure upgrades, network service providers, etc.?

In a nutshell, planning and perspective are good critical as data center managers when it's time to complete a migration (or consolidation) of data center assets. Planning and perspective allow you to take a step back and make sure your approach holds water, allow you to check with peers in the industry for accepted best practices, and allow you to keep your job when the migration goes smoothly.

Critical Considerations in Preparation for a Data Center Migration include:

• Think About the Layout. Flow through a data center is critical to develop efficiencies. Flow includes power from utility through distribution to feeders to PDUs as well as battery backup and utility backup (generators) and is driven by a coherent data center design. In addition to power, think about network connectivity from the ingress at the street through to the network core. Also, how will data flow from core to distribution to access out to server/storage assets. A simple rule of thumb: Firewalls, DMZs, and network termination equipment should all be located close to the network entrance and/or network rack.
• Plan for Growth. It isn't enough to plan for growth within today's paradigm and technology. Rather, if at all possible, it's critical to consider the next two life cycles in technology. This means performing research on expected future rack power requirements as well as the data center key design criteria for today and 2-3 years into the future. Who would have thought 5 kW of redundant power at the rack may not be enough now if you're organization is planning to roll out blade server cabinets? Don't get caught having to migrate yet again.
• Plan the Cable Plant. Cabling architecture is the backbone of the data center network infrastructure. Careful planning and consideration is important when deciding on a data center cabling architecture. Key concerns are scalability, flexibility, manageability, availability, and total cost. Therefore, it is critical to plan in advance, leave space for core switches and future growth for the core and distribution switches and cable plan. Also, particularly if you are using a raised floor approach, deploy your cabinets, pull fiber to the cabinets, and run branch circuits for power. The incremental cost of the fiber and power cables waiting for use is minimal, you already have the labor onsite, and who wants an invasive change or upgrade several years down the road.
• Confirm the Asset Inventory. A data center migration gives you the opportunity to "clean out your attic". Like moving between homes, you shouldn't migrate or relocate assets that are decommissioned or not in the data center inventory list. Assets should be in the your Configuration Management Database (CMDB) including owner, department, business processes, applications, and dependencies. In fact, all data center assets should be tracked and maintained before the migration and after it takes place.
• Develop a Complete Relocation Plan. The final step in the data center migration is the relocation itself. Data Center relocations are expensive and require specific expertise and experience. Elements of a solid relocation plan include: Pre-planning and project management, pre-move site preparation, move plan creation, and post-move reviews.

Ultimately, a Data Center Migration requires careful planning, continuous communications, solid contributions from internal and external team members, and risk mitigation plans if/when the unexpected happens. Data Center Consulting Services are available from the consultants at PTS Data Center Solutions.

Top 10 Ways Colocation Can Impact Your Business

For most primary data center or computer room operations, PTS Data Center Solutions contends that owning and operating your own data center offers the best opportunity for long-term ROI, flexibility, and OPEX cost control. However, owning your own facility comes with a CAPEX premium - and that is sometimes not an option. To that end, it may be worth considering a colocation company to support your data center infrastructure requirements. 

Here are our Top 10 reasons to consider a colocation:

1. Reliability. Have you checked your tier rating lately? The Uptime Institute's tier rating system provides higher ratings for facilities which have several levels of redundancy for power, cooling, etc. The costs are significant for a company to build many levels of redundancy throughout its data center or computer room (i.e. design costs, procurement of equipment and services, management costs).
2. Flexibility. Are your typical power requirements at 2.5 KW per rack? Needing a facility capable of supporting blade servers with 10 KW per rack requirements? Consider a colocation specializing in high per rack power requirements. They'll also have the appropriate cooling systems in place.
3. Speed to Deploy. Did management forget to tell you early about a new acquisition and the need to add disparate IT solutions in your data center? Colocation providers typically have ample availability, ready for IT build-outs, at a moment's notice. Sure, you won't be in tomorrow, but a few weeks will do.
4. Security. There's a cost of doing business for colocations in terms of physical and network security. Services include providing protection from theft and fire, but also may include well conceived network security designs. And, if needed, you can look for a facility with 7x24 security.
5. Facility Size. Tired of the endless guessing games related to sizing a facility? Colocations can actually save an organization money because it doesn't have to over-size power, space, and cooling in the facility.  
6. Maintenance. Too many assets to maintain between servers, storage, UPS, cooling, switching, etc.? Think of the time you would save not having to worry about supporting infrastructure and being able to concentrate on keeping the IT infrastructure up-to-date.  
7. Capital Budgetary Constraints. Waiting for your CAPEX budget to be released? What if you can forget about the capital to expand or build a new facility? Colocation monthly fees fall into the operating expense or OPEX category.  
8. Network Management & Monitoring. Is your facility manned 7x24? Many colocation facilities have around-the-clock network operations personnel ready and waiting for a failure. Sure beats yanking the IT manager out of bed. 
9. WAN Connectivity. What happens when the network goes down? Colocation providers have facilities from more than one network services provider and, because of the volume of services, can provide truly separate infrastructures.
10. Offsite Backup & Disaster Recovery. Still taking tapes offsite? Worried about the financial impact of a data center down condition? How about the peace of mind knowing you stored your critical data offsite at a colocation specializing in backup and disaster recovery?  

All these reasons should be considered when looking at colocation or, for that matter, cloud services. If you are looking for expert advice and analysis relevant to your particular scenario, consider PTS' Data Center Facility Business Strategy Consulting Services. The service analyzes your situation, evaluates potential risks, hidden costs, and other items which can affect making the right decision.