Tips for use of VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager

There are various ways to deliver Backup & Disaster Recovery for your enterprise. Backup, which is a necessary requirement for Disaster Recovery includes tape, local disk, remote disk, or some other means of storing your data in case of IT equipment failure or loss. For Disaster Recovery,  PTS Data Center Solutions has presented solutions which include all-in-one appliances, co-location disaster recovery service providers and Storage Area Network or SAN replication. VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) is an excellent approach to consider given:

• Automated migration and site recovery
• Integration with your virtualized environment if you already leverage VMware solutions
• Non-disruptive testing on the site recovery environment
• Simple recovery plan management 

vCenter SRM will require replication of your server and storage environment offsite at a secondary, disaster recovery site. However, with the right expertise and experience, the control and consistent failover results in a manageable disaster recovery plan. VMware provides a series of technical tips for consideration when you are ready to move forward:

1. Start small with a single application or service before implementing across your entire enterprise
2. Learn and address application dependencies to confirm applications are available at the recovery site for the services that must run there
3. Determine the best replication tool (VMware or a 3rd party) for your situation
4. Load the recovery environment with data even if it is slightly stale to synchronize quickly.
5. Organize data by logical failover groups
6. Make sure storage replication adapters are up to date
7. Orchestrate the sequence in which VMs start at the recovery site to prioritize key groups and their dependencies
8. Build multiple recovery plans with common protection groups that fail over together
9. Make sure your VMware software is up-to-date at all times
10. Perform frequent recovery plan testing, particularly in advance of any storm warnings

To learn more, contact PTS or download the VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Tech Tip (registration required).

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.

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.

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

NJ Technology Council - Data Center Summit

PTS Data Center Solutions will be a conference sponsor for the 2012 New Jersey Technology Council Data Center Summit. Titled Working in the Clouds, the focus of the event is on the latest trends and innovative technologies driving the emergence of Next Generation Data Centers. There will be two panel discussions and PTS Data Center Solutions Founder & President, Pete Sacco, will be a panelist for the DCIM Challenges and Opportunities panel in the morning. This panel discussion will examine the world of Data Center Infrastructure Management as a catalyst to increase energy efficiency and control underlying data center operating costs.

The afternoon panel entitled Data Center Options - Deployment Challenges - Solutions brings IT leaders from different industries together to share their data center experiences from due diligence to deployment. Solutions providers will offer examples of client objectives and services provided. The goal of this panel is to help you sort through identifying your data storage needs and the options and solutions that can help you achieve maximum return. If you are battling an IT deployment or storage problem, PTS can help you through our IT Solutions Group. We have a team of engineering experts including network and systems architects, server and storage engineers, virtualization engineers, and other IT-focused technical staff.

Who should attend this event?

• C-level executives (CEO / CIO / COO / CFO / CTO)
• Data Center Facilities Managers and Engineers, IT and Infrastructure Managers, Data Center Managers
• Directors and Consultants, IT Directors, Infrastructure Directors, IT Consultants
• Business Analysts, Finance Directors & Managers

When: December 13, 2012, from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM

Where: Eisenhower Conference Center, Livingston, NJ 07039

Top Ten Reasons to Renovate Your Data Center

Like your home, data centers hit a point of no return --- when slapping some paint on the walls (or adding additional rack UPS or portable cooling systems (e.g. standing floor fans (you know who you are!)) just isn't enough to mask inherent issues.

When do you know it's time
to renovate your data center?

1. I'm having hot flashes as I traverse the data center. The goal of data center cooling solutions is to drive average cold aisle and hot aisle temperatures. When these temperatures fluctuate too greatly, it may be time to look at Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis to gauge how best to arrange cooling systems and, where necessary, isolate hot and cold aisle containment.
2. We've fallen behind on the latest technology. Advances in blade servers, storage and networking combine to catapult performance ahead of business needs. Blade servers, for example, have introduced the concept of high-density data centers that pack previously unheard-of performance in a single rack. New rack design and cooling technology provide a new level of control and savings in both cost and energy consumption.
3. We're afraid to go on vacation. This means your IT staff is spending countless hours on mundane tasks just to keep your computing infrastructure up and running rather than focusing on the ways in which IT can help advance the goals of the business. Consider outsourcing some of those functions to a managed services provider; remote monitoring and management are becoming accepted practices in most IT departments today.
4. My cable plant looks like this. When troubleshooting cabling issues is beyond your means, or there just isn't adequate cable management, it's time to consider new approaches to improving cabling. This will save time and money and improve overall reliability of the data center.
5. Sorry, but no room at the inn. When you can't squeeze a single additional piece of gear or another watt of power into your data center, it's time to consider a renovation. Like cleaning your basement or attic at home, a renovation will free up rack u-space. Under-utilized or obsolete equipment can be identified and discarded. And, renovation can be used to increase power capacity for those high draw blade servers.
6. You worry more about disaster recovery than your peers. Hope is not a strategy. If you're not really sure how well your disaster recovery plan will protect your data in the event of a flooded data center, an earthquake or any other emergency scenario, then your plan is outdated. The process of a formal data center renovation will address redundancy in power and cooling and begin the process of designing to overcome a disaster.
7. Portable fans are in vogue. Fans beget fans. A fan cools a hot rack by re-directing cool air intended for another rack. Now an additional fan is needed to fill the cool air gap. As additional servers are deployed, the cooling needs change. Performing a CFD audit can re-balance your data center hot-aisle / cold aisle air-flow system design for today’s needs and allow you to maintain optimal temperatures in the data center while conserving energy and its associated costs.
8. Centralized control can only happen in a large enterprise.Take a serious look at virtualization and Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) tools. These approaches may require renovation to certain aspects of an older data center but can be worth it if you can gain visibility and centralized control within the environment. DCIM tools come in many flavors and feature sets which are scalable for the smaller data center.
9. A Green data center design is only a pipe dream.Visions of Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) under 2.0 need not be impossible. Considering green data center design techniques and improved performance of facility supporting infrastructure can remove inefficiencies in how much power goes to IT equipment versus non-IT equipment. The result can be reduced operating expenses direct to the bottom line.
10. When designing your original data center requirements your crystal ball was only good for 5-7 years. Data center designs hinge upon key design criteria to support today's IT load. Well planned data center designs also consider future IT requirements, organizational growth, applications growth, etc. However, with significant IT design and innovation, it's extremely difficult to plan for IT requirements 5 or more years in advance.

In the end, renovating a data center is far more complex than renovating a home. Smart home owners, when asked about a major renovation such as a kitchen upgrade, talk of making excellent choices such as checking into a hotel when the kitchen was lost. In a data center renovation, operations must continue on, many times with little to no acceptable downtime during critical renovation phases. Exceptional planning, significant prior experience, and a well conceived and vetted Data Center Renovation process are critical to reduce risk of downtime during a renovation project. With so much riding on day-to-day data center performance as well as the long-term effectiveness of the facility, the stakes are high when planning and implementing any changes. Consider seeking out a professional data center design & build firm.

The Importance of Data Center Site Cleaning

Why Invest in Data Center Cleaning?
Is It Really Critical to Professionally Clean My Mission Critical Facilities?

Data Center Cleaning is NOT about the aesthetic appeal of a clean, dust-free environment. Rather, investing to maintain a clean data center is a vital service that can sustain the maximum operational life span of IT infrastructure equipment. The primary benefit to professionally cleaning a data center is increased reliability, up-time, and extended IT infrastructure life. Dust and dirt buildup at the server fan air intake can cause fan failure or static discharge inside electronic equipment. By eliminating dust and dirt buildup, system reliability and up-time is ultimately increased. In addition, by eliminating dust and dirt buildup, the thermal output of server and storage components can be reduced and, therefore, reduce cooling requirements.

PTS Data Center Solutions experienced cleaning crews are well aware of the caution that must be employed in an active data center environment during regular cleanings. After data center construction is complete, PTS will thoroughly clean above and below the raised floor paying particular attention to components that have a strong attraction to dust. In addition to post construction cleaning, PTS strongly recommends regular cleanings throughout the life of the data center.

PTS’ Data Center Cleaning Services feature:

• Encapsulation of sub floor to eliminate concrete powdering
• Systematic vacuuming to remove dirt, dust, and contaminants
• Antistatic cleaning and machine scrubbing of high pressure laminate raised floor surfaces
• Damp wiping of environmental equipment and counter surfaces
• Carpet cleaning
• Ramp and tile floor landing waxing 

Learn more here or contact PTS at 201-337-3833.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Why You Should Consider VMware vSphere 5

There are several choices available for server, storage, and desktop virtualization. VMware's vSphere solution continues to lead the pack in terms of features and functionality. With its recent release of version 5 for both vSphere and Site Recovery Manager, VMware responds to client and partner requests to improve speed to deploy, response to disaster, and the ability to run its solutions independent of platform (i.e. now from a smart phone).
Top Reasons to Consider vSphere 5:

• Speed of High Availability Features - Performs more simultaneous vMotions, simplifies clustering setup and configuration, and enhances reliability through better resource guarantees and monitoring


• vCenter Now Runs as a Virtual Management Assistant - For small scale deployments, there is no need to purchase an operating system


• Web Client Availability - Allows platform independence (i.e. the ability to run from a smart phone)


• Host Profiling - Permits copying of host settings across multiple ESXi hosts allowing a series of hosts to be deployed and configured in a fraction of the time

To learn more about the new VMware vSphere 5 features as well as improvements to Site Recovery Manager, Click Here or Contact PTS.

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 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

To COLO or Not To COLO Part II

There are many valid reasons to COLO or outsource part of your data processing and storage requirements, but we are finding that there are many misconceptions about cost benefits in making a decision to COLO and that cost is typically the determining factor even though there is no real savings. What is often overlooked in evaluating data center strategy options; owning and operating a data center versus COLO space is that even if I outsource the processing and data storage I cannot outsource the need for a local network and facility support infrastructure so I still need an environmentally controlled data center with conditioned power and back-up to support my local network, WAN connectivity, security & phone systems. You can never outsource the entire facilities mission critical infrastructure can you?

For a true comparison, we need to look at hosted space for my processing & data storage while owning a small data center to support my local network, facility and safety equipment with power & bandwidth costs for both the local & COLO spaces versus owning the data center to accommodate my processing, data storage, network, facility and safety equipment with its operating costs to support everything in that single facility. With the COLO option we can reduce CAPEX from having to expand the mission critical facility by hosting the need for additional servers & data storage, but building with modular scalable data center solutions can accomplish that goal with financing and an added bonus of tax depreciation. There are cases where costs for power in a location are over .20 per kWr that hosting becomes more attractive for my processing and data storage, but it would still be less costly to relocate your processing and data storage to an area with lower utility costs and continue to own as hosting facilities always have a mark-up on at least one facet of space, power, bandwidth and support. While COLO has a lower initial CAPEX, its higher OPEX absolutely ensures the COLO model will always be more expensive in the long run. So if COLO isn’t less expensive in the long run, why are COLO facilities popping up like rabbits in springtime?

The 3 real reasons to host & the cause of the COLO boom are:
1.) We can't keep up with the expansion demand; we’re going to run out of space, power or cooling for our processing and data storage before we can alter our facilities to accommodate the growth
2.) We don't have the internal expertise to effectively plan, build, manage and operate our own data centers to the availability requirements of our businesses. I'll expand on this one a little to say that many organizations haven't effectively planned, designed or engineered their data centers in the past so they only got 3 years out of their 10 year data center plan. They built structured cabling or power infrastructure to meet their needs for bandwidth and power today so their data center quickly became outdated. For organizations like this data centers were a bad investment. Perhaps they should look to make improvements in their decision making in this area or rely more on effective consulting engineers.
3.) We don't want to be in the business of owning and operating a data center and want to focus our attention to our core business. Careful with this one as I've yet to see an organization operate a facility without a network, security system and phone system which require a small data center, of course we can outsource the operations and maintenance of a small data center’s operation but not the responsibility.

If we are doing an effective job with management and decision making, it will always be less expensive in the long run to own and operate our data centers. Stakeholders and decision makers should be more careful in their dreams of getting out of the data center business as well because nowadays it is the business. COLO facilities don't alleviate us of the responsibility for effectively protecting and managing our mission critical assets. COLO facilities can only reduce the data processing & storage components to deliver what might be unobtainable in our existing facilities or difficult to obtain in time given an aggressive IT expansion in our own facilities. Yes there are numerous ways to effectively shed some of the responsibility, with hosting effectively shedding some of the processing, data storage and DR responsibilities, but we will never get away from all of the responsibility for our data center or the ultimate responsibility.

Data Center Events Schedule

Summer is quickly coming to an end and we’re gearing up for a busy fall. Before you head out for the Labor Day weekend, here’s a recap of our upcoming events schedule for the month of September.

September 14-15, 2010 – 7x24 Exchange Borgata Event
PTS is pleased to participate in the 7x24 Exchange Delaware Valley Chapter’s Annual Fall Conference. The event is in Atlantic City at the Borgata and will include a number of presentations and panel discussions related to sustainable data center design, including data center performance measurement, EPA updates, the “Buy vs. Build” debate, etc. Click here for more info.

September 15, 2010 – QuikEnvision 3rd Annual Technology Conference
PTS is pleased to sponsor QuikEnvision 2010, the 3rd Annual Technology Conference presented by Quality Technology Solutions. The event is in New York City and presents strategies for delivering business value with Information Technology. Attending this conference will help you to identify IT strategies and resources that will help your business save money, improve service and create competitive advantages. Click here for more info.

September 22, 2010 – “Beef Up Your Data Protection” Seminar
RSVP today to join PTS Data Center Solutions, Compellent and ExaGrid Systems, along with your fellow IT and data center operations peers for a complimentary lunch seminar on Wednesday, September 22nd at 11:30 a.m. at Ruth's Chris Steak House in New York City. Entitled “Beef Up Your Data Protection”, the seminar will focus upon PTS Data Center Consolidation Consulting, Compellent Storage Area Networking, and ExaGrid Disk Backup. All attendees will be entered in a raffle for a free Apple iPad. Click here for more info.

Coming up in October, PTS will be working with manufacturer partner, Enterasys, during the Interop NY event. Our team will also be presenting and exhibiting at the Fall 2010 Data Center World Event in Las Vegas. Please visit us at booth #207 and experience our new Data Center Maintenance Management Software (DCMMS) solution. We hope you’ll join us.

Storage & Data Deduplication

PTS continues to build upon our Storage & Data Protection Consulting Services aimed at providing the right storage solution for our client's needs. Therefore, the IT-side of this month's Solutions Showcase provides an overview of our newest storage and data deduplication solutions.

Compellent Fluid Data Storage solutions and ExaGrid Systems Disk-Based Backup with Dedeplication solutions add additional depth to the PTS storage portfolio.

Compellent Fluid Data Storage

With a powerful data movement engine, intelligent software applications, and an open, agile hardware platform, Fluid Data storage is an enterprise-class solution which actively and intelligently manages data at a more granular level to cut cost, time, and risk.

Fluid Data storage dynamically moves enterprise data to the optimal tier based on actual use. The most active blocks reside on high-performance SSD, Fibre Channel, or SAS drives, while infrequently accessed data migrates to lower-cost, high-capacity SAS or SATA drives. The result is network storage that's always in tune with application needs, plus overall storage costs cut by up to 80%

The Fluid Data storage intelligent software applications enables enterprises of all sizes to move beyond simply storing data to actively, intelligently managing data. Powerful network storage software with built-in intelligence and automation optimizes the provisioning, placement and protection of data throughout its lifecycle.

Unlike network storage systems that require organizations to rip and replace hardware as business needs change, Compellent storage uses standards-based hardware and supports new technologies on a single, modular platform. Users can mix and match drive technologies such as SSD, FC, SAS and SATA, and utilize a range of interconnects - from FC to FCOE and iSCSI to 10GbE. Plus, fully redundant hardware components and advanced failover features ensure no single point of failure for high enterprise data availability.

To learn more about Fluid Data Storage, Click Here.

ExaGrid Systems Disk-Based Backup with Deduplication

ExaGrid's EX Series disk-based backup with deduplication revolutionizes how organizations backup and protect their data. By leveraging your current backup application and replacing tape in your nightly backup process, ExaGrid's simple, turnkey appliance can:

• Reduce the disk space required by at least 10:1, and up to 50:1
• Shorten your backup window by 30-90%, ensuring all of your data is fully protected
• Improve your disaster recovery plan through off-site disk-based retention of your data
• Reduce the amount of time your IT staff spends on managing backups
• Scale easily and cost-effectively with your data growth
• Fully protect your virtualized environment
• Reduce other costs associated with tape-based backup

The six core ExaGrid disk-based backup appliances include GRID computing software which allows them to virtualize into one another when plugged into a switch. As a result, any of the six appliance models can be mixed and matched into a single GRID system with full backup capacities up to 100TB (6 PB logical). Once virtualized, they appear as a single pool of long-term capacity. Capacity load balancing of all data across servers is automatic, and multiple GRID systems can be combined for additional capacity. Even though data is load-balanced, deduplication occurs across the systems so that data migration does not cause a loss of effectiveness in deduplication.

ExaGrid's unique approach to scalability provides the following benefits:

• Performance is maintained as your data grows - each additional ExaGrid server added to a system provides disk, processor, memory and GigE
• Plug and play expansion - adding an additional ExaGrid server is as simple as plugging it in and letting ExaGrid's automatic virtualized GRID software do the rest
• Cost-Effective and Flexible Solution with No "Forklift" Upgrades - no need to over-buy storage capacity up front - modular systems are easily combined in a virtualized GRID to smoothly scale up for larger capacities as needed with no painful "forklift" upgrades.
• Capacity utilization is load-balanced across servers - as a single server reaches full utilization, it can leverage space available on other servers in the GRID

To learn more about the ExaGrid EX Series, Click Here.

PTS Data Center Solutions Expands its IT Solutions Portfolio with Compellent Fluid Data Storage and ExaGrid Systems Disk-Based Backup Solutions

PTS Data Center Solutions has launched a strategic distribution relationship with Compellent Technologies and ExaGrid Systems. The relationship includes the full breadth of products from both manufacturers targeted for midsized enterprises.

As a data center consulting and turn-key solutions provider, PTS provides integrated data center facility and IT technical expertise for clients. With a proven process for understanding and addressing client needs, as well as integrated facilities and IT experience & expertise, PTS has a unique vantage point for executing data center, computer room, and network operations center projects. PTS understands the impact IT architecture and network design approaches have on the underlying facility layer in terms of power, cooling, and space considerations and seeks out best-of-breed IT solutions that reduce facility load requirements.

"PTS is often approached by clients requesting support to improve data center efficiencies through energy efficiency analysis, computational fluid dynamic modeling, and virtualization assessments. By expanding our portfolio of storage, backup, and data deduplication solutions with two leading providers in Compellent and ExaGrid Systems, we are providing leading edge solutions with proven track records. Compellent's block-level storage management offers a more granular approach to automatically and actively manage data resulting in reduced data center costs, footprint, and energy consumption. ExaGrid System's scalable disk-based backup solutions reduce the total amount of disk space needed through backup compression and deduplication. Together with PTS' consulting services, we are able to significantly reduce overall data center operational expenses," said PTS President, Peter Sacco.

Compellent's Fluid Data architecture enables superior utilization and efficiency while its unified storage with zNAS offers a single user interface to streamline management of heterogeneous Unix, Linux and Windows file and block data. The Fluid Data architecture increases storage efficiency and utilization by automatically tiering file storage at the block-level, intelligently thin provisioning storage for unstructured data, and delivering rapid data recovery and thin replication. Integrated SAN and NAS management simplifies planning, provisioning and recovery of virtual servers in VMware, Microsoft, Citrix, and Oracle environments.

The ExaGrid Disk-based Backup System is a turnkey, plug-and-play solution that works with existing backup applications and enables faster and more reliable backups and restores. Customers report that backup time is reduced by 30 to 90 percent over traditional tape backup. ExaGrid's patented byte-level data deduplication technology and most recent backup compression, coupled with high-quality SATA storage, reduces the amount of disk space needed by a range of 10:1 to as high as 50:1, or more, resulting in a price that's often less than traditional tape-based backup.

About PTS Data Center Solutions
Experts for Your Always Available Data Center

PTS Data Center Solutions specializes in the business strategy, planning, designing, engineering, constructing, commissioning, implementing, maintaining, and managing of data center and computer room environments from both the facility and IT perspectives.

Founded in 1998, PTS is a consulting, design/engineering, and construction firm providing turnkey solutions, and offering a broad range of data center, computer room, and technical space project experience. PTS employs 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 every engagement, PTS applies a disciplined, consultative approach to systematically survey and assess the situation and then develop effective plans for seizing opportunities and overcoming obstacles. And, PTS offers a full complement of services—from business strategy and planning to facilities engineering to IT design and implementation—to help transform those plans into reality.

For more information and news, visit the PTS website at www.PTSdcs.com.

About Compellent

Compellent Technologies (NYSE: CML) provides Fluid Data storage that automates the movement and management of data at a granular level, enabling organizations to constantly adapt to change, slash costs and secure information against downtime and disaster. This patented, built-in storage intelligence easily delivers significant efficiency, scalability and flexibility. With an all-channel sales network in 35 countries, Compellent is one of the fastest growing enterprise storage companies in the world.

For more information, visit the Compellent website at www.compellent.com.

About ExaGrid Systems

ExaGrid Systems offers the only disk-based backup appliance with data deduplication purpose-built for backup that leverages a unique architecture optimized for performance, scalability and price. The combination of post-process deduplication, most recent backup cache, and GRID scalability enables IT departments to achieve the shortest backup window and the fastest, most reliable restores, tape copy, and disaster recovery without performance degradation or forklift upgrades as data grows. With offices and distribution worldwide, ExaGrid has more than 2,400 systems installed at 600 customers, and more than 170 published customer success stories.

For more information, visit the ExaGrid website at www.exagrid.com.

# # #

Contact Information:

Larry Davis
PTS Data Center Solutions
201-337-3833 ext. 123
ldavis@ptsdcs.com

Liem Nguyen
Compellent Technologies
952-294-2851
liem.nguyen@compellent.com

Bill Hobbib
ExaGrid Systems
508-898-2872 ext. 286
bhobbib@exagrid.com

PTS Education & White Papers

Looking to continue its tradition of providing content-rich educational materials for data center managers through its website, PTS has significantly upgraded its white paper section. As we continue to add our own industry-specific content through white paper development, presentations at numerous industry events, discussion threads on the PTS blog and through the LinkedIn Computer Room Design group, we strive to stay up-to-date on the latest facility- and IT-related trends.

To that end we have revamped our media library (registration required). Now you can find relevant educational papers by facility, IT or specific topics including: Consolidation, Cooling, Financial, General, Management, Network, Power, Safety, Security, Servers, Storage, and Virtualization. Interesting white papers to add to your reading list include:

Proper Sizing of IT Power & Cooling (by Green Grid). Between 2000 and 2006, energy requirements for data centers doubled, and they are on track to double again by 2011. In the same time period, typical per-rack heat densities went from 1 kW to 7 kW, and they are estimated to exceed 20 kW per rack by 2010. This places tremendous importance on a data center facility planner's ability to properly budget for future power and cooling infrastructure requirements. Today's energy costs and efficiency demands necessitate a more accurate method of determining those requirements. This white paper has been developed to introduce the reader to the many new and highly accurate software tools available for estimating power and cooling capacity requirements. Click here for the full white paper.

Server Consolidation and Containment With Virtual Infrastructure (by VMware). To meet the constant demand to deploy, maintain and grow a broad array of services and applications, , IT organizations must continually add new servers. However, as a consequence of purchasing more and more servers, organizations face a growing server sprawl presenting challenges that include: rising costs, poor return on investment, decreasing manageability, and reduced efficiency. Click here for the full white paper.

Increasing Data Center Efficiency with Server Power Measurements (by Intel). Intel IT defined methods for analyzing computing energy efficiency within our design computing environment, using measurements of actual server power consumption and utilization. We used these methods to identify trends and opportunities for improving data center efficiency, and to implement a pilot project that increased data center computing capacity. Click here for the full white paper.

Optimizing Power Distribution for High-Density Computing (by Eaton). Fueled by the rapid rise of technologies such as virtualization and blade servers, computing densities in today's data centers are climbing dramatically. As a result, server enclosures are requiring more power than ever before. The result of this is a new and demanding set of power distribution challenges. To meet the power requirements of their increasingly dense server racks, organizations are looking for power circuits and power distribution units (PDUs) that have adequate power capacity and make optimal use of panelboards, but don't drive such high densities that they are prohibitively expensive to cool. Click here for the full white paper.

Is Your IT Infrastructure Ready for Tomorrow? Preparing for a 10GbE Future (by David Reine, The Clipper Group). An IT infrastructure will be the key to the success of the enterprise data center in the years to come. Because of the poor utilization of existing single-core microprocessor servers, the IT staff of the typical data center has embarked on a journey of consolidation and virtualization to reduce server sprawl, simplify data center complexity, and reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the IT infrastructure. Click here for the full white paper.

Cut Your Data Center Cooling Costs

Modern data centers face a number of cooling system challenges due to the requirements of today's IT systems, combined with the way those IT systems are deployed. In the latest issue of PROCESSOR magazine, Elizabeth Millard examines strategies for keeping power and cooling operations streamlined during the summer months when outside temperatures rise.

The article includes my thoughts on the topic, as well as insights from John Busch, chairman and CTO at Schooner Information Technology; Michael Sigourney, senior product specialist at AVTECH; and Kris Domich, principal consultant at Dimension Data.

Key points include:

• Look at upgrading processing and storage capability for greater efficiency.
• Establish a strong preventive maintenance strategy before the summer months hit.
• Keep accurate records to understand utilization and cost changes over different years.

PTS' expertise is a valuable asset in this area as companies are often unable to predict if their data center cooling system will supply a future load, even when the characteristics of the load are known in advance. If your company is looking to establish a cooling system for your data center that will withstand system failures and load increases, contact PTS as the next step in your process.