Cloud computing is changing the business landscape.  Changing along with that is one of the last remnants of the days of many moving parts in computers- Disk Drives.

The disk drive is, perhaps, the last component of the computing world that contains actual moving parts- except for maybe the cooling fan and the DVD drive.  Subject to the laws of entropy, it’s a known fact that hard disk drives(HDDs) eventually wear out and the results can be catastrophic.  In fact, so much that a whole industry around data protection was born and has matured around the eventuality of Hard Disk Drive failure.  Some examples?-  RAID Arrays, Data Backup Services, and Hi-Availability solutions that add to data redundancy and data protection.  All these services and industry that sprouted up around the HDD’s propensity for failure treated the symptoms without curing the disease.

Enter the SSD –or  Solid State Drive

Actually the SSD has been around since the near beginnings of the computing age but not necessarily in the form we know it today.  Like any technology, it’s spent a few decades evolving, growing, morphing and being marketed into something that doesn’t even remotely resemble its prototype.

What is SSD Technology?

We’ll keep it simple-  SSD is just what its name implies. It’s Disk Drive Technology without moving parts.  It’s a more reliable and high-tech version of the USB Thumbdrives you get at your favorite trade show.  That’s the simple description but, as always, there’s a lot more to the story with SSD- we’ll save that for another discussion.

SSD Technology Is Re-shaping the Cloud Computing World

The implications of industry adoption of SSD are understated in my opinion.  It’s an insidious change that will look like an industry sea change to the computer techies who are still in diapers and maybe just learning to play with a mouse or a tablet.

Barriers to entry are falling at an increasing rate for a few reasons:

1. Cost- Costs have finally come down to meet our price point.  The bean counters are happy.
2. Product Life-Cycle- SSD’s have some unique technological challenges.  Many of those challenges have been addressed which means they are just now being adopted in the Enterprise environment.
3. Cloud Computing’s specialized Needs- One of the side effects of cloud computing is a move from decentralized storage to centralized storage- the result is a need for large scale data storage (drives) that can handle a multi-user environment on a virtualized level.  That’s a lot of sophisticated software control.  SSD is just now proving itself in that arena when only a few years ago it was not economically feasible.

Will the Traditional Hard Disk Drive Go Away?

Not in the short or even the medium term.  In fact, my prediction is HDDs are going to become even more affordable.  For those who don’t need SSD technology rejoice!! HDD prices will continue to fall and we’ll have access to some really cool technology at very affordable prices.  HDDs will fail and, when they do, we’ll buy another one.

Why SSDs?

For enterprises with the massive storage needs generated by Cloud Computing the appeal and market niche is there:
1.    Power consumption- High Performance SSD’s consume 1/3 to 1/2 the power of HDDs
2.    Cooling- SSDs require little-to-no cooling- this decreases data center cooling requirements
3.    Space- SSDs are more compact then HDDs
4.    Efficiency- In most cases SSDs read, write, and transfer data faster than HDDs.
5.    Reliability- SSDs have no moving parts- need we say more?
Apply these benefits to an enterprise environment and you can see the opportunities for Cost Savings, Efficiency and Speed increases are ready to be captured.

Contact SolutionPro

Part 2 of a two-part blog post.
Part 1 discussed power consumption and some methods employed by data centers to curb power consumption.

Part 2 is a drill-down into one of the largest parts of data center power consumption-  Cooling.

We discuss some of the latest tactics employed to reduce cooling-related costs.

Data Center Cooling
We often use the word cooling because it’s very descriptive but Cooling can also include the power consumed to run lights and other ancillary services. Cooling costs in a data center are, not surprisingly, under the microscope and every data center works to identify areas of opportunity to reduce the energy consumption from cooling needs as well as the capital expenditures related to cooling needs.  There are numerous ways to reduce cooling-related costs but the most interesting one seems to be fresh air cooling.

Fresh Air Cooling: This method is in use by many data centers.  The data center facility must be located in an area with a compatible climate to achieve fresh air cooling.  Of particular interest in fresh air cooling is the idea of an “Industry Standard Data Center Temperature”.    Typically the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASRAE) sets this standard.

A Solution Right Under Our Noses
Intel conducted a test on about 700 servers in 2008 and claims ASRAE reset their temperature standards as a result of it.  Intel challenged the need to have the ultra-cool data centers we typically think of.  Instead they used fresh air cooling even when outside temperatures were 60,70, or even 80 degrees.  They used this cooling method on their 700 server test bed for 10 months.  As a result of those test results, Citigroup raised the temperature in their data centers to around 80 degrees.
A more recent article posted in July 2011 takes this concept to the next level.  Dell built a data center to house Microsoft’s Bing Map Services and calls it a “Chiller-less Solution”  Dell adopted the new ASRAE standard and, in theory, can use fresh air to “cool” servers up to 113 degrees, if you call that cool.

Dells new approach has been tested so far to tolerate up to 900 hours of 104 degree(F) operation per year and up to 90 hours at 113 degrees.  Allowable humidity is supported between 5-90%.  In certain circumstances Dell has been able to completely eliminate chiller plant capital expenditures.  Dell further cites savings of up to $100,000 per megawatt of information technology.

It’s interesting to note that after over 20 years of building and improving on data center design- we finally decided to just try turning the thermostat to a higher setting.  How completely non-technical! (While we realize this statement is a gross over simplification, you can’t deny the temptation to view it this way)

If you run a data center and might be thinking about turning your A/C off, you might want to hold off a bit. Dell has a bit of an advantage- they have a huge budget with Microsoft being their client, they have access to the most cutting-edge hardware.  If you think that hardware is no different than what’s in most datacenters then you are sorely mistaken.  The biggest advantage Dell and other giants have over smaller Data Center operators is they operate a dedicated environment.  They have no shared colocation where their clients may house older equipment that may not respond as favorably to 90-100 degree temperatures.  They can standardize their racks and the physical layout of their data center because it’s purpose-built rather than built for retail occupancy by several different clients.

We smaller data centers can still learn from this and, as technology evolves we will be able to implement similar measures.

Questions about Data Center Services and Design? Get in Touch with SolutionPro.

Sources:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/green/dell-chills-out-with-fresh-air-cooling-technology/18249

http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/articles/226300061?pgno=2

Part 1 of a two-part Blog Post

Cooling and subsequent Power Consumption at Data Centers account for the largest part of operating costs as well as a large part of the capital expenditures.

The last 5 years have yielded some interesting innovations and discoveries.  As always it seems the most interesting discovery is really the least-interesting or least “sexy” technological solution.

Power:
According to Jack Glass, director of planning at Citigroup, the amount of energy consumed by data centers is growing dramatically.  Citigroups data centers account for only 1% of their physical infrastructure space but consume 25% of the power- and that figure keeps growing.

How can you reverse that trend?  Attack it from the Facility side as well as the equipment housed in the facility.

Citigroup uses Virtualization to decrease power consumption.
Between 2007 and 2010 Citigroup increased their virtualization from 10% up to 30%.  They looked for servers that had low utilization and try to consolidate them into one physical box.  Eventually they reached a point where they had to decommission servers that were running idle.  But it wasn’t as easy as it may sound.  Powering down servers that appeared idle at Citigroup required a fair amount of red tape to ensure they weren’t going to cause a problem.  Even so- one site alone achieved a 10% reduction in power consumption from this project alone.

Virtualization helps to a degree but you essentially are just conducting more computing tasks in a more compact amount of space- which then frees up more space for more machines so virtualization is a great first step to increase efficiency but it doesn’t really decrease your cooling needs in the long run.

In fact, it could increase your cooling needs- depending on how condensed the machines are- that’s a discussion for another day though.

Be sure to check back next week for Part 2 of 2 where we discuss Data Center Cooling.

Questions about data center services? Get in Touch with SolutionPro.

Sources:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/green/dell-chills-out-with-fresh-air-cooling-technology/18249

http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/articles/226300061?pgno=2

Information Technology market intelligence company International Data Corporation (IDC) released a recent report forecasting aggressive growth in corporate spending on cloud-based storage systems.

According to the report, spending on equipment for both public and private cloud storage systems will reach $22.6 billion by 2015.

What’s fueling the growth?

The IDC cited 5 main requirements that are almost universally shared in the Public and Private cloud provider sectors:

1- More efficient delivery of information to web-based end users.

2- Less time and money spend on deploying IT services and infrastructure

3- Less investment on internal IT infrastructure

4- Lower costs for long term archival and storage

5- Better real-time analysis of large data sets

IDC published a press release on June 20 and cited the following additional forecasts for cloud services:

In 2015, public cloud services will account for 46% of net new growth in overall IT spending in five key product categories – applications, application development and deployment, systems infrastructure software, basic storage, and servers.

Software-oriented cloud services (SaaS) will account for roughly three quarters of all spending on public cloud IT services throughout the forecast. This includes all three software-oriented cloud categories, not just applications. Spending on hardware-oriented cloud services (servers and storage) will be largely driven by SaaS providers building out their infrastructure.

The United States will dominate overall spending throughout the forecast period, with nearly 50% of all public IT cloud services revenues coming from the U.S. in 2015. But regions outside the U.S. will show much stronger growth as cloud services adoption accelerates. In particular, IDC found that there are more cloud services vendors and greater end user spending in Asia/Pacific and Western Europe than previously thought.

So the billion $$ question remains, is this the next Dot.Com bubble?

For questions about what cloud computing services SolutionPro offers- contact an account exec.

In December of last year we posted a blog article about the silent boom in the data center industry.

Although somewhat prescient, we have to confess it was probably just dumb luck with a little bit of industry knowledge thrown in .  (If only we could manage a stock portfolio with this type of precision and foresight we’d be stock brokers and not data center people.)

It’s happening again- only this time Oregon is being featured as THE state to build a Data center.

Fortune Data Centers out of San Jose, CA has chosen Hillsboro, Oregon for several reasons.

1- Cool Air- a cooler climate makes using fresh air the preferred method for cooling servers- which translates into big savings on power.

2- No Sales Tax- and No Business Property Tax within their zoning area-  this means big savings for the capital intensive business of building and filling up data centers with expensive IT equipment.

3- IT Talent- Hillsboro, Oregon is a cousin to the famed Silicon Valley and has a ready supply of skilled IT workers due to a high concentration of technology companies. It’s been coined the “Silicon Forest”.

4- Connectivity- There’s no shortage of network connectivity- The multiple undersea cable connections make the area rich in trans-Pacific fiber.

We at SolutionPro consider this to be a positive for our business and clients here in Boise, Idaho.  Why?

1- Cool Air- We too have a cooler climate with 4 true seasons and we are blessed with a pronounced nocturnal cooling cycle most months of the year.  This means that any future data center facilities in Boise could take advantage of the same power savings.

2- Connectivity- While it’s true that connectivity historically has cost more in Boise- Some of our best routes out of Boise are to the Portland and Seattle Metro markets.  Southern routes to Silicon Valley have typically been cost-prohibitive.  So we view the expansion of larger Data Center players from the Silicon Valley into the Portland market as a plus for us in the form of another potential connectivity route to the California markets via Portland.  Plus you can’t ignore the fact that larger players moving into Portland makes more potential overflow into the Boise market too.

3- Proximity- Boise Idaho is only a 1-hour plane ride from Portland and less than an 8-hour drive.  Boise and Portland are very closely connected economic markets.  Big players looking for second-site redundancy will find Boise as a viable option.

Material for this post was compiled from Data Center Knowledge. Read the full Data Center Knowledge post.

Questions about SolutionPro’s Data Center Facility or Services?  Ask one of our knowledgeable account execs.

ok- maybe a little exaggeration but it gets your attention.

That’s right- cloud service providers take heed.

If your product offering isn’t yet mobile, you’re probably already behind the curve.

Apple’s iCloud service is catching on.  With the introduction of the Iphone4S and the Iphone5 not too far away, iCloud will continue to grow.

What’s the catch?  The catch is it’s seamless and it just works.

It used to be sporting to poke fun at Apple/Mac users for their stereotypical lack of IT prowess.  However, the lines between MAC and PC are blurring as PC users are finding it possible to be loyal to both platforms in some way.

Why is this? Again…One word…Mobility.  Apple is getting traction with the ease of use of its mobile apps and is gaining traction in the world of mobile computing and data services.

Where other cloud service providers are failing is by failing to integrate their services in such a way that the user doesn’t need to worry about whether his or her “stuff” is actually “on the cloud” or not.

As a bonus- The data centers that provide the platform for Icloud continue to grow with seemingly endless, explosive growth on the horizon.

This is not to say that Google and other “Non-Apple” based smart phone and cloud services are failing to keep up in the mobile world.  But one thing that Apple seems to have over them is an ability to offer one-stop shopping to their customers in the form of their hardware and cloud services.

So what are the lessons?

1. Get mobile.

2. Market your product in such a way that your end-user doesn’t have to worry about the back end delivery system.  It should just work.

For the eighth year in a row, October has been declared National Cyber Security Awareness Month, a time to educate the public on how to protect themselves online. Organizations from the Lexington, Ky.-based National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will provide extra resources during the month to spread online safety.

National Cyber Security Awareness Month is organized by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) which is a consortium of government agencies and private sponsors.

As part of the recognition of this month, NASCIO has updated its Resource Guide for State Cyber Security Awareness, Education, and Training Initiatives.

National Cyber Security Awareness Month is designed to increase the public’s awareness of cyber security and crime issues, so that computer users can take precautions to avoid those threats on the Internet, according to NASCIO. Public relations activities, educational programs, events and initiatives that target home users, small businesses, education audiences (K-12 and higher education), and child safety online will be featured throughout October.

For additional resources check out the following:

NASCIO Website

NCSA – National Cyber Security Alliance Website

Steve Jobs was a true pioneer in personal computing.

His visionary talent and the products and companies that were created out of that talent have no doubt changed our lives and the lives for generations to come.

This YouTube video of Mr. Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Address says it all.

Microsoft plans to invest $150 million to expand its new data center in southern Virginia, continuing a series of expansion announcements that hint at a dramatic scaling up of Microsoft’s cloud computing capacity. Microsoft will build a second data center facility and add 21 megawatts of power capacity at its new location in Boydton, Virginia, even as it is still completing the $499 million first phase of the project.

If anyone is still wondering about the viability of the Cloud Computing Industry, HERE’S YOUR SIGN. Of course if you are still not convinced, one only needs to follow the ravenous expansion by Google and other big data center operators too.

If you’re still not convinced, recall that Microsoft had allocated 90% of it’s R&D expenditures for 2011 toward the Cloud Computing offering.

It’s time to figure out where you and your business belong in Cloud computing and make the move.   Here are a few ways each key individual in a organization might try to achieve some benefits from Cloud Computing:

IT Manager: Your job is to deliver a reliable IT service to your internal customers within your budget and staffing constraints.  The forces of gravity and technological advancement constantly conspire against your best efforts to keep hardware up-to-date, data backed up and staff trained.  Why not leverage some of the built-in benefits of cloud computing such as automatic updates, backup services and a reduced need for hardware-infrastructure planning to free up your time to work on important projects.

CIO: How are you going to propel your organization into the next era of computing and IT services?  If you’re just asking this question you are already behind the curve.  Finally, Cloud Computing offers a competitive edge to smaller companies that have traditionally only been enjoyed by large companies with Enterprise-sized IT budgets.  Scalability, Automation and Instant Growth with minimal Capital investment.

CFO: You must maximize shareholder value.  It makes no difference whether your company is publicly traded or privately owned-  your job is to figure out how to maximize profit, minimize tax liability and run a growing and profitable venture.  It seems like every time you recover from a large capital investment, your IT manager is asking for more money.  Cloud Computing promises to shift what have traditionally been capital expenditures subject to longer depreciation schedules to more of an expense model.

Questions about Cloud Computing?  Get In touch with SolutionPro.

1. How responsive is the cloud company?
How fast do they call you back? It doesn’t tell you everything, but It could tell you how important you are to them.  Remember, you are most important to a company while they are trying to get the sale…so if the response time is lacking at the start of the relationship it’s probably not going to get much better after they get your money.

2. How transparent is the cloud service?
There’s no need to understand the underlying infrastructure and the company’s plans to upgrade or reinforce it if you’re just using Google for Gmail. But any company hiring a provider for important business functions deserves to know what kind of technology — and secondary or tertiary service providers — actually makes up the cloud and how reliable it is.

3. How prepared is the cloud provider to answer due-diligence questions?
Some of the most critical questions are the most basic: what does the company do to ensure physical security; what servers and software does it run and what are its arrangements for disaster recovery; are its employees all well trained, background-checked, bonded and secured?  All this basic stuff is pretty important.  Be sure to take the time to verify it and get it in writing.

4. What criteria does the cloud provider use for success?
Most IT service contracts define service levels according to bits and bytes and feed-speeds, rather than the effect the customer hopes the service will provide.  Its great if a company meets it’s published SLA but if the end product fails to meet your expectations are they willing to make it right?

5. What cloud services do they use to provide their service?
One of the infrastructure questions to answer is what data-center co-location or data-center service companies provide the infrastructure underneath the service you’re buying. Cloud systems are often built on other clouds.  It’s a good idea to understand how your provider derives and builds the services it’s selling you.

6. What does the cloud provider require of you?
Cloud computing is a great new technology, but those who forget their own responsibilities in a cloud-computing arrangement will never be satisfied with either the division of labor or quality of service they get.  The infrastructure is the provider’s responsibility; the application is yours.  If the application isn’t structured so it will work effectively in a cloud environment, or the interfaces are clunky,  that’s not the cloud provider’s problem. That’s your part of the responsiblity. Be sure you are ready to make the shift too.

Questions about Cloud Computing?  Get in Touch with SolutionPro.