Redefining the Data Center Lifecycle

[Sunite]

Redefining the Data Center Lifecycle
By Mike McNerney
August 23, 2007 2:02PM

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When talking to data center managers about the evergreen concept -- replacing components incrementally rather than all at once -- there is usually some resistance. The benefits of an evergreen data center often take time to be realized, at least until data center managers see they can get 40 percent more work done per year.

Related Topics
   Data Center
   Servers
   Blades
   Storage
   Upgrades

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   Blade servers have been gaining significant ground in the data center since their introduction about six years ago. As a result, data center managers are benefiting from the improved power, cooling Relevant Products/Services efficiency Relevant Products/Services and serviceability of the blade form factor. They are able to upgrade and repair their data centers by simply exchanging old or defective blades and other components.

Even with the improvements that the blade form factor offers, these systems are built into processes, procedures and lifecycles of the existing rackmount-centric data centers. The full modular potential of blades has yet to be realized.

Data centers and computer resources are typically upgraded in incremental cycles of three to five years or more. This approach causes disruptions in service, but budget constraints, depreciation and data center facility lifecycles make breaking the three-to-five-year rule difficult. All of these limitations are independent and conflict with the simplified upgrade capabilities of a blade architecture.

An alternative to this forklift approach is to develop a methodical way to continually upgrade through constant monitoring and replacement of the minor components of the data center. By creating an ecosystem of constant renewal, I.T. can successfully develop an "evergreen" data center.

One benefit of an evergreen data center is higher computing performance. Recent Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC) CPU benchmark results show system performance improving with such a data center by roughly 20 percent to 40 percent annually. If this trend continues over a five-year lifespan, available hardware shows a 150 percent to 400 percent performance improvement. Companies are thus paying a performance penalty for old gear they have not had the time or budget to replace.

For customers using I.T. as a competitive weapon, performance is a key differentiator. Better performance means customers can execute the trade, discover the drug or design the product faster. Being the fastest is quickly becoming a requirement, not just an option.

The benefits, however, go beyond the traditional speed geeks. For example, customers in automotive design-who buy software licenses for design automation software-can maintain their data center and upgrade to the latest computer technology, while achieving the same or better results with less hardware and software. One such company projected a $12 million savings in software systems alone, because the improved performance of the latest systems allowed it to buy only 30 licenses instead of 50.

Ride the Performance Curve (continued...)

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