Data Center Standards Advancing

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Data Center Standards Advancing
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Rawlson O’Neil King, theWHIR.com
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July 12, 2004 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY
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REVIEW) — Complex Web hosting firms will soon have more established
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standards by which to build out their data centers. By building out
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facilities in a highly structured and methodical way, service providers
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in the near future will be able to make all aspects of their properties
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modular, and construct them to proper industry specifications.
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A modular approach will allow hosting
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firms to escape from the nascent characteristics that currently define
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the industry. No longer will building out a data center need to be a
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pioneering exercise, where “bleeding-edge,” untested and untried
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technologies are implemented to provide critical services to corporate
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customers. Instead, hosting firms will use highly established and
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reliable plans to standardize their infrastructure.
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The Telecommunications Industry
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Association, a not-for-profit trade organization representing providers
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of communications and IT products and services worldwide, has begun to
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define a set standard. Currently, “ANSI/TIA/EIA-942,” a
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telecommunications infrastructure standard for data centers, is under
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development.
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Intended for use by designers who need a
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comprehensive understanding of data center design, the standard will
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specify the minimum requirements for telecommunications infrastructure
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in data centers and computer rooms ranging from single tenant
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enterprise data centers to multi-tenant hosting data centers.
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The topology is intended to be scaleable
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to any size of data center. Once completed under TIA’s peer review
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process, it will include all aspects of data center design, including
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cabling, network design and facility planning.
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One of the objectives of the standard
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will be defining equipment floor planning and equipment placement.
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Topologies for telecommunication pathways and power, cooling and floor
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loading requirements will also be included. The proposed standard has
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adopted a hierarchical star topology for all backbone and horizontal
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cabling.
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The types of cables to be recognized by
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the proposed standard are twisted-pair, CAT6, multi-mode optical fiber,
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single mode optical fiber and 75-ohm coaxial cable. For backbone
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cabling, the maximum supportable distances are application and media
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dependent.
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Along with equipment, the proposed
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standard also will define the different workspaces within data center
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facilities. A data center under the TIA standard will be divided into
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multiple main spaces, which includes a computer room, a
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telecommunications room, and an entrance room.
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According to the plan, the computer room
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will be subdivided into a main distribution area, a horizontal
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distribution area, a zone distribution area and an equipment
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distribution area.
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The data equipment and connectivity
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components will be logically located in cabinets and racks. Under the
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plan, the cabling between racks will be routed under an access floor in
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the ‘hot aisle’ or in overhead cable trays.
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Access floor systems, also known as
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raised floor systems, will be used in data centers that need to support
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high power densities, mid-range systems, or mainframe systems.
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Alternatively, overhead cable tray systems may alleviate the need for
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access floors in data centers.
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The plan states that overhead cable trays
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can be installed in several layers to provide additional capacity.
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Typical installations include two or three layers of cable trays, one
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for power cables and one or two for telecommunications cabling.
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The proposed standard will also provide
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extensive information on redundancy, facility administration, carrier
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information and demarcation points, site selection considerations,
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uninterruptible power supply systems, building grounding and lightning
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protection systems, and fire protection systems.
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Clear specifications on all such aspects
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of the data center are important, since compliance to standards
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increases the perceivable value of telecommunication facilities.
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An unambiguous standard will help service
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providers to accommodate multiple hardware and equipment platforms, and
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future-proof for new servers, network devices and connectivity
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installations.
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Standardizing equipment, installation and
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internal processes within data centers will also ease extensibility of
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a service provider’s logical infrastructure and reduce the cost of
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maintenance, since network architectures and logic will be somewhat
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more simplified and homogeneous based upon standardized planning.
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Another benefit of a single data center
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standard is that it facilitates better interoperability between vendor
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equipment. Eased interoperability translates into lower overhead costs,
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and increased speed-to-market and efficiency of new equipment, products
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and services in the data center.
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The new standard will also create more
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value since IT staff and management can conduct new quantitative and
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qualitative measurements using the new data center standard as a guide.
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TIA peer committees are presently
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revising drafts of the standard, so proposed topologies outlined above
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might change. Once the topology is completed, larger hosting firms,
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which cater to Fortune 500 enterprises, will comply, in order to
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conform to the new enterprise requirements and win new business.
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Compliance will also allow large hosting
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companies to implement more efficient systems in order to increase the
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acquisition desirability of their facilities.
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The potential future relevance of the TIA
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standard makes it a development worth monitoring for the Web hosting
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firm dedicated to ensuring reliability and adherence to advancing
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technological standards.
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