ComputerSite Engineering and Uptime Institute Update Tier Classifications  ComputerSite Engineering, Inc. jointly developed a new white paper with the Uptime Institute, Operational Sustainability and Its Impact on Data Center Uptime Performance, Investment Value, Energy Efficiency, and Resiliency . Operational Sustainability is a significant concept applicable to both data center design and operations. The Uptime Institute call it as important, if not more important, to the ultimate performance of the investment than Tier level.
According to the authors of the new paper, site resiliency is the combined result of Tier Topology and Operational Sustainability, and a new rating system based on the combination of the two will result in a new Classification, an overlay to the Tier Certification, to demonstrate the site's predicted resiliency.
"Operational Sustainability" is a new industry term, developed by consultants and faculty of both organizations, referring to design and operating factors that affect a site's resiliency through infrastructure performance, effectiveness, and long-term value. By evaluating site selection, building characteristics, fitness-for-use, investment effectiveness, and management and operations, a rating of A, B, or C is added to the Tier rating to indicate the longevity of the Certification. So a site with an A after its Tier rating will hold its Certification for five years.
In tandem with the release of the white paper describing this new evaluation methodology, the authors have also collaborated on an update of the de facto industry standard, Tier Classifications Define Site Infrastructure Performance, that outlines the requirements the Institute uses when rating and Certifying against Tier through licensee ComputerSite Engineering. According to the Institute's Certification Manager, Julian Kudritzki, "This Tier white paper revision addresses industry feedback about organization and specific topics, such as engine generators." It also clarifies and builds on the original (unchanged) fundamental concepts.
          

Boston Red Sox Move Data Center
As the World Champion Boston Red Sox opened their baseball season at home yesterday, the team's administrative offices aren't overflowing with data networking equipment, thanks to a move of its data center from Fenway Park to a colo facility at 1Summer Street.
Just two weeks ago, the Red Sox overhauled their data center arrangement, moving equipment from overcrowded facilities at the 96-year-old ballpark to the collocated data center. In order to maintain high-speed access to the data center, the Red Sox installed Ekinops optical transmission equipment, enabling a Fibre Channel and storage area network solution requiring multi-gigabit data traffic between the two sites.
"The issue for us was that we had outgrown our data center," said Randy George, senior systems and network analyst for the Red Sox. "We had equipment overflowing from the data center into our employees' offices, and we had scaled past the power limitations as well. It was definitely a facilities issue that drove us to a collocated data center."
Because the Ekinops equipment consumes minimal power and takes up little space, the Red Sox can keep their costs down at the data center, which charges its customers based on how much space they occupy and how much power they consume. The Ekinops equipment includes aggregation modules that provide the team with eight channels of Gigabit Ethernet on a single 10 Gbps wavelength and five 2 Gbps Fibre Channel links over another 10 Gbps wavelength to connect their storage area network (SAN). The Red Sox are carrying all that capacity over a single fiber with a second fiber available for redundant operation. That's a lot of capacity, but as George explains, the team needs it. "We have all our financial applications there, along with our scouting system and video analysis system, e-mail, back-end databases, and storage area networking. The brains of our operation are essentially at the data center now, and that's why the Ekinops gear is so instrumental," he said.
George added that the cutover to the data center had an aggressive timeline, with the contract signed in early January and a goal of making the move by the time the season started.
"We were under a lot of pressure to get all this done by Opening Day, and we did it. We had to pull a lot of strings to do it, but we successfully moved the weekend of March 23 and 24. It was completely transparent to users," George said. The Ekinops gear had already been tested and was in place for the final relocation of the data networking equipment.
 

CFRT Celebrates Five Years at the First Carbon-Neutral/ LEED Platinum Data Center
The CFRT and Data Space Advisors announced details of a CFRT meeting at the Sonoma Mountain Village Project in Rohnert Park, CA.

According to meeting organizers, the meeting will be held at the World's First Carbon Neutral Data Center. Attendees will hear from Sonoma Mountain Village project specialists about how their critical facilities will be transformed into a world-class LEED Platinum facility. Questions to be discussed include:

• What Does It Take to Make Your Data Center Carbon Neutral and LEED Platinum?
• What Capital Costs and Operating Benefits Should You Expect?

The meeting will conclude with a tour of the facility's  data center facilities and site to view the specifics of their plans and to observe their alternate energy systems. The full itinerary is available from the CFRT.
 

According to a new study by MTechnology, Inc., Active Power's flywheel-based CleanSource 300 UPS
system is seven times less likely to fail versus a conventional, double-conversion UPS system with batteries during a short power outage. Commissioned by Active Power, the Reliability Study of Integrated Flywheel UPS System is a quantitative analysis of the in-service reliability of the company's CleanSource 300 UPS system versus a double conversion UPS system with batteries. The study utilizes probabilistic risk assessment (PRA), a formal technique used by the aerospace and civilian nuclear power industry. Both systems were analyzed in
conjunction with two classes of utility failure-short outages lasting less than 10 seconds and long outages exceeding 10 seconds.

 
The International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) is developing a full two-day track of technical presentations on energy-efficiency opportunities and sustainable building practices for data centers to be offered at the Labs21 2008 Conference in San Jose, September 16-18. This track is being coordinated with the leadership assistance of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL), Green Grid, the Critical Facilities Roundtable, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group . In partnership with these organizations and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), I2SL believes this track will add substantially to the Labs21 Conference offerings at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. I2SL is planning to offer over 20 technical presentations bracketed by opening plenary remarks from recognized national and regional leaders and closing discussions with a facilitated panel discussion and the audience. To ensure that this track has relevant value, the organizers have issued a  Call for Papers.

Eaton Corporation added switched and managed function levels to its portfolio of Powerware Enclosure Power Distribution Units (ePDU). Information Technology (IT) managers can now address escalating power requirements by having greater control and management for power distribution in data centers or high-density rack environments. Eaton is unique in the industry for providing a tiered set of ePDU products along two dimensions--power capacity and functionality. This allows customers to precisely match the appropriate combination of features and power rating needed for each application. Powerware ePDUs provide advanced metering, monitoring and management capabilities and complement Powerware or third-party uninterruptible power systems (UPSs) by distributing power to up to 45 receptacles anywhere conditioned power is distributed to multiple pieces of equipment.
 

Panduit Quicknet Plug Pack Assemblies facilitate quick and easy connection and disconnection of patch cords to a variety of switches, reducing time and cost associated when installing and maintaining structured cabling links. Innovative design features of the plug pack allow multiple patch cords to be installed simultaneously with one hand for speed of deployment, while providing flexibility and ease to identify and remove individual cable links without disrupting service to the other network connections.
The Plug Pack Assemblies are constructed of 100 percent performance-tested patch cords and assembled in a factory-controlled environment for more consistent connections with optimum reliability. Engineered for design flexibility and high-density utilization, Quicknet Plug Pack Assemblies are available in Category 6A, 6, or 5e performance levels. An optional lock-in device prevents unauthorized removal of plug packs from the switch, providing an additional level of security.

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