The Important Issues In Data Center Management

A data center is the repository for the mission-critical data required for the optimal operation of an organization. Its continual uptime is therefore significant for reducing the operational costs of any business. Therefore, the use of uniform data center management standards and procedures will help reduce the mindboggling costs associated with server downtime and consequent customer dissatisfaction.

The largest determinant of data center management is the cost of management and administration. Its graph has shown a steady rise every single year. Cutting this cost is most imperative.

Today, the effects of the looming energy crisis are being felt by all businesses. Therefore, the trend is to locate grid-based cloud-computing blade or rack server module standard containers in data centers in geographically colder areas. This is to contain spiraling energy-efficiency costs.

For the optimal and continual operation of data centers under controlled costs, it is important to lay down and implement uniform management standards. These are imperative for issues such as power management, network and power cable layout management, density of the physical distribution of servers to control cost per unit area of floor space occupied, and optimal utilization of kvm (keyboard, voice, and mouse) switches.

Data centers guzzle huge amounts of power. Power is consumed by servers, other accessories, air conditioning, lighting, and cooling systems. Therefore, it is important that power management and installation of energy-efficient UPSs (uniform power supplies) be given due importance.

Servers become very hot during continual operation the whole year round. Their cooling requirements entail huge quantities of water. Therefore, to control costs of cooling, it becomes important to locate data centers near rivers or lakes.

Physical and data security of data centers are two of the most important critical issues from the point of view of a business. To ensure that minimum physical access by personnel to servers is made, it is imperative that data centers house all sorts of sensors and intrusion detection systems. This is to prevent/minimize the damage due to threats from hackers, data thieves, miscreants, dust, and fires.

Further, due to this, it has become imperative that access to data from the servers and storage networks be managed using platform-independent web-based software from remote locations anywhere in the world. For this it also becomes important that the Internet broadband backbone does not fail.

Proper and detailed documentation of all data center systems and subsystems in respect of layout, precautions, operation, maintenance, and tips are a must. Otherwise, even a small issue due to a cable fault can lead to disastrous consequences including server downtime.

Server capacity planning is another important issue in data center management. Unless all subsystems in data centers are designed to easily accommodate future increases in servers, the business will suffer the risks associated with data migration costs.

Systems and subsystems maintenance is another issue that affects data center management in a big way. The use of detailed preventive and breakdown maintenance plans and standards and fallback designs are imperative, if server downtime is to be avoided.

By far the most technological advanced concept that has cut the costs of data center management in a big way is that of server virtualization. VMWare has taken the initaitive in this field in Europe. Will the US and Microsoft be left far behind?