Volume 24 | August 2012

Modular
Data Center Design
Modular Design
for Small Data Centers
Data Center Ready-Mix
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IT CORNER
2 Modular Computing:
What Is It?
by Jeffrey R. Clark, Ph.D.
The ever-expanding capabilities of mobile
devicesparticularly small ones like
smartphonesinspires the imagination regarding
how far portability, mass data storage and
processing power can be taken, and what
that means for the future of personal (and
even corporate) computing. One incarnation
with increasing visibility is so-called modular
computing: the use of a single, small device as the
heart of a computing platform that incorporates a
range of devices.
feature
6 Modular Design for
Small Data Centers
by Jeffrey R. Clark, Ph.D.
Modular data center design is a hot topic, and
as companies struggle to meet their IT needs
and satisfy stringent budget limitations in a slow
economy, any design approach that promises
to reduce capital and operational expenses and
simplify builds and expansions is fodder for
consideration. Wholesale and colocation data
center providers have become experts in modular
design owing to the market they serve, where
right-sizing of infrastructureyet the ability
to expand when neededis a critical part of
success.
FACILITY
Corner
10 Datacenter Ready-Mix.
Just Add Power.
by Jun Yang, PE and Patrick Kenny, PE
As the digital age progressed, significant
advancements in information technology were
followed by an increased demand for information
technology based services. Many datacenter
All rights reserved. No portion of DATA CENTER Journal may be reproduced without written
permission from the Executive Editor. The management of DATA CENTER Journal is not
responsible for opinions expressed by its writers or editors. We assume that all rights in
communications sent to our editorial staff are unconditionally assigned for publication.
All submissions are subject to unrestricted right to edit and/or to comment editorially.
owners and operators soon faced a rapidly
changing consumer environment and an increase
d demand for space, power and cooling growth at
ITOPS
a rate faster than most businesses were prepared
to respond to. By the early dot com bubble ages, 26 Solving Data Center
there was a rush to build to meet the demand. Complexity through a
Common IT Language
by Constantin Delivanis
DESIGN For data center managers surveying todays IT
landscape, the view can be daunting. Across
Corner a vista dotted with cloud offerings, virtual
servers, employee-owned devices, inherited
and acquired assets, and disparate systems, IT
leaders see a murky horizon, one in which it is
14 Modular and Pre- increasingly difficult to determine exactly what
applications the data center is running and how
Fabricated Data Center to manage them. Its a complex backdrop for
Infrastructure any organization, and it requires forward-looking
by Gary Cudmore technology professionals to adopt solutions that
The data center has been steadily evolving for reduce that complexity.
the past several years and the trend today is to
supply modular or prefabricated infrastructure.
The reasons data center owners/operators are
turning to this approach are numerous, but the
main benefits are repeatable design, cost control,
ITbusiness
quality control, and flexibility.
30 BYOD and the Impact on IT
18 EDA Vendor Takes Its Own by Ron Nunan
Advice on Data Center True mobility is bringing about a significant
Design change in the way business gets done. It started
by David Clark with managers, directors, and executives using
The field of data center design has become more newer devices they bought themselves and
wanted to use in meetings and on the road. Now,
complex than ever. The past decades tremendous
increases in power density (upwards of 500%) any number of individuals across the enterprise
can be seen using tablets and a variety of
in server racks have compounded the cooling
challenges, and moving airboth hot and coldis smartphones to conduct business employees
are simply using their own devices. With the
Job One for data center architects. As a result,
thermal and flow simulation tools have become rapid expansion and adoption of Internet-based
computing cloud computing, if you will smart
indispensable in the design of modern large-scale
data centers. companies are taking advantage of this and are
enabling employees to work more efficiently by
embracing the mobility trend.
22 Evolving Equipment
Trends for Modular
Design
by Eric Holzworth
Yourturn
Theres an awful lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty,
doubt) in the market concerning packaging
34 EMCworld 2012: Trust
or construction of data center infrastructure
components. Its no wonder the maximization
of efficient capital in deploying new data center
and marketing, can they
coexist?
space is one of the most difficult decisions a by Greg Schultz
data center manager can make. At the center
is the debate surrounding containerized vs. Calendar
modular solutions. Half-truths and myths abound,
creating confusion and preventing many from Vendor Index
understanding the benefits of each. The bottom
line? Managers really need to do their homework
to know whats right for them.
AN EDM2R ENTERPRISES, INC. PUBLICATION ALPHARETTA, GA 30022
PHONE: 678-762-9366 FAX: 866-708-3068 | WWW.DATACENTERJOURNAL.COM
DESIGN : NEATWORKS, INC ALPHARETTA, GA 30022
TEL: 678-392-2992 | WWW.NEATWORKSINC.COM
 it corner

Modular Computing:
What is it?
by jeffrey R. clark, phd

The ever-expanding capabilities of mobile devicesparticularly small ones like

smartphonesinspires the imagination regarding how far portability, mass data
storage and processing power can be taken, and what that means for the future
of personal (and even corporate) computing. One incarnation with increasing
visibility is so-called modular computing: the use of a single, small device as the
heart of a computing platform that incorporates a range of devices.

T
he iPhone is a high-profile
candidate for leading a modular-
computing revolutionshould
such ever take off. Although
predicting the success or failure
of a particular technology or approach is
difficult, a brief look at the current state of
form certain tasks on certain devices (pos-
sibly owing to lack of software compatibil-
ity) or simply in a lack of accessibility (say,
to your desktop computer) when youre on
the go. What if you could centralize your
computing capabilities in a single device
that connects to and powers all your other
mobility, along with maximum compat-
ibility among devices and a minimal need
for syncing data or transporting unneeded
peripheral equipment.
As the current champion of smart-
phones, the iPhone is touted as the leading
candidate for use as the heart of a modular-

computing, as well as consumer demand,
can provide some insight.
The Appeal of Mobility
If you have a desktop, laptop, tablet
and smartphone (and possibly some other
gadgets above, below or in between these
devices), then you may have experienced
some frustration in moving important data
from one device to another (or syncing
devices? In essence, youd have a comput-
ing core that you connect to a screen and
peripherals in your home or office to serve
as a desktop computer and to a tablet-like
screen (possibly with a keyboard) to server
as a tablet or laptop computer on the go. In
addition, this core (or computing mod-
ule) could have its own screen along with
all the functions of a smartphone. In fact,
such a device sounds a lot like a beefed-up
iPhone. This is the heart of modular com-
computing platform. Some industry ob-
servers believe the iPhones dock connector
could be part of what makes this device
amenable to use in modular computing
(Why the iPhone Has a Head Start on
the Future of Personal Computing), but
Apple may eventually dump this connec-
tor (Apple iPhone dock connector to be
ditched). Considering, however, that the
capabilities of a modular-computing device
would need to be significantly greater than
Copyright 2012, Cablesys

data among devices), in an inability to per- puting: a hybrid of computing power and those of the current iPhone, other compa-

2 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL www.datacenterjournal.com

 Datacenter
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 With Moores Law constantly pushing down the cost of processing power, the savings
of using a single, central, multi-purpose processor instead of several processors
tailored for different applications may not be as great as one might expect.
nies could sneak in with their own offering,
were a modular-computing market see
some measure of success.
Modular Computing
Scenarios
Its fairly easy to come up with a
number of scenarios in which modular
computing could be a tempting alternative
to traditional computing using desktops,
laptops and so on. Such scenarios might
include the following.
n Instead of keeping copies of data
on multiple devicesrequiring you to
sync data across devices periodically or
whenever a critical change is madeyou
would maintain a single copy of that data
in a central location: the computer module.
Whenever you connect the module to a
docking device with a screen, you have ac-
cess to all your data, and changes need not
be synced.
n Rather than pay for processing
power in each device, you would pay for
a single processing core that provides the
capabilities you need for whatever device
youre using at the time. Youd still have a
range of interface devices, such as laptop/
tablet- and desktop-style docks, but you
wouldnt need to buy processing power for
each one.
n Software compatibility is guaranteed
across devices. If youre working with an
expensive proprietary software package,
you may not be able to (or you may not
want to) purchase licenses for use on dif-
ferent devices/computers or even operating
systems. Your software is available wher-
ever your computer module is. So, if youre
working on graphics in Photoshop, you
need not install (or purchase a license for) a
copy on each device. Your work is ready for
you to continue wherever you go.
n If youre on the road and dont have
a laptop-style dock available, you could still
use a docking station provided by someone
else. As long as you have access to a dock-
able screen with appropriate input devices
(a keyboard and mouse, if necessary, or
4 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL
a touchscreen), you have access to all the
computing capabilities you use at home or
in the office.
And the list goes on. A computer
module could connect with any number of
other deviceseven home appliancesto
provide the necessary data and processing
power for a virtually limitless array of tasks.
The question is not whether one could find
practical uses of a modular-computing
platform; the question is whether such a
platform is itself sufficiently practical to
both garner a sizable market and compete
with other solutions.
The Upsides and Downsides
of Modular Computing
As smartphones currently stand, they
do not provide sufficient processing power
and software compatibility to serve as the
heart of a full-fledged desktop or laptop
computer. Processors for mobile devices,
particularly mobile phones, focus heavily
on maximizing battery life (after all, who
wants to recharge their devices every two to
four hours?); hence they do not offer com-
parable processing capabilitiesalthough
they are not all that far behind. New multi-
core processor architectures that incorpo-
rate both low-power and high-power cores
might find a fitting application in modular
computing, however. The low-power core
could be used to operate the module as a
smartphone (or, at least, for those func-
tions that only require a low-power core),
whereas the high-power core or cores
could perform heavier-duty smartphone
processing and could serve as the proces-
sor for a desktop, for instance. In a docked
application (like a desktop), power is not
a concern as it is on the gohence, the
module could run its high-power processor
cores at full steam.
Several trends might work against this
approach. First, for whatever reason, many
consumers like to change smartphones
quite regularly. When its just a phone, pos-
sibly with some throwaway pictures stored
within, it doesnt have the investment of,
say, a laptop computer. Trading phones
is less of a big deal in many cases. But if
your phone is also your central computing
source, that change is more complicated
and more expensive. Sure, consumer habits
could simply adjust to the new reality. Then
again, consumers might simply reject the
modular approach as simply too much of
an investment. Second, tech-savvy users
might wish to upgrade certain capabili-
ties of their computers, like the amount
of RAM, the graphics unit and so on. For
these users, there may be no replacing the
traditional desktop, with its easy access
to the innards of the system. For mobile
devices, the smaller they are, the harder it is
to make any internal changes.
A central data-storage device has
obvious appeal, but it is less of a stand-
out solution now compared with 5 to 10
years ago. Cloud storage enables central-
ized storagealbeit remotelythat can
be accessed anywhere theres an Internet
connection. Sure, that imposes some limits
that modular computing would be able to
work around, but those minor limits may
be insufficient to make the storage aspect
a significant plus for modular computing.
Furthermore, cloud-based storage avoids
the problem of a device loss or theft (the
chances of which grow with shrinking size
and increasing mobility), possibly giving
it a slight edge. And syncing devices is be-
coming less and less of a chore, even when
the cloud is not involved.
Also, cramming large amounts of
compute power in an iPhone-style profile
is challengingeven when a sufficient
power supply (beyond batteries) is present,
cooling is still an issue. With Moores Law
constantly pushing down the cost of pro-
cessing power, the savings of using a single,
central, multi-purpose processor instead of
several processors tailored for different ap-
plications may not be as great as one might
expect.
Perhaps one unmatched benefit of
modular computing would be software
compatibility. Your phone, laptop/tab-
let and desktop would all have the same
www.datacenterjournal.com
software, eliminating the need to install
multiple instances of software packages. All
of your devices would run the same operat-
ing system (which would need to be able to
handle multiple interface styles, including
standard screens, touchscreens and small
screens). But even here, cloud computing
offers a comparable alternative. Again, it
requires an Internet connection, but it does
not require you to have or carry your own
computer equipmenteven if its just the
size of an iPhone.
Does Modular Computing
Have a Future?
The question, then, is whether the
upsides of modular computing provide
enough of a benefit over existing platforms
to create the kind of ecosystem needed
to support it. Part of the key to enabling
this approach is standard connectors that
allow a single modular device to connect
to a wide variety of interfaces. This means
that vendors would need to offer displays,
tablets, input devices (like keyboards, mice
and touchscreens) and so on to enable
www.datacenterjournal.com
use of the computer modules capabilities.
Operating systems would need the ability
to work on smart phones, desktops and ev-
erything in between, as well as to function
in other applications, like automobiles and
appliances.
And, of course, companies would
need to develop and offer small devices that
provide both the mobility and processing
power needed to perform all the functions
of a modular computer. Resolving the issue
of processor performance, power consump-
tion and heat dissipation is not the least
of the challenges to modular computings
success. Beyond simply solving the techni-
cal challenges and the need for a support-
ing ecosystem, vendors that wish to offer
modular-computing platforms must prove
to consumers (including businesses, if that
turns out to be a target market) the superi-
ority of this approach. Simply showing that
modular computing has benefits probably
wont be enoughclearly, it has some ben-
efits. The most important matter is whether
this approach is a solution to problems that
arent equally (or better) solved by other
approaches. Cloud computing in particular
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offers many of the same advantages that
modular computing claims. Each of these
approaches has its own peculiar upsides
and downsides relative to the other, but
given the steam of cloud computing today,
modular computing may simply lack the
thunder to push it into broad use.
Certainly, expect to see modular-
computing products begin to hit the
marketthese products may be more
limited, however, than the vision of a single
compute unit for all devices in a home
or office. As to whether an iPhone-like
device will attain modular computings true
potential is a matter for which the jury is
still out. A safe prediction would be that it
will achieve niche status but will lack the
punch to give it more-universal appeal.
Although, like tablets, modular computers
could be viewed as a potential successor
to traditional desktop computers, chances
are the desktop still has a long life ahead of
it. Modular computing must first take the
not-so-insignificant step finding its footing
in a competitive market before it tries to
become the successor to more-traditional
computing platforms. n
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 FEATURE
story

Modular
Design
For Small Data Centers
by Jeffrey R Clark, Ph.D

6 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL www.datacenterjournal.com

Modular data center design is a hot topic, and
as companies struggle to meet their IT needs and
satisfy stringent budget limitations in a slow economy,
any design approach that promises to reduce capital and
operational expenses and simplify builds and expansions
is fodder for consideration. Wholesale and colocation data
center providers have become experts in modular design
owing to the market they serve, where right-sizing of
infrastructureyet the ability to expand when
neededis a critical part of success. But what
about companies looking to build small data
centers? By looking at the practices of data
center service providers, these companies
can learn lessons in modularity that can
yield tremendous benefits.

www.datacenterjournal.com THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 7

The First Lesson:
Modularity Does Not
Necessarily Mean
Containers
For whatever reason, modularity has
become nearly synonymous with ISO-stan-
dard containerized data centersbut that is
a very narrow interpretation of modularity.
Although data center containers are one
particular form of modular design, they are
far from the only such manifestation. Mod-
ular design, although it might involve large,
mobile data-centers-in-a-box, can instead
focus on specific systems (IT or facilities) in
a traditional data center, and the scale can
range from large to small. Rather than being
isolated to movable containers, modular-
ity is a means of designing and building
data centers in a manner that meets or only
slightly exceeds current requirements while
enabling expansion via relatively simple
addition of new infrastructure (as opposed
to retrofitting existing infrastructure or con-
structing entirely new facilities).
Data Center Containers: The
Paragon of Modularity
May Not Be for You
For a company looking to build a
small data center, the promises of con-
tainerized data centers are tempting. Fast,
plug-and-play deployment. Lower cost.
No need to build a traditional structure
(just drop the containers in your companys
parking lot!). Mobility. But the benefits that
are often ascribed to containers may not
materialize, particularly for a small com-
pany (or any company building a small data
center facility). According to an EC&M arti-
cle (Modular Data Center Design Trends),
these benefits could well be overstated: the
promise of a lower cost data center hasnt
always come true, especially in comparison
with small, early phase traditional data
centers. In fact, the cost of the container
data centers often reaches the price of a
Tier 4-classified center but without the ele-
ments offered by that level of data center.
Furthermore, beyond potential issues with
reliability and vendor lock-in, the speed
of deployment, described as plug-and-play,
is oversimplified. Container designs still
require a chilled water supply and a secure
site, and, in some cases, applications for
building permits could delay deployment
for months.
8 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL
Thus, companies building small data
centers shouldnt assume that containers are
equivalent to modularitynor should they
dismiss traditional data construction out of
hand. If cloud computing and colocation
dont fit the bill, data center containers are
not the only choice. Indeed, the container
market is actually still quite small, and the
lack of broad deployment (meaning a lack
of plenty of examples to follow) mean this
route may be less than ideal for a company
that wants a solid, reliable and inexpensive
as possible facility.
Applying Modularity on a
Small Scale
Conceptually, the modular approach
is particularly ideal for companies build-
ing smaller data centers. Demand for IT
resources is generally increasing, and most
companies can and should expect their
data center needs to increase over time. But
building to cover anticipated demand, say,
five years down the road invariably requires
guesswork and results in greater near-term
capital costs. Equipment that is purchased
but unused must be stored and possibly
maintained; if connected, it can consume
power, increasing operational expenses
even though no commensurate service is
being supplied.
This reflects the situation for coloca-
tion/wholesale data center providers. To
maximize profitability, these companies
must provide enough infrastructure (cool-
ing, power distribution, network connectiv-
ity and so on) to meet customer demand,
but going overboard can be costly. Unused
equipment has a shelf life. Imagine, for
example, buying a car now to meet the
anticipated need of a growing family 5 to
10 years in the future. Over that time, the
car only loses valueand it is still subject
to certain kinds of wear that could affect its
functioning. The same is basically true for
data center infrastructure. Buying serv-
ers now, for instance, when they might
not be needed for several years has several
downsides:
C apital,
which could be used elsewhere, is
spent on equipment that performs no
useful function for some time.
E quipment loses value over time, even if it
is unused.
E ven unused equipment may require
maintenance.
E xploiting new technologies (such as
advances in processor manufacturing
technology) means buying new equip-
ment to replace old equipment that may
never have been used.
P recious storage spaceor possibly data
center floor spaceis consumed by idle
equipment.
P ower is consumed by idle equipment if it
is connected and turned on.
Similar problems plague other types of
equipment that are purchased to future-
proof the data center.
Modularity isnt necessarily opposite
to future-proofing, but it plans ahead in a
way that meets current requirements while
minimizing costs and enabling agile expan-
sion when needed. It can be an effective
approach regardless of scale, meaning that
the design tactics of a wholesale or coloca-
tion provider can be applied successfully
by a company building a small data center
as well.
Modularity Applies to More
Than Just IT
IT is the natural first consideration
when one thinks of applying modularity
to data center construction. As discussed
above, why buy a bunch of unneeded
servers and other IT equipment? Instead,
a companywhether building a small or
large data centercould add new server
racks when usage approaches capacity.
These racks might even be preassembled:
they can be shipped fully loaded with
equipment, ready to roll into place and
connect. But IT is not the only application
of modularity.
Cooling infrastructure is a major
power drain for most data centers. The
average PUE of data centers is estimated
to be around 2.0, meaning that only half
of all power consumed actually goes to
the servers and other IT equipment. The
other half is consumed by infrastructure:
power distribution and cooling, primarily
(although some is consumed by lighting,
security systems and so forth). Required
cooling infrastructure is proportional to
the power consumed by the IT equipment.
Thus, deploying more cooling capacity than
the data center needs makes little sense if
it can be added modularly as needed. A
colocation provider with unused space, for
example, would want to avoid maintain-
www.datacenterjournal.com
ing unused equipment, in addition
to avoiding the unnecessary capital
expense, but would want to be able
to quickly expand capacity to meet
demand from new customers. The same
principle applies to companies building
smaller data centers.
One particular application of
modularity in this context is row-based
cooling. A whole-room approach to
cooling may be excessive, particularly if
not all the floor space in the data center
facility is being used. By focusing on
rows instead of the entire room, cooling
units can be positioned to yield maxi-
mum efficiency. Furthermore, as more
rows are added in response to growing
demand for IT services, more cooling
units can be added to support the new
equipment.
Power distribution is the other
major area benefitting from a modular
design approach. From uninterruptible
power supplies (UPSs) to power dis-
tribution units and backup generators,
adding new equipment as needed rather
than to cover anticipated future needs
provides a number of benefits. For
instance, by not overprovisioning UPS
capacity a data center can reduce power
wasted by these units. A modular solu-
tion, however, enables scaling of power
capacity when demand requires it. The
main cost of the modular approach
is more-careful planning to facilitate
future expansion when demand ap-
proaches or meets capacity.
Containers Not Out of
the Question
Although modularity does not
necessarily imply a containerized
approach, data center containers are
not necessarily the wrong choice for a
company building a small data center.
If planned and executed properly, con-
tainers could be an adequate solution,
although they do not provide modular-
ity in the same way as would be applied
in a traditional facility. (Expansion in
the containerized approach is in fairly
large units; in a brick-and-mortar facil-
ity, it can be in smaller increments.)
A company might choose a halfway
measure: for instance, it might build a
www.datacenterjournal.com
fairly standard data center, deploying IT
equipment inside the building, but use SaveTime...
containers for cooling infrastructure. In
either case, each company must care- SaveEnergy...
fully evaluate its options and compare SaveMONEY...
with the advantages and disadvantages
of each approach. Not everything that
works for a large company with a
mega data center will work for a small
company.
Conclusions
The main take away for com-
panies building small data centers is
Sealraisedoorcableopenings
that modular design strategy does not withAirGuardgrommetsand
necessarily equate with data center realizeimmediatecostsavingsin
containers. Dont dismiss modularity yourdatacenter!
simply because it brings to mind in-
dustrial-looking ISO containers hauled Datacentersrequirecoolairto
in by tractor trailers. Modularity is far maintainopmaltemperaturetokeep
broader a concept, and many compa- serversfunconingproperly.Air
niesparticularly some colocation and migraonorleakagethroughcable
wholesale data center service provid- holesindatacenteroorsbypassing
ershave employed it extensively to serverscanleadtodrascinecient
maximize their profitability. Modularity useofcoolairandwastedenergy
combines a right-sizing approach with dollars.
scalability, allowing a company to focus
on current IT demand while maintain- WiththeinstallaonofAirGuard,an
ing the ability to expand quickly and immediateenergysavingsbenetis
without redesign of an existing facility realized.AirGuardsignicantly
or construction of a new facility. The minimizescoolairloss,while
benefits of modularity are primarily in improvingstacairpressuretocool
the area of capital expenses. Unneeded datacenterequipment.
equipment isnt purchased for storage
until it is needed (an approach that
diverts capital from other uses and ul-
timately results in lost value). Further- Extreme,
more, storage and data center space is withSafetyCover
also saved. But in some circumstances,
even operating expenses are reduced AirGuardExtreme
particularly when unneeded servers
are not deployed and when excess UPS AirGuardgrommetsareasimple
capacity is avoided, thus increasing inexpensivesoluontopromote
operating efficiency. moreecientcoolingofyour
Vendors offer numerous products datacenter
focusing on meeting the needs of com-
panies targeting a modular approach
to building their data centers. For
Calltodayfora
inspiration in their efforts, companies FREEAirGuard
designing small facilities can look to
colocation and wholesale providers, brochure
many of whose business models have 1.866.631.4238
encouraged them to employ modularity
to meet customer demand as efficiently
as possible. n
1.866.631.4238 www.pducables.com
 FACILITY
corner

Data Ce nte r
Re ady -M ix
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by Jun Yang,

10 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL www.datacenterjournal.com

Brief History
A
s the digital age progressed,
significant advancements in
information technology were
followed by an increased de-
mand for information tech-
nology based services. Many datacenter
owners and operators soon faced a rapidly
changing consumer environment and an
increased demand for space, power and
cooling growth at a rate faster than most
businesses were prepared to respond to. By
the early dot com bubble ages, there was a
rush to build to meet the demand.
Post dot com bubble gives us the
benefit of 20/20 hindsight. Many compa-
nies reacted too quickly in order to meet
the increasing demand, resulting in the
over build of data center space and infra-
structure in the face of the excess supply of
data center environments as the dot com
bubble burst. Some may speculate that
the overbuild was a factor in the demise of
some once great companies. For the period
immediately afterwards, the industry spent
time growing into the over-built data cen-
ters with a healthy fear of new construction
and rapid deployment.
Fast forward to today, and the
demand for IT continues to grow again at
a rate that data center owners and opera-
tors struggle to keep up with. This growth
along with some historical mistakes must
have been a contributor to the container-
ized revolution that started years ago,
and that we continue to see today. Many
attribute the efforts of Sun and their Project
Blackbox as the start of the rise in notoriety
of the data center in a box concept. While
Sun may have enhanced the populariza-
tion of the technology, portable data center
technology had been around for a while.
For industry veterans, bedtime stories
of the strange, now seemingly extinct
creature called InfraStruXure Express,
one form of a datacenter in a box
developed by APC, are probably not
uncommon. Needless to say the
data center in a box concept has had
its challenges in gaining mass popu-
larly. Despite the critics, we see a
handful of manufacturers, such as
Needless to say the data center in a box concept has had its challenges in gaining
mass popularly. Despite the critics, we see a handful of manufacturers, such as
SGI, HP and Dell that tout the capability of providing such a solution. While perhaps
different flavors, the basic concept remains the same, a data center in a box.
www.datacenterjournal.com
SGI, HP and Dell that tout the capability of
providing such a solution. While perhaps
different flavors, the basic concept remains
the same, a data center in a box.
Benefits and Challenges
The data center in a box concept pre-
sented a tremendous amount of potential
benefit. For those looking for immediate
space, power, and cooling, the data center
in a box presented itself as a very attractive
solution. Containerized solutions could be
deployed significantly faster than a brick
and mortar build, often at a fraction of the
equivalent cost of a traditional build. The
technology promised immediate turn-key
availability of rack space, critical power,
and critical cooling.
Early deployment of the containerized
technology had its challenges. Solutions
that were generator ready did not lend
itself well to solve solutions for facilities
where base building generator systems were
nearing or already at capacity. Thanks to
manufacturers various manufacturers those
solutions have been well developed over the
years, and solutions can now be had with
this problem solved.
In addition to technical challenges,
there was the practical challenge that many
of these containers still required human
interaction for maintenance activities such
as equipment installation, cabling, etc. The
nature of these space effective solutions
naturally made for configurations that were
non-conducive to how data centers were
being operated at the time. Racks provided
in containerized solutions often did not
have the flexibility to deploy a variety of
hardware equipment that were required
for growth and often limited operators to
racked form factor equipment only. In
short, the options lacked the flexibility of
the traditional data center that owners and
operators were seeking.
Game Changing Events
During this time, significant develop-
ments in the data center market were the
game changing events that were further
driving growth in this type of deployment
strategy. There are three key, arguably re-
lated, events that can be attributed to mak-
ing the containerized solution attractive.
1. Virtualization
As data centers moved to virtual
environments, the legacy need to have
equipment that was readily available to see
and touch was eliminated. The accep-
tance of virtualization was the important
psychological shift that needed to happen
to allow for the widespread implementa-
tion of non-location specific architectures.
Understand that part of the big revelation
that happened with virtualization is that
you didnt need your applications tied to a
physical component. Once that psycholog-
ical hurdle was overcome, the data center
could essentially be anywhere, including
sites unseen.
2. Cloud Computing Platform
With cloud computing adoption,
many businesses were able to gain freedom
from the requirement for equipment to be
located within a specific data center envi-
ronment. Virtualization may have led to
the critical acceptance of the non-location
specific data center deployment concept.
This was a critical hurdle to overcome.
3. Low Cost, High Speed
Connectivity
During the dot com boom, many
telecommunications companies laid down
an extensive communication backbone.
Advances in technology also allowed for
reduction of latency. The result was high
speed connectivity at historically low
cost points. As an analogy, consider the
extensive communications backbone as a
series of highways. As highways improved,
it allowed cities to develop because the
barrier of geographic limitation is reduced
by efficient highway systems. Communica-
tions backbones do exactly the same thing
for information technology. It allows tech-
nology to be implemented with reduced
geographic limitation. The result was the
capability of deploying a containerized data
center solution, either on-site or off-site for
further flexibility, nearly anywhere quickly
and efficiently.
THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 11
Co-location Alternative
With many data center owners and
operators clamoring for more space, power,
and cooling, it may be hard to under-
stand why a data center in a box solution
presenting such flexibility did not gain
more market share in the then data center
market, desperate for more infrastructure.
The challenges to implementation were
minor and were not show stoppers. But
the same drivers that made containerized
solutions so attractive also gave competi-
tive advantage to an alternate deployment
strategy, co-location.
The rapid growth in the infrastructure
technology industry and the associated
demand in existing data center created the
need for rapid growth. Data center owners
and operators struggled to design, build,
and operate data centers as the growth left
a deficiency in human infrastructure. The
talent to manage such a large industry
undertaking of capacity growth had not yet
caught up to the demand for more space,
power, and cooling. As a result, businesses
could not build net new space and net
new infrastructure fast enough. Often,
information technology departments were
bogged down by trying to address physical
infrastructure growth detracting them from
their main role of information technology
growth, development, and management.
In addition, while not all businesses
are internet based, the need for the inter-
net, digital information storage, and other
aspects of information technology was
rapidly becoming a part of every businesss
operations. However, many of these single
server, local storage operations did not
contain the in-house expertise to manage
the information technology growth.
The demand of both large enterprise
operations and smaller single server opera-
tions paved much of the way for the growth
of the mega co-location facilities that we
are familiar with today. Enterprise opera-
tions may require more wholesale data
center space, while the smaller needs may
be addressed by retailers re-selling rack
level or server level space. This allowed
the overcoming of a great challenge to
rapid growth, the lack of human resources.
Information Technology groups within
organizations could now focus on the criti-
cal IT growth and management, while data
12 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL
center experts could focus on the design,
construction, and operation of the physical
infrastructure (uninterruptible power sup-
ply systems, emergency generator systems,
critical cooling systems). In this new
co-location model, a inherent synergy was
created. IT groups and managers could
focus on the specific issues affecting their
area of specialty, while the co-location
facilities could focus on the specific issues
affecting their area of specialty, namely real
If we evaluate co-location as an alternative to a data
center in a box, it is not hard to see why co-location
became, and in some respects remains, a more popular
solution than a data center in a box.
estate, critical power systems, and critical
cooling systems. This synergy is further
underscored by the long history of reliable
operations exhibited by organizations such
as 365 Main (now owned by Digital Realty
Trust), Equinix, Level 3, and Internap to
name a few.
In comparison to a containerized
solution, co-location facilities provided
data center space that was already designed,
built, and operating. Moreover, co-location
facilities were available for rapid deploy-
ment and immediate occupancy.
Many of the early containerized solu-
tions required a high initial capital invest-
ment. With the leases, businesses could
lease as much or as little space and capacity
as required. This offered, in many cases, a
higher level of flexibility than container-
ized solutions. As businesses needed to
run leaner in an increasingly competitive
market place, co-location provided the abil-
ity to right-size your data center operations
minimizing capital investment, smoothing
cash flow, and maximizing efficiency in
data center spending.
Leases could be executed as fast, if
not faster, than the time to implement a
containerized solution. In addition, the
co-location solution provided space, power,
and cooling immediately in the familiar
brick and mortar data center form that
owners and operators were familiar with.
The flexibility to deploy non-racked form
factor equipment was provided.
When assessing containerized solu-
tions for space, power, and cooling, it is only
natural to assess co-location as a solution.
The same technological advances that made
containerized solutions viable (virtualiza-
tion, cloud computing and low cost, high
speed connectivity) opened up the co-loca-
tion market as a viable alternative to a data
center in a box. If we evaluate co-location
as an alternative to a data center in a box, it
is not hard to see why co-location became,
and in some respects remains, a more popu-
lar solution than a data center in a box. The
primary benefits of containerized solutions
have been touted as flexibility, low cost, and
speed to market. Co-location presented
an extremely competitive proposition to a
containerized solution.
Box, Co-location, or Self
Operated
The bad news is there is no one
clear answer. The good news is that there
are many viable data center deployment
options. While there are proven box and
co-location implementations, there are
still a lot of successfully self operated data
centers.
The success of these self operated
data centers rely heavily on a culture of
high reliability and high availability, and a
focus on the future with a willingness and
capability to adjust to the changing times.
These facilities often also have significantly
high availability requirements. While new
generation co-location facilities come close
to meeting the associated service level tar-
gets of these facilities, when you have op-
erations that cannot introduce third party
inflicted failure risk (tenants, third party
contractors), self operation is often the only
guarantee to zero downtime operations. A
long established culture of future planning,
high reliability and availability operations
gives these organizations a long future in
self operated facilities for many decades to
come.
www.datacenterjournal.com
 As some of the larger legacy data cen-
ters come to the end of their infrastructure
life cycles, box and co-location technolo-
gies offer themselves as viable alternatives
as self owned and operated facilities ap-
proach end of life infrastructure replace-
ments and costly facility overhauls.
Future of the Data Center
in a Box
Today, we find the data center in
a box concept fighting for a comeback.
Similar technological improvements that
nearly made the data center in a box
concept extinct is helping make contain-
erized solutions a comeback. Businesses
looking to survive should keep a close
watch on emerging technologies such as
cloud computing platforms and wireless
communication systems (in many respects
possibly having a similar impact to data
transportation that air travel had to our
people transportation industry), that may
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eliminate the requirement for expensive
and long lead physical communication
infrastructure to these data center in a box
solutions, that will continue to evolve this
containerized solution market.
In their latest forms, the containers
often are designed for little to minimal
human interface. Some containerized solu-
tions are built to tolerate server equipment
failure and replacement not at the inside
equipment level, rather intended as a whole
container replacement. This relatively new
implementation of the data center in a
box concept has breathed new life into the
containerized data center market.
The ready-to-move availability of the
data center in a box solutions provide by
far greater flexibility than can be attained in
nearly any other medium. As the prod-
ucts provided by the variety of vendors
producing a data center in a box solution,
are further developed, we can expect higher
levels of reliability, availability, deployment
flexibility, energy efficiency. While the use
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may not have reached critical mass, it can
be said that the development opportunity
for these solutions remain strong.
As data centers become increasingly
more architected around cloud computing
platforms and wireless solutions become
the norm , the low-maintenance micro
data centers become an opportunity for
businesses to exercise the opportunity to
deploy data center operations without the
traditional ties to data center or co-location
facilities. These containerized solutions
come in a variety of configurations. Most
effective solutions are just add power
while some may require adding power and
water (i.e. condenser water or chilled water
for HVAC). Only time will tell how these
ready-mix solutions for data centers will
evolve; but, what is certain is that we will
continue to see more development in the
containerized solutions as businesses seek
competitive edge in innovative solutions
such as the data center in a box. n
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THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 13
 DESIGN
corner
Modular and
Pre-Fabricated Data
Center Infrastructure
by Gary Cudmore
Introduction
T
he data center has been steadily evolving for the past
several years and the trend today is to supply modular
or prefabricated infrastructure. The reasons data center
owners/operators are turning to this approach are nu-
merous, but the main benefits are repeatable design, cost
control, quality control, and flexibility.
As owners/operators change the way they envision and
operate their data centers, the more opportunities the design and
engineering community will have to support requirements such as
extreme flexibility or repeatable design.
Certainly, there is still a substantial focus on reliability, main-
tenance, capacity planning, PUE, and gaining efficiencies in all as-
pects of data center design and operation. However, the challenge
today is delivering extreme flexibility at the most economical price
point. Utilizing modular or prefabricated data center infrastruc-
14 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL
ture allows for data center owners/operators to drive down cost,
decrease the construction timeline, and pre-test multiple systems
or sub-systems in a single location. All of these benefits help in
establishing a repeatable design and infrastructure deployment that
improves quality, reliability, cost, and flexibility.
The days of the brick and mortar built-in-place data center
are giving way to the new generation of modular and prefabricated
data center infrastructure design and just-in-time deployment. The
modular design approach can be utilized in many levels of data
center infrastructure and subsystems as well as the IT payload. This
discussion will focus mainly on the data center infrastructure and
its subsystems.
Building Blocks
To start the process of a modular or prefabricated design
the owner/operator has to choose a standard IT payload building
www.datacenterjournal.com
block. This is easier said than done and is critical to the success of
the design and deployment of a modular or prefabricated infra-
structure deployment. Should the owner/operator choose an IT
payload block of 250 KW or go larger perhaps 500 KW to 1
MW+? The use of analytical tools and modeling is very important
to understanding the impact of different sized building blocks on
TCO, flexibility, and even redeployment of a prefabricated module.
The level of reliability and maintainability will also play a role in
what size building blocks are chosen.
The answer lays with the owner/operator and who his or her
customers are whether they are internal to an enterprise data
center or retail/wholesale colocation tenants. The owner/operator
has to decide on a building block size that allows for flexibility but
reduces the possibility for stranded capacity of the infrastructure.
This decision affects many aspects of the facility design the elec-
trical system and the mechanical system building blocks must be in
synch with the IT payload. This initial discussion with the owner/
operator on how the IT payload is delivered and the data center is
operated is critical to correctly sizing the infrastructure building
blocks. Owners/operators with uncertain day one and future loads
should consider a smaller building block to avoid underutilization
and stranded capacity. The IT payload and data center infrastruc-
ture must be married together and operate as a single system to
achieve maximum flexibility and utilization of the infrastructure.
How Modular?
Depending on the owners/operators philosophy, the modu-
lar approach could include the physical building itself, the IT
server POD, containers, skid mounted electrical systems, modular
chiller plants (MCP), other sub-systems and even all the above in
one facility.
The building itself can be a series of precast concrete cells
designed to the specific geographic requirements for seismic, wind,
or snow loading. The design may incorporate movable/reusable
exterior panels and allow for expansion and repurposing of the
space from IT data halls to infrastructure support equipment or
even containers.
www.datacenterjournal.com
Owners/operators are now requesting a design that allows
for the building infrastructure to be returned to a broader IT use.
For example, suppose a facility was designed to support a high
density user of 15 KW to 25 KW per cabinet. When the owner/
operator is ready to repurpose or sell the facility, he wants the
infrastructure to support only 5 KW per cabinet. The modular skid
mounted infrastructure could be relocated to a new site, used to
gain reliability or capacity, or sold to a third party.
The site or facility can be designed to support a container-
ized data center solution. The supporting infrastructure can be a
sub-system of the container or the site/building central infrastruc-
ture. Each design decision impacts the types of systems that meet
the operators requirements and that can be integrated; not all
manufacturers models can be integrated into a holistic system and
oftentimes extensive modeling and testing are required to develop
a modular or prefabricated design.
Electrical infrastructure such as switchgear, transformers, and
UPS systems can be skid mounted, tested, and shipped as a single
component. This is becoming common practice with colocation
owners/operators and large enterprise users.
Modular Chiller Plants and Other
Mechanical Systems
In the past, chiller plants were engineered from scratch. In
other words, multiple components from numerous manufacturers
were sourced and installed in the field. Chiller plants are very com-
plex and it takes a very deep understanding to design and integrate
all the components into a high efficiency plant with capacity and
flexibility for the future.
Todays MCPs are engineered by the OEM and fabricated
in their plant. This newer approach has allowed the MCP to be
completely engineered as a holistic system. The MCP has become
incredibly efficient, quality control is now at the factory instead of
the field, and cost has been driven down. The time to install once
the MCP is on site has been reduced to days instead of weeks or
months and less testing or commissioning is required than a field-
built plant. The MCP is shipped on a skid, is UL or ETL approved,
and requires no inspection from the local JHA. The MCP enclosure
THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 15
can be configured to have future internal
space or be ganged together in the future
for capacity or reliability.
Since ASHRAE TC 9.9 widened the
temperature and humidity bands a new
generation of mechanical systems have
been introduced to data centers adiabatic
and free cooling approaches are highly
desirable for their energy conservation.
The development of these systems has now
become modular in how they support re-
dundancy and future growth. The internal
components are designed to be redundant
and aid in a modular design approach.
These systems are completely fabricated
as a single system and tested in the plant
before being shipped to the site.
Other modular approaches for data
center mechanical systems include in-row
cooling and rear door heat exchangers
both of these systems require future plan-
ning for piping pathways for either water
or refrigerant and the refrigerant pumping
station requires floor space as well. These
systems can be deployed on a cabinet or
pod basis and offer flexibility when density
in a cabinet or row changes. As mentioned
previously all design decisions have an im-
pact the in-row cooler can be configured
for changes in density and redundancy, the
rear door heat exchanger is used for high
density applications and becomes a single
point of failure (as the heat exchanger sup-
ports a single cabinet and has no redun-
dancy). When it fails the cabinet it supports
is lost so risk analysis and MTBF are very
important. Does your IT strategy consider
and allow for the failure of a cabinet or
even pod?
Electrical Systems
It is now commonplace to see pre-
fabricated electrical skids show up on data
center project sites. Owners/operators as
well as engineering firms and contractors
are developing these prefabricated systems
to meet the unique operating requirements
of their customers.
The modular approach may include
an engine-coupled DG and UPS sys-
tem (DRUPS), which can greatly reduce
footprint and increase efficiency. These
components are integrated and tested as
a single system and, again, saves time and
money during testing and commissioning.
This type of system is best suited for larger
installations and bigger building blocks of
1-2 MW+ and often medium voltage site
distribution. Keep in mind that these sys-
16 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL
tems often have lead times that do not align
with fast track project schedules.
Electrical skids containing MSWG,
UPS systems, and sub-distribution are be-
coming very common. The key is correctly
sizing the building blocks and developing a
repeatable design. The advantage of having
a repeatable design is that it is possible to
accurately predict cost, time to fabricate
and install, and have a much higher level
of quality control. Factory witness testing
(FWT) is much more productive as mul-
tiple systems are tested as a single system
in a controlled environment issues that
arise during testing are mediated on the
plant floor.
Distribution to the server cabinet
is now delivered via Busway. The Busway
is modular and is pre-engineered and in-
stalled quickly vs. a traditional conduit and
conductor installation.
Rack mounted UPS systems are
another modular approach to a traditional
larger central UPS system. The rack mount-
ed system can provide more redundancy
and modules added just in time as the IT
load grows or more reliability is required.
Once again, every design decision has an
impact. With a rack mounted UPS system a
UPS technician will perform maintenance
or add modules in the data center or a live
cabinet.
Summary
The modular or prefabricated design
and delivery approach to data centers has
become commonplace and is being done
worldwide. Owners/operators want to
have an accurate understanding of cost
and time to market using a repeatable,
pre-engineered design ensures this. Having
these critical systems prefabricated in a
controlled environment provides for the
highest quality of workmanship, cost con-
trol, and production scheduling.
It is important to understand that
although these pre-fabricated systems may
have been tested at the plant or fabricator,
all the systems must be tested together as
a single holistic system to ensure the data
center critical infrastructure operates as
designed.
Every owners/operators require-
ments are unique. It is paramount that the
design and engineering team understands
the IT strategy and how the data center
will be operated before they can develop
a modular or prefabricated design for the
critical infrastructure. n
About the Author: Mr. Cudmore has been
an industry expert in the engineering and
construction of high reliability data centers
for the past 28 years. During this time, he has
completed projects in Saudi Arabia, Venezuela,
Mexico, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the
Unites States.Mr. Cudmore has been a subject
matter expert on behalf of IBM, Dell, HP, and
numerous Fortune 500 companies around the
world.
Gary Cudmore HCC
Principal Data Center Practice
g.cudmore@deernsamerica.com
About Deerns America: Deerns is an MEP
engineering consulting company founded in
1928 in the Netherlands. With 500 engineers
worldwide and offices in the Netherlands, the
United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and
the United States, we deliver innovative and
sustainable designs for data center owners/
operators worldwide.
www.deernsamerica.com
www.datacenterjournal.com
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 DESIGN
corner

EDA Vendor
Takes Its Own
Advice on Data
Center Design
by David Clark

The field of data center design has become more complex than ever. The past
decades tremendous increases in power density (upwards of 500%) in server
racks have compounded the cooling challenges, and moving airboth hot
and coldis Job One for data center architects. As a result, thermal and flow
simulation tools have become indispensable in the design of modern large-
scale data centers. Simulations on PC screens supplant mockups and scale
models, displaying virtual environments and timely, accurate predictions of
flow behavior. Modeling and simulation together can enable designers to run
scenarios to their hearts content at a minimal cost in time and effort.

18 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL www.datacenterjournal.com

Chartering a Project, Choosing the Tools
M
entor Graphics (Wilsonville, Oregon) is a leader
in the electronic design automation (EDA) field,
with products that span applications ranging
from integrated circuit design to automotive wir-
ing. The company is building two centralized data
centers, one in Oregon and one in Shannon, Ireland, to consoli-
date the resources of more than 20 local centers. The decision to
build was driven by the steady, costly growth in the companys
overall server heat load, which has risen by about 33% per year. At
present the Shannon data center is in production and the Wilson-
ville data center is under construction.
Early in the development of the Oregon center, the Mentor
design team concluded that the projects mission was to design
an effective cooling architecture and then form the buildings
configuration around that. While there were some basic guidelines
www.datacenterjournal.com
to define the size and shape of the edifice, the details of ducting,
venting, and internal floor plans were driven by the servers needs.
Not surprisingly, the design team turned to the companys
own FloVENT airflow modeling product for the critical evalu-
ation and validation steps. This tool uses computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) technology to analyze proposals relating to room
volume, equipment positioning, cooling airflows, duct sizes, etc.
CFD Solutions on the Engineers Desk
CFD has its origins in deeply complex mathematical equations
developed about 200 years ago. Of course, CFD today is computer-
ized. The simulation subject (in this case, the data center itself) is
gridded into many thousands of very small cells that are analyzed
individually and synthesized into a composite flow/thermal view.
Figure 1 shows such a grid superimposed on a temperature slice
map of a raised-floor HVAC concept. Variable cell sizing provides
THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 19

Figure 1: Raised-floor simulation with superimposed CFD grid
Figure 2: Dropped-ceiling proposal showing non-uniform
pressure and temperature distribution in a room with 10-ft.
ceiling height.
higher resolution in specific areas such as the server rack interiors.
Until recently, designing a buildings air and thermal flow
meant making estimates and judgments based on experience,
and then submitting the design to an external specialist for CFD
analysis. While that approach can certainly deliver the needed
20 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL
accuracy, it takes timepotentially weeksfor each round of
evaluation. Today the process is evolving: forward-thinking orga-
nizations are bringing CFD services in-house, assembling teams
in which staff designers can perform flow analysis on their own
PCs and rapidly model design alternatives. In the development
of the Mentor data centers, in-house CFD tools provided reliable
thermal and flow data that guided engineers in proof-testing new
ideas.
Pressure and Temperature: Inseparable
The decision about the basic air circulation approach for the
server rooms illustrates the benefit of performing flow analysis
locally. At least four schemes were considered. Among these was
a traditional raised-floor architecture as well as a dropped-ceiling
design.
The raised floor simply did not suffice. A typical 2 ft. floor-
ing system normally cools equipment far less powerful than
todays 10 kW server racks, and CFD studies predicted pressure
problems under the floor. The raised floor should function as a
plenum that regulates pressure and distributes air efficiently. But
the volume beneath the floor tiles was not sufficient to act as a
plenum, with the result that air couldnt reach all the server racks
uniformly. To correct this it would be necessary to increase the
floors height appreciably, which would add to its already-expen-
sive cost by as much as 28%.
Next, the team studied a dropped-ceiling (suspended ceiling
return) design. In this configuration the hot air from the serv-
ers would travel through a chimney system to a plenum space
formed by the ceiling itself, and onward to rooftop coolers. Again
the plenum was meant to regulate and stabilize the air pressure
and again its size became a problem. A plenum of sufficient
capacity would constrain the ceiling height in the server room,
and the remaining room volume wouldnt allow the pressurized
incoming air to distribute evenly. Figure 2 compares a CFD pres-
sure slice with an equivalent temperature contour slice, both
spanning the room at the 6 ft. height of the server racks.
The simulation quickly revealed troubling areas of high heat
(the deepest red color in the temperature plot) in the cold aisles,
namely aisles 1, 3, 5, and 7. These deficiencies were attributable to
the uneven pressures across the room. Pending further analysis of
the costs and performance of the dropped ceiling approach, the
team moved on to study other alternatives.
Capturing Hot Air
Two more methods, both involving confinement of the
hot air leaving the server racks, were evaluated. The hot aisle
containment technique forcibly confines the air in an entire aisle
between two rows of racks and directs it toward an exhaust duct.
This design was examined but abandoned after CFD analysis
revealed that the aisle was not just hot, but actually hot enough
up to 120 Fto impact a technicians ability to perform routine
maintenance on the servers.
Ultimately a chimney system was chosen. In this arrange-
ment, chimneys connect directly to individual server racks, draw-
ing heated air from them and guiding it to a collector duct and
then into a return plenum whose dimensions can be tested and
validated with the CFD tool. Figure 3 illustrates this layout. Hav-
ing previously encountered the problem with heat levels in the
www.datacenterjournal.com

Figure 3: Initial layout of the chimney/collector design
hot aisle design, the team ran a CFD simulation of the chimney/
collector approach. A range of scenarios was tested, including a
worst-case example in which the rear doors of several server racks
were open for maintenance at the same time. The results confirmed
first that the aisle temperatures were much lower (and safer), ap-
proximately 80 F, and secondly that server racks with their doors
open still fed at least 66% of their hot exhaust air into the chimney.
Both findings supported the efficacy of the chimney/collector
architecture.
Further CFD simulations determined that cabinet and duct
interface leakage would need to be held to 5% or less to avoid
recirculation of heated return air and consequent hot spots. These
findings were folded into the design specification.
Equally important were the tests that established the rooftop
unit (RTU) temperature set points. Simulations showed that
with an RTU supply temperature
of 72oF and the uniform cooling
performance the chimney system
promised, the average rack inlet
temperature would be a safe 74oF.
To achieve this same performance
in current Mentor data centers, the
supply temperature must be set to
58oF! Working with a higher supply
temperature means the RTUs fans
can run at slower fan speeds, using
less energy than otherwise would be
required.
the server outlets at the near end of A are fighting a tremendously
higher pressure gradient in the collector duct than are those in B.
Moreover, the placement of the return plenum in A is actually
increasing the pressure differential by relieving pressure on the
servers nearest to it.
Scenario B depicts the design changes that resulted from
the conclusions in Scenario A; the return plenum is now in the
middle of the collector duct span. There is a much more uniform
pressure gradient over the length of the collector duct, and the
overall pressures are lower. This is consistent with the projects
design guideline to move air in a relatively slow and controlled
fashion to remove heat.
Notice the blue pressure vortex in the lower corner of the ple-
num in B. These indicate an undesirable recirculation zone that
causes a pressure drop that must be counteracted by the RTU fans.
Further CFD experiments produced a duct design with angled
corners that minimized this disturbance.
Conclusion
The Mentor Graphics data center project is still underway, as
the construction team builds the datacenter in Wilsonville, and the
team refines the HVAC control algorithms based on further CFD
studies and real-time data from the Shannon datacenter. The CFD-
based what-if development path has proven its worth consistent-
ly. Designers have been able to predict and fine-tune the air flow in
room-sized environments, and then use this information not only
to refine the data centers architecture but also to scale ducts and
plan accurately for HVAC and electrical capacity requirements. n
About the Author: David Clark is the Facilities Critical Infrastructure
Manager at Mentor Graphics Corporation. The author would like to thank
Derrick Small and John Wozniak of Mentor Graphics for their work on the
simulations and images described in this article.

Meeting Heat Half-way

Evaluation of the chimney/

collector design continued with
what-if simulation scenarios
aimed at refining individual ele-
ments. The CFD plots in Figure 4
depict two alternatives for the
return plenum layout.
Both views express pressure in
Pascals (Pa), though there is a sub-
stantial difference in range. Clearly, Figure 4: A centered return plenum ensured consistent pressures throughout the collector duct.

www.datacenterjournal.com THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 21

 DESIGN
corner

Evolving Equipment
Trends for Modular Design
By Eric Holzworth

Theres an awful lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) in the market concerning
packaging or construction of data center infrastructure components. Its no wonder
the maximization of efficient capital in deploying new data center space is one of
the most difficult decisions a data center manager can make. At the center is the
debate surrounding containerized vs. modular solutions. Half-truths and myths abound,
creating confusion and preventing many from understanding the benefits of each. The
bottom line? Managers really need to do their homework to know whats right for them.

There is no ONE Answer No matter what your definition, its be spent on new centers worldwide this year,

S
ome confusion still abounds
when discussing modular data
center design vs containerized
data centers.
In the simplest terms,
in the most convenient definitions, a
containerized solution is a self-contained
module consisting of compute, storage and
networking all packaged into a standard
ISO shipping container. Modular designs
consist of a component-based design
assembled on-site. Sounds like a clear
distinction, but the fact is the lines are blur-
ring between the two.
A containerized data center is inher-
ently modular, but a modular data center is
not necessarily containerized.
Modularity comes from the ability to
build in discrete units, be that in terms of
power, cooling, space or some other factor,
and also to add on to or expand the data
center without risk of interruption to the
existing critical load, or excessive premi-
ums of construction between Phase 1 and
future phases.
clear that each bring its own efficiencies
and business benefits to the table.
But for companies, the bottom line is
to optimize the data center and save money.
Analyst firm The451 Group believes you
can get as much as 30 percent savings on
CapEx from leveraging the modular ap-
proach. Thats pretty important when you
consider the cost of powering the infra-
structure. As rising energy costs become
the norm, companies are looking for any
opportunity to cut dollars.
But whats driving these extreme
costs? Simply put, its the explosion of in-
formation that creates bigger centers which
demand more power.
Its the Data, Stupid
As data centers attempt to tackle the
growing amount of data, cloud migration
strategies, and the explosion of tablets and
smart phones, new investments in bigger
infrastructures are a given. According to a
recent article in USA Today:
(Gartner) estimates $22 billion will
after the growth sputtered during the reces-
sion. Data centers are increasingly in vogue
as demand for digital data explodes with the
popularity of cloud computing, tablets and
smart phones. Google, Facebook and Apple
are among the large tech companies that built
their data centers in rural areas to save on
land and power costs.
Analyst firm IDC annually reports on
the Digital Universe to keep track of in-
formation growth. Probably the most com-
prehensive yearly report on data expansion,
the study offers a unique perspective on the
world of data.
The 2011 report found the total
amount of information to be created
and replicated was expected to exceed
1.8 zettabytes an increase over 2010s
figure of 1 zettabyte. The study reports
this volume was expected to more than
double every two years. This translates to a
universe of information growing nearly 50
times by 2020.
Remember, its this data growth thats
driving bigger data centers, increasing capi-
tal costs and forcing managers to explore

22 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL www.datacenterjournal.com

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both containerized and modular solutions
to gain efficiencies. So lets dive deeper into
the options.
A Closer Look
According to Gartner analyst David
Cappuccio, traditional data center design is
in a constant state of transition. Cappuccio
believes modular data centers are the next
evolutionary stage of containers:
He states, Modular data centers
have evolved from the basic premise of
containers that, if designed appropriately,
extreme levels of performance could be
attained in data centers using a consistent
design technique, and capital costs could
be reduced by standardizing components,
construction and the supply chain.
In order to meet the demands of
modularity in the data center, the market
has demanded and the equipment manu-
facturers have responded with technology
that is modular in nature, which can be
incorporated easily into a modular design.
It might be useful to break down
each component of a modular design to
see what it takes to implement a workable
infrastructure.
Drilling Down
There are several components to ex-
plore when investigating a modular design.
The main area of focus centers on both
Power and Cooling. And each has their
challenges.
The basic formula for powering a data
center includes a series of unique elements,
including: Distribution Switchgear, Gener-
ation Equipment, UPS Systems, Power Dis-
tribution Units (PDUs) and Remote Power
Panels (RPPs). Inherently, the downstream
area of power distribution including size
and design of equipment -- are inherently
modular. When more power circuits are
required, a PDU or RPP is deployed. It
is at the upstream level where equipment
manufacturers have become more adept at
creating modularity.
Generators:
Many owners are moving away from
parallel generator plants to conserve costs
and eliminate the single point-of-failure at
the generator paralleling switchgear (GPS).
This design forces decisions at lower levels
in the distribution, such as the use of single
module UPS systems and static transfer
switches. However, for those installation
24 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL
that require a parallel plant in order to
produce a larger block of emergency power,
many of the generator manufacturers have
developed paralleling controls that are on
board the generator itself, allowing the gen-
erators to control themselves in a master
slave scenario, and parallel on to a common
dumb switchboard. This eliminates much
of the upfront costs of the GPS, and addi-
tional generators with their own on-board
controls can be added as needed, along
with a simple addition of another breaker
section in the dumb board.
Switchgear:
Switchgear in itself is hard to make
modular. It needs to be specified and
constructed with its ultimate bus ratings
installed upfront, and adding additional
sections is difficult unless the board can
be taken out of service, or tie breakers are
included in the original construction (at a
cost, naturally). However, the switchgear
manufacturers have made it easier to add
breakers to existing line-ups, by in recent
years developing front accessible draw-out
switchgear that can fit in tight spaces, with-
out the need for rear access. This at least
allows for the possibility of adding breakers
to meet future power requirements in a
modular fashion.
UPS Systems:
Perhaps some of the bigger break-
throughs in modular design at an equip-
ment level has come from the UPS
manufacturers. For years some vendors
offered small kVA frames into which could
be added power and battery modules as
the load grew, and/or to provide a level of
redundancy. Recently, many of the major
manufacturers have expanded this concept
in to larger frame sizes in excess of 1MW.
This allows the owner to start small with
a frame and a select amount of power
modules and batteries, and grow as the load
grows by adding modules. In most cases
this can be accomplished while the load
is maintained in bypass. However, proper
commissioning the newly expanded system
can be a challenge if an alternate path to
the load is not available.
Just as important as power is the
method used to cool the system. Accord-
ing to Booz & Co., nearly 40 percent of
energy consumed in the typical data center
comes from cooling systems. Driven by
chillers and air handlers, this function has
quite possibly made the most aggressive
strides towards data center modularity.
Chillers:
Historically, modular chillers were
used to right size plants where facility
loading is cyclical. This means a chiller
plant is able to have active modules with
the ability to change and adapt as load size
moves. Unlike older data centers, it is es-
sential that todays systems are both energy
efficient and scalable for future loading.
The modular chiller plant provides an infi-
nite amount of versatility and redundancy
with the ability to expand and contract as
necessary.
Air Handling Systems:
Perhaps the biggest strides in modu-
larity and scalability of cooling systems
come from air handling systems. As
computer room units shrink to several kW,
they can now be placed in row adjacent to
computer cabinets. This drives reduced fan
power to deliver proper airflow at the face
of the IT equipment. It also creates higher
supply and return air temperatures. Both
dramatically impact power consumption -
helping to create dramatic improvements
in overall cooling efficiency and smaller
building blocks for greater flexibility.
Setting the Record
Straight
Theres still confusion surrounding
the container versus modular debate as
companies struggle to determine the right
fit. In the end, everyones looking for the
same thing lower costs and higher ef-
ficiencies. Analysts generally believe that
modular data centers are the future, and
recent advancements have made it more
possible than ever to get there. But before
taking the plunge, its critical to assess your
current and future needs building a data
center capable of growing as needed.
Its time to cut through the myths and
half-truths and find out what design works
for you. Theres simply too much at stake.
n
About the Author: Eric Holzworth is COO
of Rubicon Professional Services, a mission-
critical construction management firm that
takes an owners approach to the design and
building of data centers, encompassing every
complex aspect from design, power load,
energy management/ conservation, equipment
procurement/ integration and even financing.
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 Solving Data Center
Complexity
through a common IT Language

26 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL www.datacenterjournal.com

 By Constantin Delivanis

For data center managers surveying todays IT landscape, the view

can be daunting. Across a vista dotted with cloud offerings, virtual
servers, employee-owned devices, inherited and acquired assets, and
disparate systems, IT leaders see a murky horizon, one in which it is
increasingly difficult to determine exactly what applications the data
center is running and how to manage them. Its a complex backdrop
for any organization, and it requires forward-looking technology
professionals to adopt solutions that reduce that complexity.

www.datacenterjournal.com THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 27

T
he typical mid-size data center
has hundreds to thousands of
physical servers, storage devices,
networking tools, IP-enabled
uninterruptible power supplies
(UPS) and heating, ventilation and air
conditioning (HVAC) devices, to name a
few. If we look below that physical layer, the
same data center has thousands of virtual
machines, software installations, versions,
editions and releases. Beneath that software
layer, we see that the definitions of those
versions or editions or releases are inconsis-
tent. For example, the same Oracle database
can be defined as Oracle 11g, or Oracle
version 11.2.0.2, or ORA_11_2_EE. How
can IT track and manage such inconsisten-
cies? This is only one version of one prod-
uct from one vendor. Oracle has 10,391 and
422 software product releases and hardware
models, respectively; IBM has 13,078 and
64,862; HP 7,982 and 64,036. And these
are software product releases and hardware
models from only three vendors. Since
there are more than 12,000 IT vendors, you
can see the challenge that is slowly bringing
IT to its knees.
In the meantime, IT executives are
spending millions of dollars attempting to
address this problem with solutions such as
software asset management and configu-
ration management databases (CMDB).
However, unless the fundamental issue
of normalizing all the data to a common
language is addressed, such solutions
will continue to fail to deliver the value
they promise. In the example above, the
Oracle database should be normalized and
referred to with the official vendor name:
Oracle Database version 11.2 Enterprise
Edition. This normalized representation
should be provided regardless of whether it
comes from a data center discovery system
like HP-DDMI, IBM TADDM, BMC
ADDM, BladeLogic Server Automation or
from a purchasing system. Unless enter-
prises adopt a common language for IT, ini-
tiatives such as migrations, consolidations,
application rationalizations, audit support
and attestations will continue to be manual,
expensive, cumbersome and error prone.
Four possible fixes
Before we embark on a discussion of
how to attain such a normalized view of a
data center, lets examine what possible op-
tions exist to fix the data center complexity
problem:
IT could try to
Option 1 simplify everything
by buying all of its
software from one
vendor and all of its hardware from an-
other. This would, in theory, be the easiest
way to control the amount of data related
to IT assets. But heres the problem with
this approach: there is no vendor capable
of providing everything an organization
needs. Even if there were such a magical
provider, the data center would first have to
dump all of its legacy infrastructure and ap-
plications, which would be cost-prohibitive
and disruptive to the business. The reality
is that most organizations need to have a
variety of technologies and systems, and
different vendors provide that variety.
IT could deal
Option 2 with complexity
by adopting more
management tools.
There are certainly plenty of vendors eager
to sell them, but these tools dont integrate
existing systems. In many cases, they spit
out more data not actionable informa-
tion. In truth, most management tools
exacerbate the problem they purport to
solve.
Option 3 This is the do-
nothing approach,
which might seem
harmless. It is not. The IT leader who
ignores the problem of disparate systems
and lack of information risks spending 80
percent of his budget just keeping systems
running. IT will not be able to provide the
business agility that is expected from data
center leaders.
We should label
Option 4 this approach the
only option, since
all the others come
with significant drawbacks and fail to solve
the core problem. Data center leaders must
refer to and manage their different systems
in a consistent manner, and that requires
the adoption of a common IT language and
normalizing the data against it.
Introducing a common
language to your data
center
Normalizing your data center to a
common language typically entails either
two or three steps, depending on your size
and maturity level:
Establish a refer-
Step 1 ence catalog that
includes a tax-
onomy of all IT
vendors with their associated products,
models, versions, and editions, as well as
attributes such as software support levels,
software compatibility (i.e., Windows 7
compatibility), end of life dates, hardware
consumption, etc. A typical reference cata-
log will look as shown in the tables below.
Normalize your
STEP 2 management tools
such as HP-DDMI,
IBM TCM, BMC
ADDM or BladeLogic Server Automation,
where you filter out unimportant data and
correct vendor names, models, editions

SOFTWARE
Manufacturer Oracle Oracle Oracle Adobe Adobe Hewlett-Packard Company Hewlett-Packard Company
Family Hyperion Fusion Middleware Acrobat Macromedia Compaq OpenView
Product Database Planning WebLogic Server Acrobat Coldfusion MX Visual Fortran Network Node Manager (NNM)
Version 11.2 9.2 10.0 10.1 7.0 6.5 8.0
Edition Enterprise Standard Premium Pro Enterprise Professional Starter
HARDWARE
Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard Company Hewlett-Packard Company Oracle Oracle Lenovo Group Lenovo Group
Product Compaq Business Desktop PC Compaq Business Desktop PC Fire Blade Server Fire Server ThinkPad Edge 13 Notebook ThinkCentre A70z
Model d530 CMT d530 SSF B100s 480R 01962QM 0401A7G
Profile Tower Small Form Factor Blade Rack Mounted Laptop Desktop

28 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL www.datacenterjournal.com

and versions, and then organize them
against your reference catalog tax-
onomy. At the same time, enrich that
data with relevant attributes such as
support levels, end of life information
or compatibility.
Use the refer-
STEP 3 ence catalog and
empower your
enterprise archi-
tects and your sourcing department to
define standards and drive purchasing.
The common language of
IT in action use cases
Software asset management:
There is financial incentive to
make this a priority. One large financial
services company expanded its service
automation module (SAM) program to
normalize the software inventories from
its BMC ADDM and IBM TADDM
discovery. The ability to gain a con-
solidated, single-pane view across both
vendors products provided operational
depth and a common representation of
product lifecycles that helped the orga-
nization make effective asset succession
decisions.
Application rationalization:
An interesting rationalization use
case comes from a consulting firm that
specializes in helping Oracle customers
optimize their software license spend.
It performed a software normaliza-
tion and discovery effort at a Midwest
energy company to right-size server
licenses.
The firm found that its client
was under-licensed by more than $10
million. By normalizing its licenses, the
firm was able to consolidate its client
from smaller systems to larger ones,
take greater advantage of virtualiza-
tion and cut the true-up bill by half.
A secondary benefit was a 30 percent
reduction in operational costs through
consolidation to fewer physical servers
with uniform software stacks for easier
administration.
Data center consolidations
and mergers and acquisitions:
Even companies with award-
winning datacenters struggle with these
enormous tasks. One such company
using a reference catalog discovered as
www.datacenterjournal.com
many as 3,000 unmanaged servers on
the premises after bringing multiple en-
tities together. The team achieved a 66
percent reduction in space and power
footprint in infrastructure consolidation
projects and an approximate five-fold
increase in computing capacity with this
information.
The reference catalog was able
to discover gains by identifying older,
lower density technologies not compat-
ible with virtualization and targeting
them for upgrades or decommissioning.
The same reference catalog was able to
track the physical dimensions, power
consumption and heat dissipation for
servers, helping identify less efficient
servers.
The value of a common IT
language
Todays enterprises are dealing
with a serious problem in their IT
environments; they are drowning in IT-
related data. The data is produced by IT
management tools, purchasing systems
and planning solutions, and it is discon-
nected, inconsistent and incomplete.
This prevents teams from making timely
and confident business decisions.
A comprehensive IT reference
catalog is the first step in addressing
the inconsistencies and gaps in vendor
data. Normalization is the second step
to filter, correct vendor names, versions,
editions and models, and add catego-
rization, relevant external data, and
more. This common language enables a
complete, accurate and consistent view
of the data center.
Adopting a common IT language
supports data center consolidation and
allows data center professionals to more
effectively harness information for deci-
sion-making. With a coherent method
to survey the entire data center, teams
can deliver and interpret technology
information, support smarter business
strategies and lower their costs. n
About the Author: Constantin Delivanis
is CEO and co-founder of BDNA Corporation,
creator of Technopedia, the worlds largest IT
reference catalog. With more than 450,000
hardware and software products listed from
over 11,000 vendors, Technopedia delivers
information and technology that enables the
common language of IT.
 it BUSINESS

BYOD
and the Impact on IT
By Ron Nunan

True mobility is bringing about a significant change in the way business gets done. It started
with managers, directors, and executives using newer devices they bought themselves and
wanted to use in meetings and on the road. Now, any number of individuals across the
enterprise can be seen using tablets and a variety of smartphones to conduct business
employees are simply using their own devices.

W
ith the rapid expan-
sion and adoption of
Internet-based comput-
ing cloud computing,
if you will smart com-
panies are taking advantage of this and are
enabling employees to work more efficiently
by embracing the mobility trend.
But to realize potential gains in
productivity and efficiency, some significant
challenges need to be overcome. The un-
stoppable trend of an increasingly mobile fo-
cused workforce presents serious challenges
to application access and security. Whether
companies set device standards or BYOD
(bring your own device) dominates, these
issues are real. While business managers
and employees see the benefit of integrating
tablets, laptops and smartphones into their
workday, how do IT personnel enable a sales
force, executive team or field support group
to successfully use all of these disparate de-
vices without an overhaul of the enterprise
application portfolio? These challenges exist
even when a company controls and approves
mobile devices, but with BYOD they are
even more complex.
According to Gartner, in its Predicts
2012 research report, the IT landscape
is changing dramatically, with cloud and
mobility as the driving forces. As outlined
in the report, todays workforce expects to
get access to personal, work, and business
applications and data from any device,
anytime and anywhere. That is becoming
a huge expectation for IT to fulfill, since
IT groups are no longer in the driver seat
as employees increasingly use an array of
smartphones, tablets and laptops.
How does IT, using a sales team as an
example, ensure connectivity and inter-
activity for these mobile device users to
existing enterprise resource applications
(ERP) or customer relationship manage-
ment (CRM) systems housed on existing
backend systems, possibly a mainframe?
The common IT preferred route of replac-
ing, modernizing or otherwise enhancing
the target application cannot accommodate
the need. The mobility trend is ahead of an
enterprise applications capabilities. A solu-
tion is needed now, and it needs to be one
that does not negatively impact daily work.
This is no simple task. IT departments
must find a way to bridge the gap between
the new technologies and the older applica-
tions that were never designed to support
mobile devices and tablets, and have no
concept of this new wave. This is especially
challenging for organizations that secure
critical data on a mainframe system or
utilize legacy host-based applications, with
long-standing obstacles to integration.
Combine these challenges with the often
whole-hearted adoption by those at the
executive level who see real potential for
increased productivity, the urgency for IT
to find a solution is pegging the we need it
now meter.
But how?
The trend for tablets and smartphones
will only escalate, and the devices needing
support will only become more diverse.
Today we are only seeing the tip of the
iceberg. Yet the applications we run our
businesses on, applications which cannot
be changed quickly, but are of strategic im-
portance, will have to be accounted for and
used by these new and continuously chang-

30 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL www.datacenterjournal.com

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www.datacenterjournal.com THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 31
 ing devices. Fortunately, the role middleware
played in the earlier days of application
integration can have an immediate impact.
And by finding a class of middleware inte-
gration services that offers control over UI
presentation as well as connectivity, IT can
say yes to the mobility trend. Middleware
is the bridge that can take the highly rigid
world of enterprise class applications and
shield them from the highly volatile needs of
mobile cloud-based computing.
IT must address this older inventory
of applications that knows nothing about
the modern day requirements, it must do
it soon, and it must do it in a way that can
change as continuously as the needs of the
mobile user change. Think of it as the Wild
West, with IT thrashing about with various
concepts and ideas trying to arrive at a solu-
tion. Its a task for which without something
to sit in the middle, they dont have a good
solution. This is one of the biggest changes
and challenges for mass-requirement com-
puting that weve seen in a long time. In re-
ality, it is not just a new device, it is actually
7x24_DCJ_8375w525_fx_7x24_DCJ ad 8375w525 7/2/12 9:25 AM Page 1
a set of changing devices that employees will
switch to throughout their workday we are
seeing a shift to multi-device computing.
END-TO-END RELIABILITY MISSION CRITICAL FACILITIES
32 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL
The good news is that many middle-
ware solutions recognize the problem and
are adapting their wares to bridge the divide.
Some solutions even allow raw access to
any existing systems without any require-
ment for the IT staff to rebuild, modify or
endanger the backend or legacy systems, or
necessarily homogenize the types of devices
the various forces are employing. And the
better middleware options allow la carte
additions to immediate access. This allows
IT to provide mobile access now, but give
them the added capability to enhance and
tailor the mobile experience as time permits
or as IT resources free up.
To avoid serious disruption, IT groups
should look for cloud-enabling solutions
that can deal with critical business data
without modifying the mainframe applica-
tion in any way. Additionally, they should
look for a system that runs on a middleware,
PC-based server, or that communicates with
the mainframe (or other back-end host)
through its standard protocols. And finally,
IT should look for a solution that will do
everything from auto generating the mobile
UI to crafting web services to create truly
customized mobile experiences.
2012 FALL CONFERENCE
While it might seem that a solu-
tion of this magnitude would be too large
and daunting, its not. The new world will
include the ability to integrate, expose and
control access to mainframe applications,
without risk, leaving mainframe applications
untouched and business logic remaining in
force. The right solution will enable your
mainframe to become a back-end to your
own data integration cloud, all for less time,
cost and risk. n
About the Author: Ron Nunan is a chief
strategist and senior product manager for
the Attachmate Corporations mainframe
integration products, playing a central role in
the companys product development and applied
technology solutions. He also has worked in the
financial/accounting software industry and was
a systems specialist, providing architectural
support on enterprise class IBM-centric
solutions. He can be reached at ron.nunan@
attachmate.com. To read more about mainframe
integration, visit Rons blog Application
Integration.
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 YOUR TURN
EMCworld 2012:
Trust and marketing,
can they coexist?
by Greg Schulz
R
ecently while at EMCworld
in Las Vegas (Thanks btw to
EMC who covered coach air-
fare and 3 nights hotel) I had
the opportunity along with
group of other industry analysts and advi-
sors to have a series of small group meeting
sessions with key EMC leadership.
These sessions included time with
Chairman of the Board of Directors and
Chief Executive Officer Joe Tucci, Chair-
men of VCE Michael Capellas (who is also
on the Cisco Board of Directors), President
and Chief Operating Officer, EMC Infor-
mation Infrastructure and Cloud Services
Howard Elias, President and Chief Operat-
ing Officer, EMC Information Infrastruc-
ture Products Pat Gelsinger, and Executive
Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
(CMO) Jeremy Burton.
Joe Tucci is always fun to listen and
engage with in small groups and conveys
a cordial confidence when you meet face
to face. Howard Elias who is now head-
ing up the services business talked about
walking the talk with services, public and
private cloud including what EMC is doing
internally. Michael Capellas had some good
insight into what he is doing with VCE,
along with his role on the Cisco BOD.
Pat Gelsinger had some interesting points
however seemed a bit more reserved than
in earlier sessions. Jeremy Burton who
is normally associated with the effective
marketing company or everything movie
campaigns at EMC did not use any back-
drops, visual aids, theatrics or Vegas style
entertainment during his session.
Of the above-mentioned executives,
34 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL
Become a Blogger today www.dcjexpertblogs.com
the one that impressed me the most, and
talking with other analysts/advisors had
similar perspectives was Jeremy Burton.
I have seen and heard him talk before in
live and virtual venues along with what
he is doing to focus EMC messaging and
themes.
A common comment and theme in
talking with other analysts and advisors
was that in five minutes, Jeremy did more
to advance, clarify, articulate and explain
who EMC is, what they are doing now and
for the future.
Trust was one of the themes of the
EMCworld event as it pertains to collabo-
rating with vendors and service providers
as well as consultants, advisors and others.
Trust is also important for going to the
cloud on a public or private basis. It is
easy to talk about trust however, it is also
something that is earned and is important
to keep up and protect. Normally given
some of the stigma associated with market-
ing and or sales, trust too often becomes
a punch line or term tossed around with
skepticism, cynicism or empty promises.
The reason I bring trust up in this discus-
sion was that in Jeremys interaction with
those in the room, whether others realized
it or not, he was working on planting the
seeds and establishing the basis for trust.
Does that mean there is automatic
trust now in anything that EMC or their
marketing organization says or more so
than what heard from other organizations?
Perhaps some will automatically take what
is heard and go with that as gospel however,
they may be doing that already. For others
who are skeptical by default and do their
homework, analysis, research and other re-
lated tasks, they may be more likely to give
the benefit of the doubt vs. automatically
questioning everything looking for multiple
confirmations and added fact checking.
As for me, I generally take what any
vendor or their pundits say with a grain of
salt giving benefit of doubt where appli-
cable unless trust has been previously im-
pacted. In the case of EMC, I generally take
what they say with a grain of salt. However,
a level of trust and confidence can make
validating what they say sometimes easier
than with others. This is in part due to
knowing where to go internally for details
and information including NDA based
material and the good job their analyst rela-
tions team and other group do on building
and keep up relationships.
Does this mean I like EMC more or
less than other vendors? It means there is a
level of trust, communication, relationship,
contact, interaction and access to resources
with EMC that might be more or less than
with other vendors. Disclosure EMC along
with some companies they have acquired
have been past clients.
Now back to Jeremy.
What impressed me the most was
while other executives were engaging to
different degrees, when I asked Jeremy
how he and EMC balances entertainment
(videos and movies, theatrics), education
(expanding knowledge of EMC solutions,
technology advancement) and being engag-
ing (not just sales calls, social media, golf-
ing or other in person activities) to drive
business economics his response included
all three of those aspects.
www.datacenterjournal.com
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Ok, I know, some of you should be saying that is the job and role of a marketing
person to be an effective communicator which I would agree, however why dont more
marketers do a more effective job of what they do?
In other words, Jeremy educated by sharing what and why they are doing certain
things, Jeremy engaged with the entire audience while answering my question however
not singular responding to me, he also entertained with some of his answers while also
keeping them to the point, not rambling on. Afterwards I had a few minutes to talk one
on one with Jeremy without the handlers or others and I can say it was refreshing and as is
too of the case with marketers, there is trust.
That does not mean I will take anything verbatim or follow the scripts or other
things the truth squads want preached or handed out from EMC, Jeremy or any other
vendor for that matter.
I can say that in the few minutes up close and in a smaller setting, EMC has a secret
weapon who can do more to build and convey trust and that is Jeremy Burton, hope I am
not wrong.
Ok, nuff said for now. Cheers Gs
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Calendar
AUGUST
August 8, 2012 August 10, 2012
USENIX Security Symposium
August 28, 2012 August 30, 2012
CloudCon-2012
SEPTEMBER
September 3, 2012 September 4, 2012
China Cloud Computing Summit 2012
September 12, 2012 September 14, 2012
Cyber Resilience for National Security
September 16, 2012 September 20, 2012
2012 BICSI Fall Conference & Exhibition
September 18, 2012 September 20, 2012
The Green Data Centre Conference &
Exhibition: London
September 19, 2012 September 21, 2012
Cyber-Risk and Data Breach Management
Summit for Financial Services
September 27, 2012 September 28, 2012
6th Annual Advanced Forum on Cyber &
Data Risk Insurance
September 27, 2012 September 27, 2012
DataCentres Eurasia 2012
September 30, 2012 October 3, 2012
Fall 2012 Data Center World Conference
and Expo
OCTOBER
October 8, 2012 October 10, 2012
Telco Cloud Summit APAC
October 9, 2012 October 11, 2012
The Green Data Center Conference and
Exhibition: Bay Area
VENDOR INDEX
Universal Electric ....................................... Inside Front
www.uecorp.com
Cable System ........................................................... pg 3
www.cablesys.com
Americool .................................................................. pg 5
www.americoolin.com
PDU Cables ............................................................... pg 9
www.pducables.com
Sumitomo Electric ............................................... pg 13
www.sumitomoelectric.com
DataAire ................................................................... pg 17
www.dataaire.com
Server Tech ............................................................. pg 23
www.servertech.com
Eaton ....................................................................... pg 25
www.switchon.eaton.com/datacenterjournal5
Data Specialties, Inc. .......................................... pg 29
www.webuilddatacenters.com
Corning ..................................................................... pg 31
www.offers.corning.com/1-EDGESolutions
7x24 Exchange ...................................................... pg 32
www.7x24exchange.org
Belden ...................................................................... pg 33
www.belden.com
AFCOM ...................................................................... pg 35
www.datacenterworld.com
AVTECH ..................................................................... pg 36
www.avtech.com
DCJ Expert Blogs .................................................... Back
www.dcjexpertblogs.com