Thursday, January 23rd, 2014

Time	Event
12:30p	Data Center Jobs: Another Source At the Data Center Jobs Board, we have a new job listing from Another Source, which is seeking a Critical Facility Engineer (HVAC and Data Center Controls) in San Antonio, Texas. The Critical Facility Engineer (HVAC and Data Center Controls) is responsible for performing routine maintenance tasks in accordance with McKinstry Safety Policy and Procedures, inspecting buildings, grounds and equipment for unsafe or malfunctioning conditions, troubleshooting, evaluating and recommending system upgrades, ordering parts and supplies for maintenance and repairs, soliciting proposals for outsourced work, working with vendors and contractors to ensure their work meets McKinstry and Client standards, and performing all maintenance to ensure the highest level of efficiency without disruption to the business. To view full details and apply, see job listing details. Are you hiring for your data center? You can list your company’s job openings on the Data Center Jobs Board, and also track new openings via our jobs RSS feed. (Comment on this)
1:30p	7 Tips for Managing Preventive Maintenance at Data Centers Jeff O’Brien is an industry specialist and blogger at Maintenance Assistant Inc., a provider of innovative web-based CMMS, which is a tool to manage facilities and infrastructure equipment at data centers.  JEFF O’BRIEN Maintenance Assistant Can you afford to have one of your critical power distribution assets fail because you missed your scheduled preventative maintenance? According to a recent study by Ponemon Institute, one minute of data center downtime now costs $7,900 on average. With an average reported incident length of 90 minutes, we can calculate that the average incident now costs $700,000. This large cost is related to the fact that modern data centers are supporting critical websites and cloud software applications. Preventative maintenance ensures maximum reliability by taking precautionary and proactive steps to reduce unscheduled equipment downtime and other avoidable failures. The purpose of preventive maintenance is to institute scheduled inspections so that defects can be spotted before they evolve into something more severe. Those data centers that don’t carry out planned and preventative maintenance have an increased risk of asset failure. Here are seven tips for first class preventive maintenance at your data center: Safety First Data centers contain numerous hazards that can impact the life and health of technicians. Data center technicians need to be aware of potential safety hazards when performing preventive maintenance activities. Use lockout tag out where necessary. Ensure data center technicians are familiar with health and safety processes when performing preventive maintenance tasks by documenting them in every PM procedure and by providing regular safety training. Schedule Regular Maintenance and Inspections Performing preventive maintenance on UPS and batteries greatly reduces the chance of failure during power outages. In a recent study by Emerson Network Power, the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) for UPS units that received two PM service events per year is 23 times higher than a machine with no PM service events per year. The same is true for other critical systems such as HVAC and generators. Regular preventive maintenance can reduce the chance of failure, reduce the amount of energy consumed and extend equipment lifetime. The manufacturers recommended preventive maintenance is a goof place to start. These can be revised over time. Use Standardized Checklists Standardized checklists ensure technicians know what to do during the preventive maintenance, while ensuring the same standard checks are being performed every time. Again, the manufacturers recommended maintenance is a good point to start and this can be refined over time. In data centers, these are called Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), Methods of Procedure (MOP) and Emergency Operating Procedures (EOP). Certain jobs may require additional training and safety procedures so SOPs, EOPs and MOPs should outline what is required. Enforce PM Compliance Given the potential costs of data center downtime, it is important to complete PM’s and to complete them on time. The easiest way to do this is to measure and enforce PM compliance. Your preventive maintenance compliance (PMC) score is the percentage of scheduled PM work orders that get done on time. Who decides that time? The 10% rule of maintenance is a good starting point. The rule states that a preventive maintenance action should be completed within 10% of the scheduled maintenance interval. For example, a quarterly PM every 90 days, should be completed within 9 days of the due date or it is out of compliance. The 10% rule can help keep your PM intervals constant, reducing the time variable variation, thus improving reliability. Keep Detailed PM and Work Order Records If things go wrong, insufficient documentation can lead more heartache than a data center manager needs. Well-documented PM reports ensure the data is readily available whenever the auditors come to inspect. Also Historical work order information can be used to identify chronic equipment problems and unacceptable levels of downtime so solutions such as regular inspections or preventive maintenance can be put in place to proactively reduce the level of downtime going in the future. >Measure As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “you cannot improve what you cannot measure”. By measuring your performance through KPI’s such as PM compliance, availability and reliability; you can optimize your preventive maintenance to maximize its effectiveness while minimizing costs. Get a CMMS A CMMS is the best way to help track, measure and improve your preventive maintenance and meet 6 tips and tricks mentioned above. Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS), sometimes called Preventive Maintenance Software, enables the facility manager, subordinates and customers to track the status of maintenance work on their assets and the associated costs of that work in one comprehensive system. CMMS software can help a data center drive down the cost of maintenance, increase asset life, improve reliability and productivity and reduce equipment downtime. It ensures that preventive maintenance is performed regularly according to established protocols. It will also give the maintenance technician quick access to equipment information such as procedures, work order history and maintenance data, and metric indicators. Regular, scheduled maintenance can easily pay for itself by preventing unplanned downtime events thanks to battery or capacitor failure, clogged air filters, welded relays and even outdated firmware. You can digitize and streamline your preventive maintenance operations by consolidating personnel, documents, assets, data, work logs and inventory in one location using a CMMS. Industry Perspectives is a content channel at Data Center Knowledge highlighting thought leadership in the data center arena. See our guidelines and submission process for information on participating. View previously published Industry Perspectives in our Knowledge Library. (Comment on this)
2:00p	Google Buys More Swedish Wind Power For Its Finnish Data Center View of the Google data center in Hamina, Finland and a nearby wind turbine. (Photo: Google.) Google will buy the entire electricity output of four new wind farms to support its data center operations in Hamina, Finland, the company said this week. The new power purchase from Eolus Vind AB in Sweden follows an earlier wind power deal in which Google purchased the entire 10-year electricity output of the new wind farm at Maevaara, in Övertorneå and Pajala municipality in northern Sweden. “We’re always looking for ways to increase the amount of renewable energy we use,” said Francois Sterin, Director Global Infrastructure at Google. “Long term power purchase agreements enable wind farm developers to add new generation capacity to the grid – which is good for the environment – but they also make great financial sense for companies like Google.” Eolus will commence construction of the four new wind farms in Alered, Mungseröd, Skalleberg and Ramsnäs, Sweden.  The 29-turbine project, with a total combined capacity of 59 megawatts, already has all its planning approvals and permits. The wind farms will become fully operational in early 2015. “Our agreement with Google is a further endorsement of the potential of wind power in the Nordic countries,” said Hans-Christian Schulze, deputy CEO of Eolus. “We’re looking forward to building our new wind farms over the year and helping Google stay ahead of its commitment to carbon neutrality.” All of this Swedish wind power will power Google’s Hamina, Finland facility. This cross-border arrangement is possible thanks to Europe’s increasingly integrated energy market.  Scandinavia’s Nord Pool market allows Google to buy renewable energy with Guarantee of Origin certification in Sweden, and consume an equivalent amount of power elsewhere in Europe. The move helps the environment, but also protects Google from future increases in power prices through long term purchasing. The company is investing in new renewable energy projects that will deliver a return for its money. Over $1 billion has been committed to such projects in the U.S., Germany, and South Africa. Hamina, Hamina Google purchased the former Summa paper mill in March 2009. Since then, the company has transformed the location into one of the most efficient data centers in the world. The facility also employs seawater from the Bay of Finland in its high-tech cooling system. The first phase became operational in September 2011, and the facility keeps undergoing further expansion. Google’s investment in Hamina continues to soar, much like its data center investment across the board. Last November, Google announced a EUR450 million (which is about 608 million U.S. dollars) expansion at its Hamina data center in Finland. This was in addition to an already announced EUR350 million (or about 473 million U.S. dollars) investment. Starting in 2015, the data center will be primarily powered by wind energy via a new onshore wind park, which was announced last June. The company revealed it  will sign additional agreements, such as this one, as it grows, to power the data center with 100 percent renewable energy. This announcement is the company staying true to its word, with even more wind power locked in. (Comment on this)
2:10p	Lenovo to Buy IBM’s x86 Server Business for $2.3 Billion The newly-released IBM X6 server, part of the Big Blue x86 server family that is being sold to Lenovo for $2.3 billion. (Photo: IBM) Lenovo plans to acquire IBM’s x86 server business for $2.3 billion, the companies said today. With the deal, Lenovo gets IBM’s System x, BladeCenter and Flex System blade servers and switches, NeXtScale and iDataPlex servers. IBM will keep its System z mainframes, Power Systems, Storage Systems, Power-based Flex servers, and PureApplication and PureData appliances. Lenovo had previously bought IBM’s ThinkPad personal computer business in 2005. About $2 billion of the purchase price will be paid in cash, with the balance in Lenovo stock. The companies also are creating strategic partnership in which Lenovo will resell IBM’s storage offerings, including Storwize disk storage systems, tape storage systems, and some of IBM’s system software portfolio. IBM says it will continue to develop and evolve its Windows and Linux software portfolio for the x86 platform. “This divestiture allows IBM to focus on system and software innovations that bring new kinds of value to strategic areas of our business, such as cognitive computing, Big Data and cloud,” said Steve Mills, Senior Vice President and Group Executive, IBM Software and Systems. “IBM has a proven record of innovation and transformation, which has enabled us to create solutions that are highly valued by our clients.” Following the closing of the transaction, Lenovo will assume related customer service and maintenance operations. IBM will continue to provide maintenance delivery on Lenovo’s behalf for an extended period of time, so customers should see little change in their maintenance support. “This acquisition demonstrates our willingness to invest in businesses that can help fuel profitable growth and extend our PC Plus strategy,” said Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO, Lenovo. “With the right strategy, great execution, continued innovation and a clear commitment to the x86 industry, we are confident that we can grow this business successfully for the long-term, just as we have done with our worldwide PC business.” Approximately 7,500 IBM employees around the world, including those based at major locations such as Raleigh, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Taipei, are expected to be offered employment by Lenovo. This agreement follows recent announcements by IBM that it will invest more than $1 billion in the new IBM Watson Group, and $1.2 billion to expand its global cloud computing footprint to 40 data centers worldwide in 15 countries across five continents. (Comment on this)
8:06p	CoreSite Adds Direct Connect in Secaucus Data Center The server hall of a data center operated by CoreSite. Customers at the new CoreSite Realty data center in Secaucus, N.J., can now order direct connections to the Amazon Web Services Direct Connect deployment at CoreSite’s existing NY1 data center in Manhattan. By bypassing the public internet, AWS Direct Connect gives CoreSite customers access to Amazon cloud services through a private, enterprise-grade network connection. AWS Direct Connect helps customers reduce bandwidth costs, improve network security and achieve more consistent network performance. “CoreSite is proud to expand the availability of AWS Direct Connect into New Jersey as it aligns with our commitment to delivering network-dense, cloud-enabled data center solutions to customers across the country,” said Jarrett Appleby, chief operating officer at CoreSite. “Enterprises in Manhattan and throughout the tri-state metro area can connect directly to AWS in New Jersey, obtaining enhanced security, reliability and scalability at a much lower cost to operate while maintaining optimal performance.” Opened in December, CoreSite’s Secaucus data center was built to expand the company’s footprint of data center space for enterprise customers in the greater New York market. NY2 is the company’s first data center in New Jersey, and a sign of continuing activity in the northern NJ market. CoreSite has a site in New York at 32 Avenue of the Americas, and the Secaucus facility marks an important expansion for the provider. In addition to New Jersey, CoreSite offers AWS Direct Connect service in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Northern Virginia/DC and Boston. (Comment on this)
9:55p	Cisco Boosts UCS With Invicta Flash Memory, New Nexus Switches A look at the specs for the new Nexus UCS Invicta flash appliances. (Image: Cisco) Seeking to address the growing focus on the role of the network in application performance, Cisco has announced an expansion of its Nexus Switching portfolio, boosting performance on Unified Computing System (UCS) compute fabrics by adding Invicta solid-state flash memory solutions based on technology it acquired with its deal to buy Whiptail last year. Cisco (CSCO) is also opening up its UCS Director to serve as a centralized control point for compute, network, and storage infrastructure. Cisco has added new switches to match diverse workloads and use cases. Ideal for small to medium size deployments, a new 6 slot, 9U Nexus 7706 switch features up to 21 Tbps of switching capacity and supports up to 192 10GE ports, 96 40GE ports, or 48 100GE ports in a front-to-back air flow form factor. A new F3 10GE module for the Nexus 7700 chassis gives line rate 48 port, 1/10GE (SFP+), and is based on Cisco’s custom F3 ASIC. Cisco is extending the Nexus 5600 line to include the 5672UP and 56128P switches, adding VXLAN bridging and routing capability to deliver high performance in a compact form factor for 10G top of rack, deployments for data center environments. New Nexus 3172TQ top of rack 1U switch delivers 1/10G BaseT server access and performance combined with NX-OS features. Finally, a new Nexus 1000V on the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor brings OpenStack cloud a fully integrated network virtualization solution that can be deployed consistently across VMware, Microsoft, and Linux based platforms. New UCS Invicta SSD models Cisco is launching two new UCS Invicta Series systems, which leverage its its acquisition of WHIPTAIL last year. Cisco for the first time is introducing solid-state memory for UCS compute fabrics, putting it close to workloads to accelerate applications. A 2U 3124SA UCS Invicta appliance offers the medium-scale environment a modular solution for I/O acceleration. It features 250,000 IOPS, 1.9 GB/s bandwidth, and storage capacities up to 24 TB raw or up to 64 TB with data reduction enabled. The UCS Invicta Scaling System is designed for organizations requiring enterprise-class scale, capacity, management and performance. It features up to 4 million IOPS, up to 40 GB/s bandwidth, and storage capacities up to 720 TB raw, and up to 1.9 PB with data reduction enabled. Unified Management of both the UCS Invicta Appliance and the Scaling System is done with UCS Director integration. Cisco UCS Director Update Cisco introduced a new version of UCS Director, a management and monitoring tool to reduce infrastructure deployment time, and manage across physical, virtual, and bare-metal environments — supporting non-Cisco hardware (HP, IBM, and Dell) and multiple hypervisors: VMware ESX, and Microsoft Hyper-V. Evolving from the Cisco acquisition of Cloupia in 2012, UCS Director is now a leading converged infrastructure management software solution, supporting Flexpod and VCE Vblock integrated infrastructure systems. “Provisioning a virtual machine for SAP for Mobility used to take at least two weeks,” said Pablo Lambert, Entel director of IT innovation and development. “When a customer requested a virtual machine, first a network specialist provisioned switch ports. In a day or two, someone else configured the operating system. Other administrators would install the software and middleware. Finally someone else would test the server. Now, after we’ve created a template for a certain type of server, Cisco UCS Director automatically provisions all components end-to- end. With Cisco UCS Director, we can begin using a server in 20 minutes.” Enhancements in the new version include deeper support for Cisco UCS, Cisco Invicta solid state systems, Cisco Nexus networking, and both NetApp and EMC storage. It also ventures outside of Cisco’s partnerships, and now supports HP, Dell and IBM server support, Brocade and F5 network support, and VMware and Hyper-V hypervisors. Managing truly heterogeneous data centers, UCS Director uses real-time available capacity, internal policies, and application workload requirements to optimize availability of the most beneficial or best-suited resources . It can scale to support large enterprise environments of up to 50,000 virtual machines, and 5,000 devices. ACI Ecosystem Expansion Cisco says its ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure) ecosystem has seen strong growth over the last year, with over 300 customers for the new Nexus 9508 switch. Cisco has added five new ACI ecosystem partners: A10 Networks, Palo Alto Networks, catbird, Cloudera, and MapR. This brings the total 31 companies that are collaborating with Cisco on open APIs, open source, open standards, and a published data model for application policy . Cloudera will bring the high performance ACI fabric to its massively scalable Hadoop distribution. APIC integration will provide policy based deployment and visibility into application performance for Big Data analysis. MapR and Cisco will collaborate to optimize Hadoop application performance on 40GbE fabric networks leveraging the ACI fabric’s dynamic load balancing, low latency, and 40G line rate performance under load to provide consistently high performance for Big Data applications. MapR and Cisco will integrate APIC policy based management to simple operations and scaling of Hadoop clusters. (Comment on this)

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