How to Select a Colocation Facility

Here are some preliminary things to consider while selecting a data center colocation facility. This article provides the basic  knowledge necessary to make a well-informed decision about where to locate your colocation equipment in a data center. If your IT operations space is insufficient, evaluation and planning is critical to continuing continuity and disaster recovery of your business.

1. Determine Your Data Center Requirements and Colocation Budget Requirements

How redundant is the data center, not including server, networking and mounting hardware, cables, and labor?  System down time is also costly.

Labor and parts fees required to set up the space are expensive. Recurring expenses include the cost of space, staffing, power; cooling, maintenance contracts, Internet bandwidth and cross connect fees to ISPs (Internet Service Provider) or NSPs (Network Service Provider).  Redundancy equals higher expense but can be critical. While price isn’t always the deciding factor, the up-time of your colocation space is! 

2. Data Center Security

First, consider physical security.  The SANS Institute review issued a checklist located at www.sans.org.  Other assessments include site location, perimeter, computer room access, facilities, users and disaster recovery.

Some businesses are accountable to compliances such as HIPPA, PCI or Sarbanes-Oxley.    Ensure data center provider’s willingness to allow auditors escorted access as required, to verify controls are in place.

Security is paramount.  Review considered company’s SANS checklist.  Choose one with SSAE 16 (SAS70) certification to ensure meeting compliance objectives. Always review the last audit conducted at the data center to evaluate their performance.

3. Determine Space and Power Requirements For Colocation Space

Review your computer and network infrastructure.   Determine the unit rack size, the power type (AC or DC) and the operational voltage / amperage required for each device.  Providers offer space in 1/3, 1/2, or full racks, and cage space to accommodate multiple or unenclosed racks.  Rack sizes are typically 42 and 54 units. A one-unit server occupies one unit. Determine power amounts per rack (ref. cooling capacity) to determine space requirements. Don’t just consult the specs of the equipment but identify the actual power utilization. This can save thousands of wasted dollars of the term on a colocation contract. Concerning growth, check availability of adjacent cabinets, free cross connects between cabinets, and a first right of refusal on empty cabinets or cage expansion areas.

Ready and abundant availability of A/C or D/C voltage and amperage is paramount.  Data centers are classified into tier levels from one to four. One is the least and four the most available. Price escalates based on the tier so don’t over estimate your requirements. A classification is an expression of expected average up time percentage, based on redundant systems in place and fault tolerance(s) of the site.   When deriving a tier classification, consider how many power grids the site sets on including alternate energy sources (diesel or turbine generator), automatic transfer switches, transformers, and remote distribution centers (RPPs). Providers often use N+1 terminology (applicable to power and cooling) indicating they offer what is needed plus one backup or alternate. Be sure to evaluate how the data center defines their redundancy since it can be a misleading terminology.

The power required for your application is the largest recurring cost. Determine if redundant power is viable and available to each device.  Who provides the PDU (power strip in the rack) and fuse panel (for D/C applications), you or the center?  If they do, is remote reboot and SNMP capability included? Who has administrative level control?  Most providers offer 120 and/or 208-volt single phase, and 208-volt three-phase power.  Some offer 48-volt D/C power.

If so, the following power path can be provided: Utility / Generator → UPS A → Transformer A → RPP A → Customer PDU A → Customer Server Power Supply A along with a path on the B infrastructure.

Utilizing this design, the critical load can lose an entire path of power and remain on line, while allowing simultaneous maintenance on the infrastructure with no powering down.  Standard A/C breakers are 80% rated at 20/30 amps and safely operate at 80% rating, 100% of the time.  Redundant circuit utilization requires dropping to 40%, as a single circuit may need to route the other 40% should its redundant counterpart fail. Always ask what the derated power is for a data center because some data centers derate at a lower amount to cover up the cost of power.

Data center providers should ensure specification approval of the PDU by the center, and that the receptacle matches the power cable on the PDU.  Also consider the fees and availability of power should your needs grow.  Recent increases in server density and power consumption can prohibit delivery of additional power without costly infrastructure upgrades. Tier classification determines the amount of redundancy a center has. Check to ensure it fits your uptime requirements.

Heat, a byproduct of working servers, creates problems and decreases equipment lifespan. If cooling fails and temperatures reach critical levels, your equipment will fail or have to be shut down.  Vendors can verify temperature and humidity design ranges of your equipment.  Research shows temperatures kept at or below 70 degrees Fahrenheit is wasteful.

4. Data Center Connectivity and Service

Key to connectivity is a carrier neutral data center. Consider requirements for bandwidth to the Internet, satellite locations, and other data centers. Facilities with many ISPs or NSPs, is cost effective for access, MPLS networks, point-to-point R1s, and PRIs for PSTN termination and carrier cross connection.

Would redundant Internet paths be cost effective?  Those familiar with internet protocols and implementation know requirements to configure and support that technology are not cheap. Does the center provide NSP style services and a redundant pair of copper or fiber optic drops, allowing you egress points to redundant ISPs?

5. Data Center Support

Is phone support offered 24x7x365 (with trained technicians) and physical access in case repairs are required during off hours? Call the phone support number before you sign a contract to see how responsive they actually are.

Some data centers offer remote hands on service while others offer only reboots.  Determine all service levels you require, skill level and certifications of staff, and the cost per hour for utilization.  This is critical if the site is not geographically near your operational area.

6. Managed Service Agreement and Service Level Agreement Negotiation

Carefully review the MSA and SLA with your attorney. What is said verbally at a tour of the data center or a presentation on the facility is not important. Data Center providers will only rely on the contract terms in the colocation agreement. Be careful to make sure everything you want to fall back on in the future is in writing in the contract. That’s the only thing that matters.

In summary, Data Center And Colocation is providing a preliminary basis for selecting a data center that meets your needs. This is only a partial list of things to consider. Before signing, any contracts explore each topic further in detail. Tour facilities with a checklist to determine where your needs are or are not met.  Speak with key personnel at each site. The staff should be able to answer all questions and provide references for you. Call them!  Ask questions about routine maintenance and ask to see service contracts with vendors and priority refueling agreements in case of extended utility power loss.  At some point, every piece of equipment will fail.  You want to ensure the facility you choose has plans in place to recover from these failures quickly and hopefully without any impact to your organization.

About DataCenterAndColocation – Colocation And Data Center Consultants

DataCenterAndColocation, a worldwide data center and colocation consulting company, represents approximately 3000 data centers and colocation centers across the US. At no cost to clients, they identify specific space, power, compliance and security requirements, solicit proposals, professionally analyze them, compare the strengths and weaknesses, negotiate pricing and deliver highly competitive bids for colocation. Whether clients are moving their existing colocation site, adding data center sites, looking for wholesale data center space or establish a disaster recover site, DataCenterAndColocation consulting services are the best solution to reduce costs and free employee valuable time. Their specialty is identifying very high quality and low power cost data centers. To schedule a no cost colocation site discussion, please call 619-365-9236.

San Diego Colocation Consultant Selected

DataCenterAndColocation announced today C7 Data Centers (C7) has been selected to provide data center colocation services to Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC). This multi-year service contract was awarded following an extensive national evaluation and selection process involving multiple data center service providers by DataCenterAndColocation, a San Diego based colocation consulting company.

World-renowned, Loma Linda University Medical Center is home to some of the nation’s largest clinical programs, providing Whole Person Care for more than 33,000 inpatients and for .75 million outpatients annually. LLUMC was recently listed as a leader in ten adult specialty services by U.S. News and World Report Best Hospitals Rankings.

“Loma Linda University Medical Center chose C7 based on multiple factors and the responses from a comprehensive RFP generated by our colocation consulting company”, said John Giaquinta, President of DataCenterAndColocation.

“LLUMC requires a redundant, reliable and scalable data center infrastructure to handle a myriad of  IT implementations,” said Mark Zirkelbach, CIO, Loma Linda University Medical Center. “C7’s data center expertise helps us leverage power, cooling, bandwidth and space securely and economically”.

Wes Swenson, C7 Data Centers’ President and CEO stated, “C7’s SSAE 16 Tier III data center facilities are built to meet the information management needs of its customers in the health care field. C7 is pleased to provide premium data center services to a progressive and respected organization like Loma Linda University Medical Center.”

About DataCenterAndColocation – Colocation And Data Center Consultants

DataCenterAndColocation, a worldwide data center and colocation consulting company, represents approximately 3000 data centers and colocation centers across the US. At no cost to clients, they identify specific space, power, compliance and security requirements, solicit proposals, professionally analyze them, compare the strengths and weaknesses, negotiate pricing and deliver highly competitive bids for colocation. Whether clients are moving their existing colocation site, adding data center sites, looking for wholesale data center space or establish a disaster recover site, DataCenterAndColocation consulting services are the best solution to reduce costs and free employee valuable time. Their specialty is identifying very high quality and low power cost data centers. To schedule a no cost colocation site discussion, please call 619-365-9236.

About Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC)

Loma Linda University Medical Center’s comprehensive health system includes the Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital, LLUMC – East Campus, Behavioral Medicine Center, Heart and Surgical Hospital, and physician clinics. LLUMC is widely respected as a health care leader and is known for its pioneering and cutting-edge work in such areas as organ transplants, proton treatment for cancers, cardiac care, physical rehabilitation, acute pediatric and adult care, as well as treatments for chemical dependence and other behavioral disorders. LLUMC is the largest and only Level 1 trauma Center in the San Bernardino, Riverside, Inyo, and Mono counties, which covers over 40,000 square miles in Southern California. With a total of 974 beds, the Loma Linda University Health System includes the only children’s hospital in the region.

About C7 Data Centers

C7 Data Centers is a privately held Utah company focused on providing high-value colocation, cloud, dedicated server and disaster recovery solutions to local, national and international businesses. Companies select C7 for colocation and business continuance and because of Utah’s disaster free record, low operational costs, and easily accessible location in the United States. C7 is committed to research in the areas of cooling efficiencies, product solutions and leading edge data center technologies.

 Competition Grows in Arizona Data Center Space With CyrusOne Expansion

CyrusOne, a subsidiary of Cincinnati Bell, has purchased 40 acres of land in Arizona to build a new data center. The new site will be located in Chandler, Arizona and plans to build a new 1 million square foot data center. CyrusOne paid $12,500,000.00 for the new data center site to Capital Commercial Investments. When the project is fully built out, it will be the largest data center in Arizona providing major competition to companies like io Data for large corporate clients and the 24 acre 293,000 square foot data center owned by San Francisco-based Digital Realty Trust at 2121 S. Price Road.

The CyrusOne site will be built in several phases. They plan to start construction on the Chandler data center next year. The first phase will be 350,000 square feet and should be completed in the beginning part of 2013. CyrusOne will address large corporate users in the energy, oil and gas, medical, technology, finance and consumer goods and services sector.

CyrusOne currently operates more than 600,000 square feet of colocation space. They have data center space in Houston, Dallas, Austin, Chicago, Cincinnati and London. Chandler will represent a significant expansion of their overall colocation footprint.

About DataCenterAndColocation: http://www.datacenterandcolocation.com/ Our data center and colocation consulting company, located in San Diego California, represents approximately 3000 data centers and colocation centers across the US. At no cost to our clients, we identify specific space, power and security requirements, solicit proposals, professionally analyze them, compare the strengths and weaknesses, negotiate pricing and deliver highly competitive bids for colocation. Whether you are moving your existing colocation site, adding data center sites or establish a disaster recover site, our service is your best solution to reduce costs and free employee valuable time. Our specialty is identifying very high quality and low power cost data centers.

DataCenterAndColocation and DSA Encore cordially invite you to attend a Private Networking Party at the Hosting Con 2011 Convention at the Hilton San Diego Bay Front Hotel on Monday, August 8, 2011 at 8PM. DataCenterAndColocation provides colocation site selection consulting services and DSA Encore delivers data center design build solutions to major corporations and data center providers.

PLEASE JOIN US AT HOSTING CON 2011

RSVP to Gabriel Crawford or John Giaquinta at www.dsaencore.com/NetworkingParty/ if you plan to attend.

Data Storage

With data storage hardware needs growing at an astounding rate in colocation facilities and in-house data center facilities, many organizations are considering network storage solutions and data replication as a way to simplify data management, increase network availability, and decrease storage costs. Implementing the solution, however, may seem like a daunting task. Knowing which components are right for a particular environment and installing them correctly are essential to successful implementation. How do you know which ones to choose?

Are all your storage requirements covered?

Quantum Tape Library

• Primary
• Secondary
• Archive
• Disaster Recovery
• Backup   

Do you have all the storage hardware pieces? Unfortunately, you may discover in the middle of implementing a solution that additional resources are needed for the implementation to be successful.

Do all the storage hardware pieces fit together? You need to know that all components of the solution fit together seamlessly and provide maximum results.

What is your experience level? Your experience with network storage can determine how fast and successful the implementation is.

Does it match your resources’ skill sets? While you may enjoy a challenge, no one appreciates the frustration of not having the storage skills or training necessary to get the job done.

Will it grow with you? You need to be sure that the solution is flexible and scalable to meet your future needs.

SATABeast

We can help you put the pieces together. Implementing a network storage strategy can be complex. We take the guesswork out of putting together integrated storage solutions. Our Engineering Consultants, let you know what to expect from the completed data center project, including the anticipated benefits of the specific solution. The implementation plan includes solution configuration, storage management, network infrastructure (HBAs, Switches, Hubs), and storage media (Disk, Tape).

Here is a list of storage manufactures and what they offer: Nexsan, NEC, Quantum, Overland Storage, PAC Storage, FalconStor, BlueArc, Infortrend, EMC, Hitachi, GreenBytes and Dell.

We represent the following low cost enterprise storage manufactures at the best prices:

NEXSAN – E18, E60, E60X, SATABeast, SATABoy, ASSUREON

Nexsan

NEC – D Series D4, D3, D3i

Quantum – DXi 3500 Scalar i6000, Scalar i2000, Scalar i500, Scalar i80, Scalar i40

Overland – NEO 8000E Library. NEO 4000E, NEO 2000E, NEO 400S, NEO 200S & Snap Servers

PAC Storage – F6800, Fi6700, i6100, F6500E, F6412E, F5404E

FalconStor – CDP, VTL, FDS

BlueArc – Mercury Series, Titan 3000 Series

Infortrend – ESVA F10, F40, F60, F70 & ESVA E10 & E60

EMC – Symmetrix DMX, CLARiiON, Celerra,

Hitachi – Adaptable Modular Storage 2500, 2300, 2100

GreenBytes – GB-4000, GB-2000

Dell – EquaLogic PS6510E, PS6000X, PS4000E, PS4000XV, PowerVault NX3500, NX200

We have a wide variety of ISCSI and Fibre SAN, NAS, DAS, Backup, Archive & Disaster Recovery products. Whether you need 1TB, 2TB SATA, 450GB, 600GB SAS or Tape Libraries we have a solution. With the advent of 3TB disk drives you can now even have 180TB’s in 4U’s of rack space.

Data Replication

Data Replication is the process of mirroring data between hosts. These hosts (servers or storage arrays) can be in the same data center or separated, one at an off-site location to provide for disaster recovery. Data replication can be achieved a multiple of ways;

• Synchronous is real time mirroring utilizing synchronous data replication software or hardware based solutions.
• Asynchronous replication is done in phases; this is not real time data storage exchange and has advantages.
• Asynchronous replication does not require the data to be recorded on the duplicate system before proceeding with additional writes.
• Backup storage replication is moving a backup files or parts of that file (critical data) from one data center location to another for disaster recovery. Most data will require data de-duplication and compression of that data prior to replicating. This can be done with software or hardware based solutions.

Data replication provides the fastest form of recovery in the case of a disaster. The ability not to recover critical data in full and or in a timely manner will result in loss of business, customer service and possible loss of your entire organization.

We can demonstrate how to best fit one or more of these solutions into your environment. Our goal will be to enhance and comply with your organizations best practices and guidelines.

Once we understand your environment we will then provide a solution to meet your data storage objectives and budget.

About DataCenterAndColocation: http://www.DataCenterAndColocation.com/ Our data center and colocation consulting company, located in San Diego California, represents approximately 3000 data centers and colocation centers across the US. At no cost to our clients, we identify specific space, power, security requirements, data storage, solicit proposals, professionally analyze them, compare the strengths and weaknesses, negotiate pricing and deliver highly competitive bids for colocation. Whether you are moving your existing colocation site, adding data center sites or establish a disaster recover site, our service is your best solution to reduce costs and free employee valuable time. Our specialty is identifying very high quality and low power cost data centers and data storage solutions for in-house data centers or colocation facilities.

There are several Cloud Hosting Options Available

Public Cloud Hosting And Pricing

This is a shared cloud hosting infrastructure. It provides flexibility, a cost effective solution and scalability. Most companies use this for test environments, short term projects or dev environments or web hosting. You can control the VM’s and scale your cloud infrastructure when you need it and on-demand.

Prices range in the $40 to$300 per month range depending on the number of CPUs, the amount of RAM, Storage and bandwidth.

This usually comes in a variety of operating systems like Linux, CentOS or Windows. Security preference is on secure VLANs and router firewalls

Private Cloud Hosting And Pricing

This is a private cloud solution. It provides you with private virtual machine instances on actual physical servers. These virtual machines are dedicated to you only. No sharing on these machines. Most companies use Private cloud hosting as an application server that utilizes high memory applications and intensive CPU requirements. This environment provides higher security and reliability along with scalability and flexibility via a web-portal from the data center provider.

Prices range in the $850 to$1000 per month range depending on the processor, the amount of RAM, Storage and bandwidth.

These environments usually offer a variety of OS choices, redundant NAS storage and  IP addresses both private and public. You can also order additional bandwidth and storage. Firewalls are up-grades that are available.

Managed Server Hosting And Pricing

This is a total managed solution of your physical infrastructure. You can manage your environment, build and scale the equipment remotely.

Prices range from $500 per month on up to $2000.

This managed solution includes an enterprise level firewall, site to tie VPNs, SAN based storage and your choice of operating system.

Hybrid Hosting And Pricing

Many clients are interested in a hybrid hosting environments. The classic example is a company that uses their dedicated hardware for their business logic and databases in combination web servers and storage with cloud computing hosting. The dedicated hardware can be collocated in the same data center and cross-connected with the cloud environment to create the hybrid hosting solution.

The pricing varies widely based on all the components mentioned above.

With the flexibility of cloud hosting, the provider can be virtually anywhere. While most companies are familiar with data centers in their local area, choosing the right cloud provider can be a challenge and a very time consuming task to investigate all the provider choices.

About DataCenterAndColocation: http://www.datacenterandcolocation.com/ Our data center and colocation consulting company, located in San Diego California, represents approximately 3000 data centers and colocation centers across the US. At no cost to our clients, we identify specific space, power and security requirements, solicit proposals, professionally analyze them, compare the strengths and weaknesses, negotiate pricing and deliver highly competitive bids for colocation. Whether you are moving your existing colocation site, adding data center sites or establish a disaster recover site, our service is your best solution to reduce costs and free employee valuable time. Our specialty is identifying very high quality and low power cost data centers.

How To Select A Cloud Hosting Platform – SaaS, IaaS, PaaS

While cloud hosting is still in its beginning stages, cloud hosting has grown rapidly. Several hosting options are available depending on your requirements. Cloud hosting can provide the following benefits:

• Cost Savings – Cloud hosting can avoid CapEx (capital expenses) costs and reduce total IT operating costs by up to 50% while shifting to an OPEX (operating expense) model.
• Reliability – Ensure dependability with Service Level Agreements of 99.95% plus.
• Scalable – Offers scalability with on-demand services.
• Fully Managed – IT simplification for your staff.
• Predictable Pricing – Increased ROI with predictable monthly billing.
• Lower Risks – Multiple layers of data protection with security and application availability.

Understanding Cloud Service Terminology

• SaaS or Cloud Software as a Service

SaaS provides companies with the ability to use a data center to run their applications on the data center’s cloud infrastructure. The user can access their applications from a thin client interface like a web browser. The user does not have any responsibility for the managing the network, operating systems, storage component of the core cloud infrastructure. Client uses the data centers applications running on the cloud infrastructure with the exception of some user specific application configuration settings.

• IaaS or Cloud Infrastructure as a Service.

IaaS allows the client to determine the processing, storage requirements and network utilization and some other basic computing resources. Like SaaS, the client does not manage the core cloud infrastructure; however, controls the operating systems, storage, deploys their own applications and software. This comes with limited control of limited components like host firewalls.

• PaaS or Cloud Platform as a Service

This service offers clients the ability to operate their own applications utilizing program languages supported by the data center. The client can manage these applications deployed on the hosting environment. Like IaaS, the client does not manage or control the core cloud infrastructure like servers, operating systems or storage.

About DataCenterAndColocation: www.DataCenterAndColocation.com Our data center and colocation consulting company, located in San Diego California, represents approximately 3000 data centers and colocation centers across the US. At no cost to our clients, we identify specific space, power and security requirements, solicit proposals, professionally analyze them, compare the strengths and weaknesses, negotiate pricing and deliver highly competitive bids for colocation. Whether you are moving your existing colocation site, adding data center sites or establish a disaster recover site, our service is your best solution to reduce costs and free employee valuable time. Our specialty is identifying very high quality and low power cost data centers.

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR PHOENIX COLOCATION SPACE AND LAS VEGAS COLOCATION CAGE SPACE?

When large west coast companies, in areas like California, discuss colocation for their primary data center or disaster recovery site, the discussion always revolves around which is the best city for colocation or building a data center. That is a very challenging conversation in today’s data center space and pricing wars. You often read that colocation space is shrinking fast and that the supply is dwindling. NOT TRUE! Well, maybe it’s true for a few major metropolitan areas. All you have to do is subscribe to various blogs to know there are 100’s of thousands of square feet of data center space available and several 100’s of thousands of square feet of data space coming on line at this moment. Some people feel that colocation space could experience similar overbuilding like the residential and commercial real estate.

PHOENIX COLOCATION AND LAS VEGAS SITE EVALUATION AND COMPETITION

Companies like to discuss where the lowest incidence of natural disasters are, what are the power rates in the state and what fiber carriers are in the data center?  After an in-debt evaluation, many indicators for California companies pointed to Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada particularly for the relatively low incidence of natural disasters and proximity to California large cities. Actually there are many other locations that have cooler temperature environments to place a data center than Phoenix or Las Vegas. While you cannot deny the success of those locations, companies should consider alternatives as well. Eventually the conversation always comes back to…. PRICE. It is common to hear “I know it has a low incidence of disasters and low power costs but why is the price still high?” The new component to consider is COMPETITION for colocation space. Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada data centers have experienced fast growth in the low cost colocation market due to their proximity to large markets like California. Now, their rates have inched higher and higher to maximize profitability as their facilities start to fill. In some cases, the rates for Phoenix colocation or Las Vegas colocation are actually climbing higher than in some areas of California. Competition for data center space in other states with equal or better environments have lowered their colocation rates to compete with the media hype of Phoenix colocation and Las Vegas Colocation. Rates can be 10 to 20% lower than Phoenix or Las Vegas. The message here is keep looking for colocation space in other places.

CHEAP POWER AND FREE COOLING

Many companies that have high power requirements look for cheap power and cooler outdoor ambient temperatures. When temperatures in Phoenix or Las Vegas reach 100+ degrees nearly 24 hours a day, it is easy for anyone to determine that it takes a tremendous amount of costly power to cool the data center down to 68 or 70 degrees. This often offsets any benefit of lower power costs compared to cooler environments with free cooling. For these larger companies, many other areas offer special incentives for inexpensive power from hydroelectric plants like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft did by constructing data centers along the Columbia River in Oregon.

When considering low cost colocation space, everyone should consider other areas besides the most talked about in the media. Large east coast and west coast cities are losing their luster for operating data centers compared to areas with colocation tax incentives, lower labor costs, lower land prices and power costs. There are many alternatives to consider in selecting a colocation site if you know where to look. Companies are being priced out of various markets like Chicago, Phoenix, Boston, and New York. Many health care facilities and financial institutions require disaster sites or backup data centers to be a considerable distance, 400 to 600 miles, from their primary data center. This is a great opportunity to compare prices.

Swanson Rink has developed a data center model that allows a company to compare both utility usage and utility costs for specific geographic locations. You can use this valuable tool for the site selection process.

ASSUMPTIONS MADE WITH THIS MODEL

• Local utility information obtained June 2010
• Local hourly weather data for each location
• Mechanical equipment optimized for local temperature, altitude, and humidity conditions.
• Chilled water plant with water side economizer.
• Plate and frame heat exchanger in series with the cooling towers and chillers.
• Chilled water CRAC units with under floor air distribution.
• Make up air units and exhaust fans to meet code requirements of outside air and exhaust.
• Heating water boiler plant.
• Air handling units serving terminal air units in office area.
• Chilled water CRAC units and fan coils serving ancillary spaces.

POWER GRIDS AND TERRORIST ATTACKS ON DATA CENTERS

Many companies feel the risk of terrorist attacks on power grids, network hub centers and large data centers with high profile clients are at a higher risk than natural disasters in the area. There have been very few data centers over the years that have had issues or downtime due to natural disasters compared to other failures. While natural disasters are a consideration, terrorist attacks should be a concern and a company should balance the potential challenges of each of their data center locations.

About DataCenterAndColocation: www.DataCenterAndColocation.com Our data center and colocation consulting company, located in San Diego California, represents approximately 3000 data centers and colocation centers across the US. At no cost to our clients, we identify specific space, power and security requirements, solicit proposals, professionally analyze them, compare the strengths and weaknesses, negotiate pricing and deliver highly competitive bids for colocation. Whether you are moving your existing colocation site, adding data center sites or establish a disaster recover site, our service is your best solution to reduce costs and free employee valuable time. Our specialty is identifying very high quality and low power cost data centers.

Digital Realty Trust

This week DRT (Digital Realty Trust), a Real Estate Investment Trust, announced the completion of two acquisitions; one in California and the other in Texas. The total purchase price was $50.3 Million.

Digital Realty Trust continues to move toward acquisitions that include existing tenants. Typically, they build and develop quality sites for large clients and data center operators.

The California property is located at 2950 Zanker Road, San Jose, California. The property is approximately 69,700 rentable square feet. the Texas property is located in Richardson, Texas. It has approximately  56,000 rentable square feet. Both properties are leased to telecommunications companies.

About DataCenterAndColocation: www.DataCenterAndColocation.com Our data center consulting company, located in San Diego California, represents approximately 3000 data centers and colocation centers across the US. At no cost to our clients, we identify specific space, power and security requirements, solicit proposals, professionally analyze them, compare the strengths and weaknesses, negotiate pricing and deliver highly competitive bids for colocation. Whether you are moving your existing colocation site, adding data center sites or establish a disaster recover site, our service is your best solution to reduce costs and free employee valuable time. Our specialty is identifying very high quality and low power cost data centers.

Facebook moves Data Center to Prineville

Facebook is growing at a very rapid rate. It has become the 12th largest site on the Internet. Its traffic has grown 725 percent from 2008 to 1,358 in 2009. In the past, Facebook has leased space from wholesale data centers like DuPont Fabros Technologies, Fortune Data Centers and Digital Realty Trust. Now Facebook is in the process of opening its new facility in Prineville, Oregon. The estimated cost is somewhere around $180 to 215 Million dollars on the 147,000-square-foot facility. It selected Prineville, Oregon for several reasons including low power cost. Prineville is in one of the state’s long term rural enterprise zones. This makes it exempt from local property taxes during its construction period and could fully exempt the data center for up to 15 years after the sites is completed. Facebook did apply for a 10 year waiver of all excise taxes and income taxes as provide under the Oregon Investment Advantage program. Prineville has a dry climate which is perfect for Facebook’s evaporative cooling system that will keep power costs down. They will use Pacific Power to supply electricity to the data center. Pacific Power uses mostly coal to generate its power.

Twitter Announces Data Center Plans

Twitter recently announced plans to either move into leased space at a wholesale data center or into its own data center. Twitter as experience explosive growth similar to Facebook. In 2008 it grew 752 percent and in 2009 it increased by 1350 percent which equates to about 600 million searches per day and over 50 million Tweets.

Twitter has outsourced its infrastructure to NTT America through a managed hosting agreement and in the past used Amazon’s cloud computing services to store and deploy images. Now John Adams of the Twitter operations team announced plans to move away from NTT America’s data centers. NTT America said that traffic generated by Twitter has basically eating up a lot of resources in their data center.

What is unclear at this point is NTT America’s announcement last August that it leased 15,000 square feet of expansion space in Santa Clara, California due to the explosive growth of Twitter. Twitter in turn signed an agreement to host its equipment at the new facility because of high latency issues with the cloud. While on the surface Twitter’s announcement appears to conflict with the past announcement move from NTT America, Twitter could be projecting their future long range plans since building and running its own data center would take at least a couple years to complete. More information on this data center move should be coming out over the next few months.

About DataCenterAndColocation: www.DataCenterAndColocation.com Our data center consulting company, located in San Diego California, represents approximately 3000 data centers and colocation centers across the US. At no cost to our clients, we identify specific space, power and security requirements, solicit proposals, professionally analyze them, compare the strengths and weaknesses, negotiate pricing and deliver highly competitive bids for colocation. Whether you are moving your existing colocation site, adding data center sites or establish a disaster recover site, our service is your best solution to reduce costs and free employee valuable time. Our specialty is identifying very high quality and low power cost data centers.