Recently we reviewed the engineering specs for our upcoming datacenter on the 16th floor of 55 Marietta, and we are excited to report that we were able to achieve our goal of attaining a maximum power density of 8+kW per rack. What does this number mean, and how does it affect you? Lets take a closer look:

What is Power Density?

Power density (in kW per rack) is a measurement of how much power a given datacenter is able to support in a given dedicated rack (typically 42u worth of space). This number is not only indicative of the power infrastructure of a datacenter, but also of the amount of heat a given cooling system can safely handle.

Why does this matter?

Late last week Internap posted a follow-up blog article regarding their most recent webinar. The blog and webinar both emphasized the importance of power density, an issue that has received a lot of attention in the industry as a whole. What, then, is the impact of this power density? Thanks to the upcoming trend of virtualization within the hosting industry, more and more clients and webhosts are relegating smaller sites and clients to virtual hosting. From a physical facility population perspective, this leads to two things:

• Decrease in overall server population in datacenters
• Increase in specs of servers present in datacenters

This decrease in the server population is attributed to a decline in lower-end servers, as these are systems that can easily be re-purposed or replaced by a single higher-end server through virtualization. Similarly, more high-end servers begin to populate datacenters as this replacement occurs. The result is higher power consumption and heat output per rack. Datacenters with higher power density are equipped to deal with these higher concentrations of high-end systems.

From a client perspective, higher power density datacenters allow them to maintain the same processing and data storage levels within less rack space. However, if clients are not fully utilizing the power density of the datacenter, they will still be paying for the additional unused power and cooling infrastructure necessary to maintain the power density.

Essentially, the higher the power density of a datacenter, the further your rack space takes you, but the pricier the rack space becomes.

Who is Affected?

While at first glance, it may seem like only colocation clients are affected by power density, as these clients are able to deploy larger numbers of high-end servers and shrink their datacenter footprint, ultimately reducing their month-to-month cost of operation. However, non-colocation customers suffer within high density datacenter environments, as these clients are paying for additional power density that they are unable to take advantage of (Regardless of power density, dedicated server hosting customers will always be able to purchase more dedicated servers, without paying for datacenter footprint).

The Solution

This fairly lengthy blog article began with our excitement about the maximum power density of 8+kw/rack. If this nets high maintenance costs, why is this figure something to brag about? The key here is in our approach to modular deployment (emphasis on maximum power density). Instead of planning our entire datacenter to run at 8+kw/rack, we are adopting a modular deployment that allows us to adapt our deployment according to clients’ needs. This prevents clients who require lower power densities from paying for the higher densities, while still keeping these options available for those who need it.

Cyber Wurx is hosting an Open House in Q3 of 2011. Interested in touring our facility? We’d be happy to have you. Let us know what time frame works best for you.

In my experience, server migrations are often an intimidating process for colocation clients. I suppose this is an understandable source of anxiety, as poorly-executed server migrations often result in unanticipated downtime, data loss, or network instability. Fortunately, the good news is that these issues can easily be avoided by taking a few simple steps. These can be outlined as

• Communicate

• Plan

• Prepare

Communicate

I simply cannot stress the value of communicating with your host enough. While colocation customers are the experts on their own internal networks and hardware, your hosting company is the expert on their network and facility. Be sure to keep open lines of communication with your host throughout this process. Of our clients who have already finished their migrations, the ones who have have had the smoothest migrations with the least downtime kept our Cyber Wurx techs in the loop and worked with us throughout their planning, preparation, and execution. If you’re not sure about the best approach, explain your situation and ask for advice, we might be able to help out. Remember, that we want your migration to go as smoothly as you do.

Nobody likes headaches.

Plan

While the method of migration is entirely up to the client, we do have some recommendations here. For larger colocation customers, equipment may be difficult to migrate all at once. We recommend developing a modular migration plan, or one that doesn’t require total migration at once. Once again, if you keep us informed about your plans we can help you here. Many of our migrated colocation customers used network bridges that we provide to keep their network live in both facilities until migration was complete. This results in ~10 – 15 minutes of downtime for only a handful of systems at a time, as opposed to what could have been hours for their entire network.

Prepare

While this step may initially seem to be the same as the planning step, the difference is that preparing is an active step. Don’t wait until the last minute! Set up a schedule or timetable for migrating your equipment and be sure to notify your host. Make sure your own clients are aware of the migration so the downtime doesn’t come as a shock to them. Ensure that you have everything you need during the actual migration. It’s always a good idea to bring along extra networking supplies such as ethernet cable and RJ45s. Going back to Communication, be sure that you notify Cyber Wurx when you’re going to be migrating so we can ensure carts are available and notify us with any other specific needs or questions that you may have about our facility. These can range from “what rack rails are needed?” to “where do I park?”

Just remember to keep open lines of communication with your host, develop a plan, and prepare for your migration. Taking these steps will ensure that your migration goes as smoothly as possible. Together we can ensure that you enjoy a smooth migration with minimal downtime. Remember, communicate! We’re here to help!