Information Overload

Jill Eckhaus and Jaime Man of AFCOM tell Business Management about the challenges facing the modern data center and their implications for the future of the industry.

Managing today’s data center is a task fraught with difficulties. Quite aside from the from raft of complicated issues which must be navigated in organizing and accessing data, rapidly increasing storage demands place major strain on physical infrastructure. In a recent survey of its Data Center Institute membership, AFCOM found more than half of respondents anticipated needing to expand the size of their facilities within the next decade. In the last five years, 34 percent have had to add or upgrade feeders to cope with heavier loads while eight percent have been required to increase the capacity of power supplies to their data centers.

As both a DCI Board Member and a data professional working in healthcare, Jaime Man has witnessed these effects first hand. “In my industry we are required to keep our records for the life of our subscribers,” he explains. “We are also required to maintain those records in a secure and accessible manner. This poses a huge problem, because we have to use larger arrays that place a larger load on our physical infrastructure as the systems demand more floor space, cooling and power.”

The survey also identified several other areas of concern including labor shortages, risk management efforts and power failures. Jill Eckhaus outlines why industry should be concerned: “There is no disputing that the data center is evolving at record pace and is now arguably the most critical business asset for any enterprise,” she says. “As a result, it is imperative that data center professionals stay abreast of cutting-edge technologies, industry trends, and best practices from both the IT and facilities sides.” With disruption estimated to cost anywhere between $50,000 and $5 million per hour of downtime, it is clear that keeping your data center running smoothly is of critical importance.

The learning curve
AFCOM is clear that it is better education that presents the most potent defense against catastrophic future failures. “Education will be the key,” says Eckhaus. “We have spearheaded a campaign to raise awareness of the issues, and we’re incorporating educational sessions into our conferences to help make sure data center professionals have the information and resources they need to address them.”

These efforts could not have come sooner, as Man explains: “If you have to hold and manage large amounts of data you have to have someone who is able to appropriately configure and manage the system to run efficiently. I do not think that there are enough resources for this sort of work. It seems to me that it is very difficult to come by.”

This lack of education has a knock-on effect in staffing terms, with 38 percent of the DCI’s membership reporting they had unfilled positions in their data centers. A further 15 percent stated that it took six months or longer to fill senior technical or management jobs and a staggering 47 percent anticipated it becoming more difficult to find qualified senior employees in the next five years.

Even outside of the areas focused on by AFCOM’s research, there are causes for concern. The challenge of making different systems work together is also considerable. In his day-to-day work Man runs up against such interoperability issues on a regular basis. “This is a problem I deal with constantly,” he says. “I may have one customer that uses a certain DB system and I have to upload to my DB system. Well, these two systems do not play well together, thus I find myself running through an additional application to process the data and import it onto my system. This creates the need for me to store the data in the native mode in which I received it, then store it again after I have processed it so that I may have it in the event of a failure and I have to recover.” In addition to the extra man-hours this cumbersome approach involves, it places yet further pressure on already stretched resources. Storing essentially the same information twice in different formats is not an efficient use of valuable capacity.

Luckily, organizations such as AFCOM are facing up to the challenges that lie ahead. “We are focused squarely on professional development and continuing education for data center professionals,” says Eckhaus. “The association provides its members with a host of progressive forums and resources through which to access, discuss and share critical industry information. We have a thriving regional Chapter Program, an online resource center, and our bi-annual Data Center World conference is lauded as one of the industry’s premier educational events.” Through its continuing efforts, AFCOM seeks to provide tools that will make navigating the choppy waters of the data center industry that little bit easier.

But constant effort and increased willingness from the wider business community will be required if the coming data center hurdles are to be negotiated. “All of the issues addressed in our predictions are looming ominously on the horizon and need to be taken seriously,” says Eckhaus. “If data center managers don’t prepare now, the potential for catastrophe is huge.”