big data
& IoT
the facility provider must also be
able to demonstrate how it will
bridge between the grid outage
and auxiliary power kicking in. This
must be based on all workloads
managed within the facility being
maintained. Therefore, UPS and
auxiliary power systems must be
capable of supporting all workloads
running in the facility at the same
time, along with overhead and
enough redundancy to deal with
any failure within the emergency
power supply system itself.
As part of this power
management, the systems in
place must also act as power
cleansers, ensuring that the
power that is fed to the IT
equipment is kept firmly within
defined parameters of voltage and
current at all times, with spikes,
surges and brown-out power fades
all being dealt with by the in-line
power management systems.
Cooling is also an issue as
HPC requires more targeted
approaches. Simple computer
room air conditioning (CRAC) or
free air cooling systems such as
swamp or adiabatic coolers are
unlikely to have the capabilities
required. The data centre facility
provider must provide either
sufficient cooling capability for all
the HPC platforms under its roof,
and/or must be able to effectively
18 | June 2017
‘The rise and
rise of Big
Data and the
IoT is creating
considerable
IT challenges.’
remove any excess heat that is
removed from the HPC systems
by built-in in-row cooling systems.
With the amount of power and heat
generated by HPC rack clusters,
ensuring energy efficiency and low
PUE are also priorities.
Latency
By its very nature the IoT makes
reliable, low latency connectivity
an absolute prerequisite. Many
problems with connectivity come
down to physical damage, such
as cables being broken during
roadworks, so ensuring that
connectivity is through multiple
different directions from the
facility is crucial. Such connectivity
solutions should also be of the right
quality – basic public connectivity
solutions will generally not be
sufficient for HPC systems. Look
for providers that have specialised
connectivity solutions – such as BT
Optical Nodes and Cloud Connect.
Last but not least, the physical
location of the data centre will
impact directly on rack space
costs and power availability. In
the case of colocation there are
often considerable differences in
rack space rents between regional
facilities and those based in or
around large metro areas. Perhaps
of more concern, the availability
and reliability of power supply will
likely vary from region to region.
The majority are not directly
connected to the grid and several
pylon hops from substations.
Some facilities in power strapped
areas are already pushed to supply
4kW per rack.
Fortunately, the ever
decreasing cost of high speed
fibre is bringing greater freedom
to build modern colo facilities
much further away from metro
areas, giving greater access to
power but without incurring the
latency issues of old. Examples
here include out of town locations
such as the NGD mega data facility
in South Wales, where renewable
power is in abundant supply
(180MW) and is directly connected
to the national grid; and of course
some of the emerging facilities
in the Nordic region where
hydroelectric power is plentiful
and low cost.
In summary, the rise and rise
of Big Data and the IoT is creating
considerable IT challenges. More
than ever, those responsible
must rigorously evaluate their
existing and potential data
centre partners to guarantee
the resilience and connectivity
required in a new world order
where everything and everyone
are always connected.