| Greetings, |
| I am pleased to offer you the Q2, 2010 edition of the PTS Quarterly Newsletter, a means for our clients, our partners, and our vendors to get the latest information on what’s new and current at PTS, as well as the data center industry in general. Given our market position at the crossroads of facility and IT infrastructure consulting, we look to provide valuable information for our Facilities- and Information Technology-focused clients as well as those of you interested in the combined disciplines.
First, we focus our attention on Virtualization Strategies related to server and storage infrastructure within the data center. PTS recognizes the role virtualization plays in reducing the burden on facility support systems. Using leading edge virtualization tools PTS consultants can quickly and effectively assess your complete enterprise IT infrastructure for improvements including reduced space, power, and cooling requirements, and ascertain the cost savings virtualization may represent within your enterprise.
In addition to virtualization’s impact on IT and facilities infrastructure, PTS can perform physical server infrastructure assessments looking for opportunities to upgrade, replace, or migrate from discrete or rack servers to more robust and maintainable blade server solutions. To support our growing inventory of IT Solutions Group (ITSG) services and solutions PTS has also launched a series of new products through the latest PTS Data Center Solutions Showcase. Check out products related to virtualization from the leader in the space, VMware, and various network equipment products from Dell.
In addition to the above, we have many new and interesting facilities- and IT-related white papers from PTS and our solutions partners. Topics include new approaches to cooling, power management, consolidation, and much, much more. Visit the new PTS white paper download section to learn more.
Finally, our spring events calendar is full of recently completed events and upcoming learning opportunities through the Data Center Education Series and other industry-specific events in the financial services and data center design arenas.
As always, please think of us for your next data center project — whether it is infrastructure, facility or IT related.
Pete Sacco
President & Founder
PTS Data Center Solutions, Inc
Experts For Your Always Available Data Center |
| Data Center Virtualization, Server Planning, and Feasibility Consulting Services |
| Server virtualization now is a mainstream technology. Recent IDC surveys found that over 50% of all customers are employing server virtualization for production applications, including mission-critical applications such as supply chain management and enterprise resource planning. Within the next 12 months, these same users expect nearly half of their applications will be hosted on a virtualized server. Server virtualization has enabled enterprises to harness the growing power of inexpensive computers and put a higher percentage of purchased capacity to use.
An added benefit of virtualization is that organizations are also saving in terms of space, power, and cooling costs within the data center thereby extending its life. To support our clients, PTS has recently launched two new consulting services aimed at supporting client migration strategies and extending the useful life of client data center facilities. Each consulting program leverages the first four steps of the PTS proven consultative process:
Data Center Server Planning & Feasibility Consulting provides four strategic services for clients looking at server refreshes and potential virtualization of critical applications.Services include:
- Needs Analyses for deployment of new server techniques and technology
- Site Surveys of current server infrastructure equipment within the enterprise (if needed)
- Assessments of servers, server virtualization, discrete, rack, and blade server architectures including consideration of various manufacturer architectures and key decision criteria
- Planning to provide technology roadmaps, budget, and timelines for future design and deployment of server infrastructure
Data Center Virtualization Strategies Consulting drives business agility by simplifying business infrastructure to create a more dynamic and flexible data center. The service includes four key components:
- Needs Analyses for use of virtualization within the enterprise
- Site Surveys of current virtualization within the enterprise (if needed)
- Assessments of server and storage area network virtualization to analyze requirements against numerous designs, manufacturer solutions, and key decision criteria
- Planning to provide technology roadmaps, budget, and timelines for future design and implementation of virtualization strategies
These two Consulting programs provide significant recommendations for IT management decision making. Specific outcomes include:
- Targeted Server Consolidation & Optimization
- Infrastructure Cost Reduction
- Enhanced Server Design Based Upon Requirements
- Server Migration Strategies
- Support Infrastructure Requirements for Proper Server Deployment
- Improved Operational Flexibility & Responsiveness
- Improved Desktop Manageability & Security
- Improved Business Continuity
PTS consultants utilize leading edge analysis software and algorithms to provide specific, actionable recommendations which, when implemented, help drive down the IT load requirements on client data centers and positively impact overall data center operational costs, upgrade requirements, and replacement.
Click here to learn more about Server Planning & Feasibility Consulting.
Click here to learn more about Virtualization Strategies Consulting. |
| The PTS Data Center Solutions Showcase – Servers & Virtualization |
| Building upon our new Server and Virtualization Consulting Service offerings and our recently announced IT Solutions Group, PTS is pleased to showcase new products from Dell and VMware in this months Solutions Showcase.
PTS has added new web sub-sites filled with numerous product, solution, and educational materials from Dell and VMware. Visit the PTS Dell and PTS VMware sites here.
VMware vCenter Solutions
VMware’s vCenter management platform provides a proven approach to managing the virtualized data center, allowing you to streamline IT management and reduce operating costs. It offers the most comprehensive platform for optimizing critical IT processes and workflows in the data center.
The platform also grows with you, with options that provide the right level of management capabilities to support any management challenge, for companies of any size, structure or level of maturity.
Current VMware vCenter solutions include:
· VMware vCenter Server
· VMware vCenter AppSpeed
· VMware vCenter Chargeback
· VMware vCenter Lab Manager
· VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager
· VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager
All solutions integrate with VMware vCenter Server, the heart of VMware’s management platform. VMware continues to extend its management solutions in to new areas, including configuration, capacity and application performance management in the cloud infrastructure. Click here to learn more.
Dell Server Solutions
An essential part of Dells IT portfolio, Dell PowerEdge servers have set the industry standard for simplifying operations, driving leading-edge price performance and delivering business relevant IT solutions. Dell’s award-winning servers easily integrate with one another – and with other leading enterprise software products – to help reduce complexity and maximize IT resources.
Whether you need systems designed exclusively for your small businesses or enterprise-class data center, Dell has the right servers to fit your business and budget enabling you to get all your systems from a single vendor. Click here to learn more. |
| PTS Education & White Papers |
| Looking to continue its tradition of providing content-rich educational materials for data center manager through its website, PTS has significantly upgraded its white paper section. As we continue to add our own industry-specific content through white paper development, presentations at numerous industry events, discussion threads on the PTS blog and through the LinkedIn Computer Room Design group, we strive to stay up-to-date on the latest facility- and IT-related trends.
To that end we have revamped the white paper section of our website. Now you can find relevant educational papers by facility, IT or specific topics including: Consolidation, Cooling, Financial, General, Management, Network, Power, Safety, Security, Servers, Storage, and Virtualization. Interesting white papers for consideration to add to your reading list include:
Proper Sizing of IT Power & Cooling (by Green Grid). Between 2000 and 2006, energy requirements for data centers doubled, and they are on track to double again by 2011. In the same time period, typical per-rack heat densities went from 1 kW to 7 kW, and they are estimated to exceed 20 kW per rack by 2010. This places tremendous importance on a data center facility planner’s ability to properly budget for future power and cooling infrastructure requirements. Today’s energy costs and efficiency demands necessitate a more accurate method of determining those requirements. This white paper has been developed to introduce the reader to the many new and highly accurate software tools available for estimating power and cooling capacity requirements. Click here for the full white paper.
Increasing Data Center Efficiency with Server Power Measurements (by Intel). Intel IT defined methods for analyzing computing energy efficiency within our design computing environment, using measurements of actual server power consumption and utilization. We used these methods to identify trends and opportunities for improving data center efficiency, and to implement a pilot project that increased data center computing capacity. Click here for the full white paper.
Optimizing Power Distribution for High-Density Computing (by Eaton). Fueled by the rapid rise of technologies such as virtualization and blade servers, computing densities in today’s data centers are climbing dramatically. As a result, server enclosures are requiring more power than ever before. The result of this is a new and demanding set of power distribution challenges. To meet the power requirements of their increasingly dense server racks, organizations are looking for power circuits and power distribution units (PDUs) that have adequate power capacity and make optimal use of panel boards, but don’t drive such high densities that they are prohibitively expensive to cool. Click here for the full white paper.
Is Your IT Infrastructure Ready for Tomorrow? Preparing for a 10GbE Future (by David Reine, The Clipper Group). An IT infrastructure will be the key to the success of the enterprise data center in the years to come. Because of the poor utilization of existing single-core microprocessor servers, the IT staff of the typical data center has embarked on a journey of consolidation and virtualization to reduce server sprawl, simplify data center complexity, and reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the IT infrastructure. Click here for the full white paper. |
| In the News: |
How To Save On Cooling In The Summer Months
As The Temperature Climbs, So Does The Cooling Bill Processor.com March 26, 2010 · Vol.32 Issue 7
As any homeowner knows, air conditioning is more expensive when the temperature spikes outside because the room unit or centralized equipment has to work harder to keep a steady temperature. The same is true with a data center, albeit on a much larger scale and with the added complication of heat rejection, notes Peter Sacco, president of PTS Data Center Solutions. To Read the Full Article, Please Click Here Data Center Design Snags
Top Mistakes To Avoid When Building New Or Adding On To Your Data Center
Processor.comMarch 12, 2010 · Vol.32 Issue 6″While it’s possible to acquire sufficient knowledge (to properly build a data center), why take the chance?” says Peter Sacco, president of PTS Data Center Solutions. “Also, not all data center facility design consultants are the same. Construction contractors or [strategy] consultants often don’t have the data center-specific knowledge required for a successful project given the pace of demand IT systems have put on facilities.”
To Read the Full Article, Please Click Here |
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