THE MANAGED COLOCATION HANDBOOK

BOOOM!!!! Just when you thought that digital transformation was the most disruptive force descending upon your enterprise landscape like a rolling storm, along came the global pandemic and, with it, the need to dramatically and fundamentally change the way your business operated.

Operational resilience and business efficiency took center stage. Organizations scrambled to optimize operations, rationalize cost, and achieve the agility to maintain their top-line and bottom-line growth.

Cost-prohibitive, complex data centers characterized by over-provisioned physical configurations, operational inefficiencies, and siloed management might have got you this far, but they won't get you any further.

In this new normal where digital-induced hyper-efficiency is the name of the game, the data center just isn't what it used to be. The data center rules as we knew it would have to be rewritten.

At CapitaLand India, Data Centre Group, our topmost priority is to build and operate data centers that will stand the test of time and ensure seamless, scalable, and sustainable services to our hyperscale and enterprise clients.

From a customer's perspective here are a few key parameters that need to be considered while selecting the right managed colocation, data center partner.

LOCATION :

Acquiring a suitable land parcel is the first and the most critical milestone for a data center operator, as it sets us on a path to provide world-class services to our customers. Location is a key factor as hyperscale data centers are built within the data center corridor and selective availability zones. All our DC Land parcels are chosen after careful deliberation and with utmost care keeping in mind the business requirements of our esteemed clients.

Advantages of selecting the right location:

• Power availability at data center site for current requirement and future expansion
• High capacity substation and power sanctioned
• Fiber-rich zone with the availability of multiple service providers entering the premise from a minimum of 4 different paths
• No historical natural disaster like flooding
• Study of seismic ratings and ensuring the DC building is earthquake resistant
• Detailed study on soil and air quality
• Accessibility to data center site: Proximity from national highways, railways, airports and so resources can reach on time even during unforeseen calamities
• External factors: Location should be away from political, government, and defense establishments to avoid the possibility of air/water/land attack in case of war, also check on Flightpath details
• DC site should be away from chemical factories and other known community hazards

Data center equipment selection and guidelines:

• Newer technologies with a green footprint in selecting mechanical, electrical, and cooling equipment
• ASHRAE data center guidelines with data center telecommunication cabling, BICSI, and TIA 942 standards
• Flexible rack power density to meet future power and cooling requirements.
• Prioritize electrical design, UPS, fire protection, structural design and reliability engineering.

Ensure electrical and mechanical load is optimized:

• Placement of UPS PDUs across CRAC/PAHU Gallery (N +N) configurations
• Placement of redundant LT panel in respective server hall floors along with dry type distribution transformer.
• Placement of transformers and its distribution panels near chillers i.e., in the terrace
• Airside free cooling for UPS and battery room (enthalpy sensors)
• Separate cooling circuit for fresh air along with positive pressure requirement
• Hot/cold aisle containment for the data center for enhanced power and cooling requirements.
• Provision of hot aisle and cold aisle temperature sensors with logically connected back to CRAC/PAHU units and BMS.
• PUE (power usage efficiency) is highly dependent on environmental conditions, However DC Service Provider can optimise PUE by reducing electro-mechanical losses with placement of power equipment near IT load and selecting right set of equipment with highest efficiencies. IT power measured UPS level/PDU level or Rack level.
• Check inbuilt design flexibility -  Datacenter design, campus layout, floor layout, cross-section layout, and rack layout should be designed in an optimized way to cater to all workloads and should have in-built flexibility to serve new edge applications and related workloads. Data center racks should be modular to cater minimum to maximum power density.
• Increased security - Security is paramount when it comes to managing data. It is equipped with better software-level controls and enables administrators to control accessibility tightly. In Data Centres Seven levels of physical security, visitor management, facility resource movement along with CCTV surveillance there are various other security controls at all levels.
• Facility operations and scheduled maintenance - The facility should perform weekly routine scheduled maintenance of its data center. Standard operating procedures use their best efforts to notify customers in advance whenever such maintenance is scheduled by notifications.
• Environmental sustainability and green data center - The next-generation data center helps your business shrink its carbon footprint and contain the energy cost that threatens to eat away at its budget.
• Data center should provision solar power panels in available open space to cater partial non-critical IT workloads.
• Tap hybrid green power for DC facilities
• Use of low carbon emission building material
• Datacenter project should at least have environment gold/platinum standards
• Other steps like rainwater recycling/Harvesting are utilized for facility use.

Lower costs - Ultimately, the combination of these benefits can lead to lower total costs—without sacrificing performance or reliability in any way.

A next-generation Data Center requires a change in the physical and operational aspects of the Data Center as well as the organizational culture. "Our State of the art, Hyperscale designed Data Centre facilities, will empower customers to derive greater value while delivering business outcomes." quoted Prasad Tilve, Head Strategy & Business Development, CapitaLand India, Data Centre Group.

Any questions? Reach out to us.

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