Standardizing Data Center Energy Efficiency Metrics - Term Paper Example

?Research Project Table of Contents Research Project Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Business Idea 5 Impact Assessment 9 Stakeholder Analysis 11Competitors 12 Conclusion 15 15 Works Cited 16 Bibliography 18 Introduction BIT has been mentioned to be an organization which is known to provide the facility of grants yearly. The chief underlying principle or notion guiding this particular organization is the practical as well as transformative consequences on the overall society and the concerned business. Information technology is regarded as an integral component of business in the present decade. Information technology is believed to provide the benefit of operational brilliance, fresh services, products, business models, customer as well as supplier familiarity, enhanced decision making, competitive advantage and most importantly sustained survival in the industry. Information technology is also being applied in the field of community services or rather in the area of humanities as well as social sciences. Thus, this paper will intend to focus on a particular technology along with its application in terms of business problems in the field of community services or development. The business problem selected for the study will be related to the management of information services or communication for the elderly in various areas that includes health, finance and entertainment along with sports. The technology or strategy that has been chosen for the reason of overcoming this problem is reshaping of the data center. Therefore, the paper will intend to substantiate and to validate the application of the technology of reshaping the data center for the purpose of enhancing a social-related cause (Girju, “Toward a New Generation of Tools and Technologies for Social Sciences: The Intertwined Roles of the Humanities, Social Sciences and Engineering”). The immense form of proliferation in the field of information with regard to several formats and originating sources along with recent advances in the field of information technology in conjunction with the latest developments made in terms of information technology is believed to have directed the path towards a fresh approach to the researches related to Social, Behavioral and Economic sciences (SBE). For instance, the current discoveries made in the fields of neuroscience, imaging, genomics and computing along with various other fields have formulated the need for fresh tools with regard to the purpose of conducting scientific study in SBE. It has been observed in this regard that various sectors such as sports, finance, health and entertainment are extensively making the use of information technology. The businesses carrying out operations for the reason of providing the mentioned kind of services are constantly identifying the need of applying relevant technologies that are believed to enhance their business operations. The recent state of affairs in relation to information technologies with regard to SBE researches are measured to call for the requirement of a fresh generation of technologies, infrastructure and tools. It turns out to be imperative to mention in this regard that this stated fresh iteration has been measured to recognize the need for the involvement of humanistic consciousness in association with the prevailing computational systems. Therefore, the need of new and sophisticated technologies in the field of humanities as well as social sciences can be well identified from the provided explanation (Girju, “Toward a New Generation of Tools and Technologies for Social Sciences: The Intertwined Roles of the Humanities, Social Sciences and Engineering”). Business Idea The sector of information technology is learnt to be growing presently across the globe extensively but it also has been observed in this respect that the existing companies providing services of offering custom made technologies for business houses often fail to cater to the overall requirements of the organizations or the clients owing to the lack of comprehension of the appropriate requirement. Taking this aspect into consideration, the notion of applying the strategy of reshaping the data center for organization providing information services or communication for the elderly in various areas including finance, sports, health and entertainment has been developed. Data centre are considered to be quite a vital rudiment for the reason of supporting a particular business. The concept related to the paradigm of design-construct-operate with regard to data centre has been measured to be developing at a rapid pace in relation to alteration. Acknowledging this particular alteration with the conservative thinking as well as design regulations in relation to the data centre is known to limit the competence of offering core information technology related services which is further believed to create an influence on the concerned form of business. Therefore, it is has been stated in this regard that it is vital to recognize the strategy and design it appropriately by not just encompassing and considering the present business requirements but also taking into deliberation the future needs as well. The organization providing the service of offering the appropriate technologies for the suited businesses requires comprehending the necessities of its client organization regarding the confusing range of technical, cultural, commercial and property matters while making decisions concerning the location of their core systems associated with information technology. The growing demand for services related to data centre provides an indication that the required resources that are needed for delivering services related to data centers lack to maintain pace in accordance with the intensity of proficiency needed and for which the in-house availability is measured to be rare. Proper planning of a particular required data centre is known to entail the requirement of a certain degree of skill which is assumed to be only obtained with the help of know-how and experience (Applied Computer Research, Inc, “Defining the Data Center Market and Data Center Market Size”). It has been found in this regard that BIT successfully interprets the business requirements into strategic necessities. A collection of inclusive, wide-ranging and precise business specifications is learnt to structure the foundation for any kind of successful project related to data centre. The experience of the organization aids in facilitating discussions related to technical as well as business divisions ensuing in a purposeful succinct which is supposed to exactly mirror the vision of the organization. BIT is known to initially carry out an assessment and then plan out their work with the concerned organization to scale the floor space, idleness as well as availability layout, cooling, power, security as well as other needed specifications. The budget planned for this particular purpose by BIT is measured to be US$ 5 million. Data centers are considered to be quite crucial for businesses especially those that deal with information services or communication. It is needless to mention in this context that the operations related to information technology are known to form an essential facet for majority of the organizational functions. Increased reliance is found to be placed on the information systems of the organizations for the reason of satisfying the specification of business continuity of the organizations which is vital for the reason of carrying out their respective business functions. In case, a certain system is found to be unavailable then the organizations might be hampered or even be compelled to halt their business operations. Thus, it can be well comprehended that it is quite important to offer a dependable infrastructure regarding the operations concerning information technology. This is considered to be imperative for the reason of trimming down the probability of any kind of interruption or disturbance. The issue of security in relation to the existing information is also regarded to be a grave concern. The notion of data center is believed to prove beneficial for the reason of providing a protected environment which brings down the likelihood of any kind of security violation. Thus, it has been recognized in this regard that a specific data center needs to maintain high specifications for guarantying the reliability as well as functionality pertaining to the mass computer environment. This is learnt to be attained with the help of employment of the fiber optic power as well as cables which is also known to entail the generation of backup power (Beck, “Energy Smart Data Centers: Applying Energy Efficient Design And Technology To The Digital Information Sector”). Effectual operation in relation to the data centers calls for the prerequisite of a reasonable and unbiased investment in terms of both the obtained equipment and the facility. The initial step that is identified in this respect is the creation of a baseline competent atmosphere that is regarded to be appropriate for setting up the required equipments. Standardization along with modularity is supposed to be competent enough to give way to savings followed by efficiencies with regard to the creation and design of the data centers. The notion of standardization relates to the incorporation of building as well equipment engineering. Similarly, the idea of modularity is known to involve the advantages related to scalability and easy development even in instances of charting out predictions which are assumed to be less favorable. The need for data centers are measured to be escalating owing to the rapid development in the field of information technology which is being encountered by the various organizations. However, the problems witnessed by the organization in this respect are the factor of aging of the data centers. It has been mentioned by various enterprises dealing with the establishment of these kinds of centers that organizations having data centers for more than seven to nine years become outdated (Greenberg, Mills, Tschudi, Rumsay & Myatt, “Best Practices for Data Centers: Lessons Learned from Benchmarking 22 Data Centers”). Data centers calls for the requirement of being reshaped after a certain number of years in order to ensure the efficiency of the centers and to prevent the organization from experiencing a collapse of their respective capacities related to information technology. The process of ‘reshaping the data centers’ is known to engage a step-by-step progression with the help of incorporated projects performed over time. This particular mentioned approach is learnt to vary from a customary method related to upgradation of the data centers which is assumed to entail a silos as well as a sequential approach. The usual projects that are supposed to remain engaged with the drives related to the reshaping procedure of the data centers involve standardization or combination virtualization, security and automation. The intention of the project related to standardization is measured to be the aim to bring down the amount of centers that are generally possessed by large organizations. This specific project is even supposed to trim down the amount of software along with hardware platforms, processes and the various tools that are required in a particular center. The organizations are learnt to reinstate the equipments of the older data centers with the fresher and the advanced ones which are measured to provide soaring degree of competence as well as performance. The platforms of networking, management and computing are known to be standardized with the help of reshaping in order to make them simpler to control (Shino, “Standardizing Data Center Energy Efficiency Metrics in Preparation for Global Competition”). The approach or rather the procedure related to virtualization relates to the actuality of the application of virtualization technologies associated with the subject of information technology for the purpose of reinstating or uniting the numerous equipments pertaining to data centers, for instance the servers. Virtualization aids in bringing down the operational as well as the capital costs and also in lowering the consumption of energy. Virtualization is considered to act as a change agent in terms of modernization. The procedure of automating a center of this mentioned kind engages the automization of certain tasks, for instance configuration, release management, provisioning, compliance and patching. The organizations have been observed to experience a lack of adequately competent personnel in the field of information technology. In such instances, the notion of automating the tasks helps in ensuring the smooth and effectual functioning of the data centers. The procedure of securing relates to the actuality of protecting the information or the stored data. In the recent data centers, incorporation of the protection of information with regard to the virtual systems is done with the prevailing security in relation to the physical infrastructures. The aspect of protection in case of a recent data center needs to take into deliberation the factor of providing physical protection, network protection and user as well as data protection (Mehra, “Designing and Building a Datacenter Network: An Alternative Approach with OpenFlow”). Impact Assessment Impact assessment refers to the process of evaluating the issues at risk along with structuring the specifications or purposes that need to be pursued for the reason of finding an effective solution to the assessed problem. The procedure of impact assessment is considered to be quite an imperative aspect while structuring aims or planning the development of certain policies. This specific procedure aids in recognizing the chief and vital alternatives for attaining the purposes or developed aims followed by the evaluation of their probable influences in the various fields related to the concerned plan. In this case the impact of reshaping the data centre would be evaluated in order to gauge the need and consequences of such an intended plan. The IT related operations are measured to be on the rise with regard to various organizations which implies that there would be an immense requirement of energy for the data centers. It has also been recognized in this respect that a mass amount of the existing data centers have been measured to be incompetent of catering to the current as well as future energy requirements. This particular scenario evidently highlights the need for reshaping the present data centers in order to make them competent of meeting up to the future energy requirements. The strategy of reshaping the data centre of the concerned organization has been assessed to prove beneficial presently and especially in the long run. The process of reshaping the data centre would intend to expand the investment of the organizations in terms of the stated facility. The expansion would be done by lengthening the functional tenure along with facilitating the IT tasks to back the business purposes and intentions. In order to attain this, processes in relation to work needs to be triggered in order to renovate the prevailing environment. Thus, the renovation of the environment with the help of reshaping the data centre has been measured is believed to be attained by making available an IT related facility that is assumed to prove to be increasingly protected, effectual, convenient and competent of providing a strong form of backup to the present as well as the future technologies. The data centre facilities are measured to be the backbone of an organization and its regular operations. The collapse or any sort of a small issue in relation to the data centre of an organization can prove to be fatal for its business operations. Therefore, restructuring it would enhance the efficiency of the regular business operations along with extending the functional life of the IT related facilities which would prove to be commercially beneficial in the long run for the intended organization (Bradley, “Data Centre Optimisation: Insight, Challenges and Solutions”). Stakeholder Analysis On the basis of the kind of service that is offered by BIT organization, the recognition of the stakeholders could be made in few categories such as the primary stakeholders, the secondary stakeholders and the tertiary stakeholders. The primary stakeholders are referred to the direct clients of the BIT organization and the employees of BIT, secondary stakeholders could be stated to be those customers who are catered by the client organizations of BIT and in this case they are the elderly people. Finally, the tertiary stakeholders could be referred to the suppliers of the BIT organization and the related government as well private entities. The primary stakeholders are the ones who are believed to have a direct influence on the organization. The organizations who are considered to be the direct users of the service provided by BIT are believed to be directly affected by the business functions and services of BIT and thus are considered to be quite crucial for the organization. The employees are also considered to be the primary ones as they are directly influence the operations of the organizations with their performances. The secondary stakeholders that are the elderly individuals and the employees are supposed to have an indirect influence on the operations and the services of BIT. The elderly people in a way are indirectly served by the BIT as they are the one who would be reshaping the data centre of the proposed organization which in turn would enhance the efficiency of the services provided to the elderly people. The tertiary stakeholders are assessed to be those individuals or rather the entities that are observed to be indirectly related with supporting the functions of the organization. The tertiary stakeholders are known to entail quite a broad head as it engages all those entities who remain involved in the chain of value creation for BIT (Huch, “D2: Identification and characterisation of the main stakeholder groups for “ICT for Ageing” solutions”). Competitors The presence of quite a few competitors has been found in this particular business as well as industry. However, it needs to be mentioned in this regard that the planned business idea of reshaping of the data centers for organizations offering information or communication services for the elderly in various areas that entail health, entertainment, finance and sports would prove to be quite beneficial. The businesses carried out in the modern era are learnt to be increasingly dependent on the aspect of information technology which implies that the concept of BIT to offer customized technological solutions to the organizations working for certain progressive causes will prove to stand apart in comparison to the others implying that the degree of competition faced in the initial period will be quite less (Applied Computer Research, Inc, “Defining the Data Center Market and Data Center Market Size”). The technological solutions offered by BIT for organizations involved in community services will act as a great strength for this organization. The strategy of reshaping the data center is quite appropriate for the purpose of providing a solution to the issues witnessed in the field of social sciences as well as humanities. The proposed restructuring of the data center will prove to be extremely beneficial for the organizations engaged in providing the mentioned kind of services. It will help the concerned organizations to further smoothen the course of conducting its business functions. The term data center is usually made use of as a common expression for explaining a range of several facilities that accommodate electronic equipment. These equipments are considered to be immeasurably helpful for hosting internet sites, transfer as well as storage of electronic information, processing of financial dealings as well as credit cards, telecommunications along with other different activities that are presumed to support the augmenting need of an economy dependent on the generation of electronic form of information. The facility of reshaping or restructuring the data center by BIT would not only aid the intended organization in trimming down their respective footprints related to the data centers but will also ensure the enhancement of its operational efficiencies with the help of combining the distributed services as well as assets into one centralized location. This kind of restructuring is usually regarded as optimization of the data center. BIT will also focus on providing the benefit of server optimization. BIT will aim at uniting and standardizing the servers into exceedingly effectual pools concerning virtualized calculating resources which entail the competency of being accumulated as well as separated in order to make best use of the factor of utilization. This particular plan of restructuring is measured to assist the organization to cut down the expenses related to server ownership by nearly 30 to 50 percent. It is also assumed to enhance the dependability as well as availability along with bringing down the degree of capital expenditures. Restructuring will also facilitate the aspect of storage transformation. This implies that this particular facility will help in installing amenities which are believed to further facilitate the concerned organization to deal with the lifecycle of information throughout the storage devices. This will result in enhancing the storage employment, returns on the made investments and also in terms of accessibility with regard to the enterprise information that is believed to strengthen their business (Accenture, “Accenture Data Center Services”). Conclusion The importance and need of reshaping the data center can be well identified from the above made discussion. The above discussion helps in providing an evident and lucid comprehension regarding the application of a needed and appropriate technology by BIT for the reason of providing an effective solution for an organization engaged with presenting information along with communication services to the elderly in various fields. The advantages of restructuring the data center have been discussed in length and breadth above which has aided to understand that this particular strategy of reshaping will prove to be immensely beneficial. This is not only expected to bring down the operational expenses of the aimed organizations but is also assumed to smoothen and to enhance the efficiency of the services that are believed to be provided by it. Works Cited Accenture. “Accenture Data Center Services”. Delivering Data Center Solutions that are Business-Led and Service-Oriented (2011): 1-6. Print. Applied Computer Research, Inc. “Defining the Data Center Market and Data Center Market Size.” Data Center (2010): 1-8. Print Beck, Fred. “Energy Smart Data Centers: Applying Energy Efficient Design And Technology To The Digital Information Sector”. Renewable Energy Policy Project 14 (2001): 1-27. Print. Bradley, Scott. “Data Centre Optimisation: Insight, Challenges and Solutions.” Creating Business Advantage (2010): 1-12. Print. Girju, Roxana. “Toward a New Generation of Tools and Technologies for Social Sciences: The Intertwined Roles of the Humanities, Social Sciences and Engineering.” University of Illinois (2010): 1-5. Print. Greenberg, Steve, Evan Mills, Bill Tschudi, Peter Rumsey, and Bruce Myatt. “Best Practices for Data Centers: Lessons Learned from Benchmarking 22 Data Centers.” ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (2006): 76-87. Print. Huch, Michael. “D2: Identification and characterisation of the main stakeholder groups for “ICT for Ageing” solutions.” BRAID 5 (2010): 1-46. Print. Mehra, Rohit. “Designing and Building a Datacenter Network: An Alternative Approach with OpenFlow.” NEC Corporation (2012): 1-12. Print. Shino, Takao. “Standardizing Data Center Energy Efficiency Metrics in Preparation for Global Competition.” Nomura Research Institute 171 (2012): 1-18. Print. Bibliography Herminghaus, Volker. & Scriba, Albrecht. Storage Management in Data Centers: Understanding, Exploiting, Tuning, and Troubleshooting Veritas Storage Foundation. Germany: Springer, 2009. Print. Read More