Schneider Electric Shevigang: Data center room planning in cloud computing environment

January 10, 2012, the "Building Cloud computing data center and cloud application innovation" as the theme of the second China IDC industry annual ceremony held in the National Conference Center, a comprehensive interpretation of the data center and cloud computing industry development trend.

Schneider Electric IT division Greater China Strategic Marketing director Shevigang did a "cloud computing environment in the data center room planning" as the theme of the speech, the following is a transcript:

Hello everyone, I am very happy to have this opportunity to share with you the ideas and ideas of cloud computing data center planning. As far as data centers are concerned, the number of data centers is exploding as cloud computing is networked, or smart terminals are growing in popularity. According to statistics, China now has 530,000 data centers, the annual growth rate of 6 to 8,000. If further, at the data center level, the data center upfront input level, we consider, the data center acquisition cost, has accounted for the entire data center life cycle cost less than 1/3, the data center operation cost is increasing. Our country also proposed Twelve-Five, for the unit GDP energy consumption reduces 16% energy saving emission reduction target. All of the content poses a problem, how do we build the data centers we need, and how we plan our data centers according to our needs?

I have three parts today. First, when considering building a data center, whether to create a new one, or to upgrade an existing data center, or to consider leasing under the cloud computing conditions. The second part, in the actual planning of the data center, we should consider the difficulties, and then how to avoid subsequent errors.

I think, just now we also heard in front of Unicom, Microsoft's experts to share. Any data center is derived from the business, all requirements based on business needs, into it requirements, and then provide the corresponding support. At the same time, data centers are not a good datacenter to provide normal support for the business and effectively achieve business value. So, here I want to say, data center is not only data-centric, the most fundamental is business-centric, must ensure that can improve business processes, improve productivity, and even improve the actual utilization of resources. In the actual planning process, here is a little allusion, to share with you, is a Collus is a Greek warrior, the general mother must hurt the son, he died in the battlefield, so put his heel to the river inside a bubble, here has a small negligence, is the whole body is soaked, but the heel did not bubble to, Full of bulletproof, but the final heel of the Arrow death, planning the beginning of a small problem, will bring great harm. Planning, we have visited customers, said planning, the plan changed again, may be the final actual implementation of the scheme, may be completely inconsistent with the actual site conditions. At the same time, at the beginning of our initial planning program, we have a corresponding plan and a corresponding budget. But the ultimate reality of the plan is far beyond the budget goal. At the beginning of all data center builds, the first question to consider is whether to create a new or upgraded or to consider leasing.

When considering business requirements, depending on a very important aspect, if from a business, just a business, the data center just as a tool appears, consider the data center, especially in the case of cloud computing, consider how to make the data center more fit with the existing business, because not the core business, So the more money the data center saves, the more money is invested into the new field, and the future application of the business is enhanced.

For finance, and even for the center, data centers are their core competencies, and the input of each data center determines the future market position and number of users, which is very important. For telecommunications operators, large it-renowned manufacturers, data centers and cloud computing will become their business, considering the data center as a whole, to consider the large-scale, dynamic considerations.

Taking into account the actual time, the limitations of some conditions, the lease expires, our existing venues are no way to use. This time we think more about new. Specifically, at the beginning of planning, we have to consider three parts when we start five steps.

First, what are our goals in our data center? Is how we balance the priorities of our goals.

Second, we determine who should be involved in the data center build process. In this process, because involves many people, must consider many factors, here if has the corresponding reference, the design tool, certainly may accelerate this kind of process greatly. But before planning starts, the first step is to determine your goals and your budget. When it's OK, if we look further, just three types of data centers, for enterprises, data centers are tools for financial insurance securities, and even for the Super Center, data center is their investment, telecom operators, data centers are their entire business, this level of time, The first step we have to make is the strategy that the data center implements, and that is, we define our strategic goals.

In addition, in this process, choose what kind of place, we are now choosing the cold areas of the north, because the natural cooling time is long, you can save most of the operating costs, we need to choose in the investment policy is good, business investment policies better, more abundant human resources areas.

Another point is to consider six indicators, capacity, density, budget, growth, planning, and key levels, as well as an overall range of energy efficiency indicators. The next part is to consider how to evaluate the plan further through six indicators, and then clear the whole plan of the data center.

As a first step, when planning a datacenter, you have to start with the needs of your business, determine the needs of it, and determine how many servers you need once you've identified it requirements. Then correspondingly, it can be ascertained that how much density is required, according to what density, the two parts determine the budget. The growth budget will affect the initial level of development.

The goal of energy-saving emission reduction is included in the national policy, energy efficiency is also an important indicator, at this stage, we need to invite the right people to intervene, first, understand the business needs, and secondly, to actually turn the business requirements into it requirements. At this level, we are more specific to the initial set of goals, and then determine the corresponding parameter values. We have just considered, there are six indicators, not simply that we say, business decisions we use how many IT equipment, so determine our capacity. At the same time, because our business needs, it also determines the key level of our data center, we are the first few levels.

The other part, at the same time, because of business needs, also determines our growth plan. At the same time, our capacity determines our budget, power density, even our efficiency and our growth plan.

All, each part is mutually influenced. At this time, just said the simple six parameters, the definition of six parameters, six parameters interact with each other, and then to intervene in different people, this time need to intervene in the part, if there is a tool, of course, better. In our actual Schneider Electric's website, to provide you with 12 calculators, can help you from the intricacies of the relationship, clear out your six parameters corresponding to the definition of value, so the URL is very simple, toosls. App.com, because when we identify the data center, the first to determine our budget objectives, we can select the appropriate area. At the same time, can determine the power density, can determine the key grade. The critical hierarchy affects the budget and affects the concepts and architectures that are actually adopted. and the corresponding cost in the process of wanting to get into the overall budget. In the end, the number of cabinets can be determined to see how much the data center costs in the datacenter. What is the cost of it load, the proportion of the consumption of each part of our website can be used for free.

In this process, we usually face a problem, in practical consideration, we often consider the problem is very thin, directly consider the specific problems, with what refrigerator. In the actual process, what equipment should be used, what technology to take, this time, we may lead to the initial need to set goals, because of the disturbance, greatly extended the cycle. This is the time to consider the size of the overall capacity, what the security level is, what the budget is, this is the level we should consider.

At this level, key levels, capacity, and growth plans need to be identified at an early stage. After we have identified these three aspects, we need to do further conceptual design. Frankly speaking, as we actually buy a house, if a house is not built, real estate sales staff to show you a floor book, description of the project surrounding what kind of environment, if you like roadside, you can choose 28 buildings, like a layer of the house, is to choose a layer. Then there is the layout of the plane, which is basically the data center in the construction process, the approximate pattern is that we want to have an idea in mind, the future data center will be what.

After you have identified this step, you basically need to consider the standardization process. In this process, there may be a lot of parameters that are a pattern you want. Our tools can lead you to consider what the data center needs, what capacity is available, that is, what type of design. What technical options can you consider when designing? Specifically, we will basically be based on choice, and then modify according to preferences, and finally give you a normative document.

In another part, we still have something we like and dislike, as well as the impact of the site restrictions. Site restrictions such as the size of the actual building where the conditions of the facilities. Specifically, our limiting condition is that the space affects the number of lines placed in the cabinet, in addition, the height of the ceiling. Then, we can choose whether we are going to take expensive floors, or we make the data center more creative and attractive, using the glass compartment design, which we consider.

The data center does not come up with a bidding document to find the supplier. After the first three steps before the formation of tender documents, tender documents will explicitly consider the business needs, the conversion of it needs, and finally the need to transform it into the data center design instructions. In the end, we can provide guidance to our actual construction through the design instructions. The end result is your construction drawing, including a series of specific parts, such as layout, equipment list, etc. All in all, the five steps I've just mentioned, in a word, business needs dictate it requirements, and based on it requirements, our conceptual design is our building book. Here, according to the final restrictions, to determine the needs of our customers. Finally detailed to the concrete preliminary design, presents the design plan and the blueprint. Overall, all the parts are free before we actually offer specific solutions. The first part, weighing tools, white papers, on our website can be downloaded free of charge, as well as reference design tools, through our agents, sales staff, technical engineers directly obtained. In the end, our technicians can also give you a preliminary design through our design portal.

How to make the whole design process more efficient, we recommend that you choose a special contact person, responsible for the overall data center project. In the actual data center construction process, as far as possible to reduce the number of suppliers involved, there are also clear some requirements, provide the corresponding instructions. Data center plainly, why reduce the number of participants in the inside, the data center is a typical barrel theory to testify. The availability of data centers, the efficiency of data centers, will not depend on how efficient equipment and how new technology is. It depends on the level of the consulting company, design company, product and the corresponding construction party involved in the data center. The mistakes of any side will bring the short plate on the bucket, and consider the whole of the data center. One of the answers I offer here is that all of the central and low voltage devices for the front end of the data center, to the power supply refrigeration of the infrastructure, and then to the accessories, the monitoring and management of each end, we can provide the overall solution. And we also can according to your actual demand, if cloud computing comes, need to clear data center, actual operation undertakes what corresponding business, virtualization will dynamically adjust resources, but which it server is safe, which area of power supply refrigeration no problem. We have just introduced a management softening platform in September that can provide the corresponding services that we can provide from the front-end building's power supply and refrigeration facilities, to the specific data center of the computer room's actual operation and operation and maintenance management. If, as a manager of a business, or a financial decision maker, we can also provide a single interface that will give you an idea of the actual data consumption and availability in all parts of the data center.

The final conclusion is that we are here, not only to help provide simple equipment, but also to provide you with a holistic solution to provide overall energy efficiency management services. As such, Schneider is a global management expert on energy efficiency.

Briefly summarize the content of today's speech. Before you build your entire datacenter, you need to consider whether the data center is new or upgraded to an existing data center or a data center. How to effectively balance the relationship between the various goals and budgets, and ultimately, how to solve the actual use of the conflict in the process, we are in the front, through six steps, but also to provide you with detailed instructions.

Finally, if you have any questions, but also welcome all through the mailbox, or through the micro-blog way, with my further contact, I am very willing to put our free tools and resources can provide to everyone, can give you the practical work to bring effective help, thank you!

(Responsible editor: Lu Guang)