The Data Center Builder's Bible - Book 1: Defining Your Data Center Requirements

Book excerpt: Every year more and more Information Technology teams are finding themselves needing to build a new Data Center and relocate their current environment to that new site. The massive challenge of building and migrating a Data Center to a new location requires a unique set of skills that are almost never available in a typical IT department. The stakes are huge. Fail in the effort for a seamless - as in invisible - migration can result in anything from a destroyed career to a failed business. The skills needed include understanding how to define your data center requirements, site selection skills, data center design and build skills, a solid understanding of Data Center Critical Infrastructure as well as Application and Data Migration, specialized project management skills, and incredibly broad knowledge across technologies.This book is part of a five-book series called The Data Center Builder's Bible. The practical series will take you from the first moment you learn (or decide) that a new Data Center project is necessary, all the way through the completion of relocating all the essential technology and applications to the new site and returning your old site to the landlord. It includes the lessons learned and landmines addressed from almost 30 years of building and relocating Data Centers,This Book 1 of the Series, "Defining the Requirements of your Data Center," is a 200+ page (print version) deep dive into two aspects of the overall project. By following the recommendations in this book, you will be able to complete a set of Data Center requirements that will be well understood by any Data Center operator or builder AND will get you the most favorable pricing. You will be all set to enter the site selection phase covered in Book 2 of this series.Data Center Basics- For the Newbies looking at this book we will spend some time at the very start talking about what a Data Center is, and the different types of Data Centers you will come across. Also, we will explore how your deployment will differ if the new site is a primary production site or a disaster recovery failover site.Defining the Requirements - Before you can even start selecting a site for a new Data Center, you need to have clarity about the requirements for your new site. Data Center operators have specific ways of defining their facility and services, and you need to map your requirements into the same measures as the Data Center industry uses to design their proposals. In this book, you will learn what those measures are and how to present them to the potential vendors. We will cover how to define the amount and types of space you will require, how much power, how you want it delivered and how you want the Data Center Operator to bill you for your power consumption. We will talk through site locations, cooling, and security requirements, availability and efficiency goals and the need for clarity regarding network and carrier provisioning.The five books that constitute this series are:Book 1 - Defining Your Data Center RequirementsBook 2 - Site Identification and SelectionBook 3 - Designing the New Data CenterBook 4 - Building and Relocating to The New Data CenterBook 5 - Managing the New Data Center ProjectAbout the AuthorArt Carapola has been designing, building and relocating Data Centers since 1991, ranging from small server room environments to Enterprise Data Centers consisting of hundreds of thousands of feet of equipment space. His record of 100% successful on time and budget Data Center projects has made him a sought-after expert in the field. Art is President and CTO of NewVista Advisors, llc, a consulting firm specializing in Data Center, Trading Floor and IT Infrastructure design, implementation and Project Management.