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A Whitepaper by Frost & Sullivan for 50 Years of Growth, Innovation and Leadership Not all data centres are equal – Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud
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Page 1: Not all Data Centres are Equal - Whitepaper rinfo.macquarietelecom.com/rs/macquarietelecom/images/...Not all data centres are equal – Understanding the global best practices of data

A

Whitepaper by

Frost & Sullivan

for

50 Years of Growth, Innovation and Leadership

Not all data centres are equal – Understanding the globalbest practices of data centres that power the cloud

Page 2: Not all Data Centres are Equal - Whitepaper rinfo.macquarietelecom.com/rs/macquarietelecom/images/...Not all data centres are equal – Understanding the global best practices of data
Page 3: Not all Data Centres are Equal - Whitepaper rinfo.macquarietelecom.com/rs/macquarietelecom/images/...Not all data centres are equal – Understanding the global best practices of data

F R O S T & S U L L I V A N

TABLE OF CONTENTS

About this White Paper...................................................................................4

The Changing Data Centre Environment ........................................................4

Cloud Computing and its impact on Data Centres .........................................5

Challenges for Data Centres in Keeping up with Demand ..............................7

Not All Data Centres are Equal ......................................................................11

Data Centre Best Practices: A Global Perspective ..........................................12

Operational Best Practices .............................................................................12

Facility Best Practices .....................................................................................16

Choosing the Right Data Centre Provider ......................................................17

The Last Word .................................................................................................19

Page 4: Not all Data Centres are Equal - Whitepaper rinfo.macquarietelecom.com/rs/macquarietelecom/images/...Not all data centres are equal – Understanding the global best practices of data

Not all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloudF R O S T & S U L L I V A N

ABOUT THIS WHITE PAPER

The amount of data centre space globally is increasing at a rapid rate, as data

centres are becoming increasingly essential to modern organisations and to their

ability to optimise their business operations. Across all types of organisations, data

loads are increasing significantly, due to factors such as heightened compliance

requirements, growth in digital media, proliferation of rich media such as online

video, and the growing adoption of virtualisation and cloud computing. However

these increased data loads are often creating significant challenges for data centre

managers in many organisations.

In order to meet this growing demand and increased complexity, the agility, capacity

and resiliency of data centres is increasing. The first decision any Chief Information

Officer (CIO) often needs to make is whether to "Build" or "Buy" data centre

capacity. There are advantages and disadvantages to both these approaches,

however the "build" scenario – i.e. developing the data centre capacity in house

(“captive data centres”) - has become very difficult - as a result of the difficulty in

sourcing suitable sites, unavailability of skilled staff and, not least, because of the

difficulty of realising economies of scale and high levels of energy efficiency in a

data centre dedicated to serving only a single organisation.

In this white paper we examine global best practices in data centre management,

the main factors that are driving a transformation in the data centre environment

and their impact on the “Build” versus “Buy” decision. We also offer

recommendations to IT decision makers on how to select the optimum hosting

provider if they decide to outsource data centre hosting to a 3rd party.

THE CHANGING DATA CENTRE ENVIRONMENT

Many organisations are adopting technologies such as virtualisation, blade servers

and flat network architectures to meet the rapid surge in data traffic, and this is

effectively transforming modern data centres. The illustration below (Figure 1)

shows the key business and technology factors that are driving this data centre

transformation. Among the various business and technology factors driving the

transformation, we believe that the development of virtualisation and the growing

significance of cloud based solutions are the most important.

www.frost.com4

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Not all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud F R O S T & S U L L I V A N

Figure 1: Key Factors Driving Data Centre Transformation

Virtualisation and the emergence of the cloud computing model are the

factors having the greatest impact on the transformation of data centres

While virtualisation solves a number of IT challenges, it also creates numerous

problems for the underlying data centre infrastructure in areas such as power and

cooling systems. Although significant changes in IT equipment and technology such

as servers are occurring, the underlying infrastructure in most data centres is often

not keeping pace with these developments. In many cases, key components of the

data centre infrastructure, such as power and cooling systems, are still outdated,

requiring massive upgrades to match the new IT technology. For instance, blade

servers pack significantly more processing power in a server rack than traditional

non-blade servers, but also emit significantly more heat. As a result, blade servers

have much greater per rack power requirements (often beyond 20KW per rack)

and much higher cooling requirements. Many captive data centres currently run at

an average of 2-4 KW per rack and therefore need to upgrade their power

capabilities significantly to accommodate blade servers. The traditional room based

cooling is also ineffective in this scenario, with data centres needing to overhaul

their cooling systems in favour of row/rack oriented architectures. Another

challenge for captive data centres is getting access to reliable power supply with

predictable operating costs.

CLOUD COMPUTING AND ITS IMPACT ON DATA CENTRES

The IT industry is undergoing a paradigm shift in the way computing resources are

being procured and delivered. Cloud computing is emerging as a key area of focus

for CIOs and IT decision makers due to its ability to save costs, increase business

agility and deliver IT in an on-demand manner. The use of the cloud as an IT delivery

mechanism has increased significantly over the last 12 months, driven both by the

www.frost.com 5

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Page 6: Not all Data Centres are Equal - Whitepaper rinfo.macquarietelecom.com/rs/macquarietelecom/images/...Not all data centres are equal – Understanding the global best practices of data

Not all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloudF R O S T & S U L L I V A N

benefits mentioned above and the growing need to minimise both the capital

expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX) associated with IT

services in many organisations.

Figure 2: Cloud Computing Usage in Australia

Cloud computing has a two-fold impact on data centre demand. Firstly it

significantly increases demand for data centre space as cloud matures as a

technology and as an increasing number of IT service providers start offering cloud

based services. In captive data centres, cloud computing will result in a massive

centralisation of infrastructure, creating the need for additional data centre space.

Secondly, cloud computing leads to improved server utilisation through the use of

virtualisation and greater consolidation of storage infrastructure, thereby resulting

in reduced demand for space in the long run (considering the spatial advantages

gained through virtualisation).

Over the past couple of years, interest in cloud computing has grown significantly

in Australia and cloud is increasingly being discussed in various CXO and CIO level

forums. Many organisations are evaluating the potential adoption of cloud

computing to improve business agility, increase standardisation of IT infrastructure

and lower the cost of delivering IT services. While Software as a Service (SaaS)

adoption has been steadily growing in the past decade, the adoption of

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) has seen a sharp

increase, particularly in the past 12 months. Organisations need to underpin the

investments in cloud computing with proper consideration of backup and disaster

recovery.

Among the factors that will serve as enablers for the delivery of cloud services,

virtualisation has the greatest impact since it provides a foundation for delivering

cloud solutions. Server virtualisation is the foundation for building clouds by

www.frost.com6

Source: Frost & Sullivan

Page 7: Not all Data Centres are Equal - Whitepaper rinfo.macquarietelecom.com/rs/macquarietelecom/images/...Not all data centres are equal – Understanding the global best practices of data

Not all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud F R O S T & S U L L I V A N

seamlessly creating logical instances that can be provisioned on-demand. While

cloud computing is possible without server virtualisation, it would be an exercise in

futility.

CHALLENGES FOR DATA CENTRES IN KEEPING UP WITH DEMAND

According to a recent Frost & Sullivan survey conducted in the second quarter of

2011 with 100 IT decision makers in Australia, the following factors emerged as the

primary challenges in data centre operations

Figure 3: Top 5 challenges in data centre management

There are two main operating models for data centres. One is for an organisation

to build, operate and manage its own data centre for internal purposes, known as a

captive data centre. The other model is the outsourced model, whereby

organisations lease space and co-location services from data centre providers. In

the outsourced model a data centre provider provides the facility, as well as the

security, power and cooling needs with clients utilising the space to deploy their

servers.

Given the general trend for organisations to outsource non-core functions and

focus on their core competencies, many organisations are turning to managed

hosting providers or co-location providers to service their increased demand for

data centre capacity. A number of the challenges identified in the above chart could

be mitigated by outsourcing hosting of data centre infrastructure.

www.frost.com 7

Source: N=100; Survey conducted in Q2’2011; Frost & Sullivan

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Figure 4: Outsourcing of data centre hosting

In response to increased demand for data centre space, there have been several

innovations in the way organisations manage their data centres, utilise their servers,

and deliver applications to their users. The following are some of the challenges

faced by current generation of data centres:

• Many large, hosted data centres in Australia are now running near full-capacity,

hence capacity expansion is a major focus area. In captive data centres, the

move towards virtualisation and cloud computing is resulting in greater

centralisation of infrastructure that in turn is driving the demand for more data

centre space.

• The rapid growth in data traffic has made it very difficult for captive data

centres to keep pace with the increased demand. This challenge is greater for

smaller data centres, which typically struggle with virtualisation due to old or

ageing cooling systems and a lack of necessary in-house IT skills and

• Much of the underlying data centre infrastructure (power, cooling and floor

plan) currently in use was designed for previous generations of servers, and is

usually inadequate to support future data demands and likely advancements in

technology.

The latest power and cooling technologies enable data centre operators to reduce

the overall data centre space requirement through better packing of efficient blade

servers and other high performance computing infrastructure. New data centres

with the latest power and cooling technologies will also attract more demand than

those with more dated power and cooling technologies. This is because data centres

with the latest power and cooling technologies are better able to provide facilities

for hosting blade servers. Therefore, an increased demand for blade servers will in

turn drive demand for advanced power and cooling technologies.

Not all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloudF R O S T & S U L L I V A N

www.frost.com8

Source: N=100; Survey conducted in Q2’2011; Frost & Sullivan

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In the light of these challenges, organisations generally have two main options in

addressing their data centre requirements - to upgrade their existing data centre

facilities (the “Build” option) and/or to use a third party data centre provider (the

“Buy” option). The advantages and disadvantages of these options are summarised

below.

Figure 5 Advantages of Build and Buy Options

• Upgrade Existing Data Centres (“Build”)

For data centres faced with the limitation of older infrastructure, a complete

upgrade of floor spacing, power and cooling systems are necessary to meet

future demand.

Critical technology and equipment such as virtualisation and blade servers have

significantly higher power and cooling demands than older technology. As a

result, any data centre that is aiming to cater to future computing demands will

need to ensure it can support developments in hardware and software.

Advantages of this model include full control over the data centre as well as all

the factors impacting reliability and compliance.

• Outsource to a Third Party Provider (“Buy”)

While outsourcing data centre hosting responsibilities to a third party provides

clear advantages, only a small proportion of organisations in Australia have

currently adopted this model. Outsourcing is most prevalent among larger

enterprises, with mid-market organisations generally more reluctant to

outsource hosting functions. The main advantages of outsourcing hosting are

more predictable costs, greater scalability and better access to infrastructure

redundancies.

The main issues for maintaining data centre operations in-house include need for

control and privacy. These issues are expected to be significant over the short to

Not all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud F R O S T & S U L L I V A N

www.frost.com 9

Source: Frost & Sullivan

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Not all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloudF R O S T & S U L L I V A N

medium term, with many organisations expected to adopt a hybrid model (for

outsourcing) before moving to full outsourcing. The hybrid model allows

organisations to keep sensitive components of hosting in-house whilst outsourcing

non-mission-critical functions. Going forward, improvements in data centre security

and advancements in software and hardware technologies will combine with long

term factors such as the availability of the National Broadband Network (NBN) will

accelerate the shift from a predominantly in-house to a predominantly outsourced

model for data centre hosting.

Data centre operations involve management of a data centre on a number of key

metrics. We summarise below how each metric is impacted by the build and buy

options for data centre hosting. We also indicate the degree to which each metric

is impacted by each option.

Figure 6: Comparison of Build and Buy Options for Data Centres

www.frost.com10

Metric Build (Self-owned) Buy ( 3rd party)

Capital expenditure (CAPEX) in real

estate and infrastructure

High

Subject to unforeseen upgrades and

maintenance fees.

Low

Upfront costs are low due to the

OPEX nature of the lease

agreements.

Time to Market Long

Construction time for Tier 3 and above

facilities may at least take 18 months.

Short

Possible to move in immediately

after the set-up time.

Scalability Low to Medium

Right sizing is often difficult. Many captive

data centres quickly run out of space. If the

facility is too big, cost/rack is higher.

High

Most often can scale linearly and if

the right provider is chosen,

capacity can be procured on an

“on-demand” basis.

Security Low to High

High if proper physical and logical controls

are in place.

High

Most best-in-class facilities are

ISO, SAS and Federal standards

certified.

Redundancy and Disaster recovery Low to Medium

Cost of redundancy is high due to the

dedicated nature.

High

High redundancy based on the tier

chosen with lower costs.

Energy efficiency Low to Medium

Newer facilities that are backed by an

organisational green credo are building

efficient facilities however the older data

centres struggle to achieve PUE’s below

1.5.

Medium to High

Since energy efficiency lowers their

operational costs and makes them

more attractive to customers, co-

location players have placed a high

emphasis on lower PUE and usage

of energy efficient equipment.

Manpower costs High

Often managed in-house, acquisition and

retention costs of skilled manpower can be

high.

Low

A wide spectrum of choices offering

flexibility to customers. Often,

allows businesses to outsource

mundane tasks at a lower cost.

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Not all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud F R O S T & S U L L I V A N

1Source: Uptime

Institute

NOT ALL DATA CENTRES ARE EQUAL

With the rapid increase in third party hosting, it is important for customers to

understand that not all hosted data centres are equal. In fact there are significant

differences between hosted data centres in many aspects of data centre design and

operations.

Data centres can be classified into 4 tiers defined by the maximum hours of

downtime per year . This availability measure is itself the result of various aspects

of design and operations of the data centre.

Figure 7 Data centre Tiers

www.frost.com 11�

Metric/Tier Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 4

Availability

(Minimum) 99.671% 99.741% 99.982 % 99.995 %

Downtime

Maximum

permissible annual

downtime of 28.8

hours

Maximum

permissible

annual downtime

of 22.0 hours

Maximum

permissible annual

downtime of 1.6

hours

Maximum

permissible annual

downtime of 0.4

hours.

Redundancy

Single path for

power and cooling

distribution, no

redundant

components (N)

Single path for

power and

cooling

distribution,

includes

redundant

components

(N+1)

Multiple path for

power & cooling

distribution but

with only one

path active,

includes

redundant

components

(N+1)

Multiple path for

power & cooling

distribution but

with only one

path active,

includes

redundant

components

(2(N+1) i.e. 2

UPS each with

N+1

redundancy)

Infrastructure

May or may

not have a

raised floor

space, UPS,

or generator

Includes

raised floor

space, UPS,

or generator

Includes

raised floor

space, UPS,

or generator

Includes

raised floor

space, UPS,

or generator

Build Time

On average

built within

three months

from scratch

On average

built within 3-6

months from

scratch

On average

built within 15-

20 months

from scratch

On average

built within 18-

24 months

from scratch

Source: Frost & Sullivan

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Key Points to Consider in Data Centre Selection

The greater availability of an external data centre, which creates greater uptime, is

the main reason for organisations to outsource hosting. Hosting providers typically

have much higher redundancy and security built in to their facilities than captive

data centres, with a singular focus on maximising uptime. Organisations with high

availability/uptime requirements should consider Tier 3 or Tier 4 providers to

realise the full benefits of outsourcing.

DATA CENTRE BEST PRACTICES: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

A number of metrics, codes and models have been developed recently which allow

data centre operators to measure their performance across a number of

parameters, and compare this with their peers. Some of the more important of

these are summarised below;

Operational Best Practices

Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)

To remain cost competitive and socially responsible, many organisations worldwide

have been striving to increase the efficiency, availability, and security of their data

centres whilst at the same time keeping the energy consumption low. PUE (Power

usage effectiveness) has emerged as an important metric for measuring energy

efficiency in a data centre, with most data centres striving to achieve a PUE close

to 1. Unless captive data centres can run at low PUE’s (at least below 1.5) and

achieve industry best practices on other key metrics, there is likely to be a strong

business case for outsourcing hosting.

Carbon Footprint Reduction

To support data centre operators in minimising power consumption, and hence the

carbon footprint of their data centre operations, a number of operational measures

are available. In designing and operating their data centres, operators need to

review and implement these measures where relevant, in order to ensure that both

the operational costs and environmental impact of their data centres are minimised.

The following chart outlines some of these measures that data centre operators

should consider in designing and operating their data centre:

Not all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloudF R O S T & S U L L I V A N

2PUE = Total

Facility Power / IT

Equipment Power

www.frost.com12

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Figure 8: Potential Measures to Minimise Data Centre Power

Consumption and Ensuing Carbon Emissions

Australian data centres that rely entirely on the grid power are responsible for

significantly more carbon emissions than their counterparts in other developed

countries due to the nature of electricity generation in Australia. More than 75% of

electricity generated in Australia comes from coal, which amongst electricity

generation fuels emits the highest amount of carbon. Amongst the OECD countries,

Australia has the highest CO2 emissions per kWh of electricity generated. The

following table illustrates the CO2 emissions per kWh of electricity generated for

some of the leading nations in the world:

Figure 9: CO2 emissions per kWh from electricity and heat generation

(grams CO2/kWh)

F R O S T & S U L L I V A NNot all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud

www.frost.com 13

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Through onsite power generation using cleaner fuels (such as natural gas) or by

outsourcing data centre operations to a third party who either generates on site

using clean fuels or who sources power from renewable sources, data centre

owners can both reduce the carbon emissions from their data centre operations

and in many instances save money while doing so. This is because power costs in

Australia are increasing sharply and are likely to continue to do so, driven by the

significant investment in upgrades to transmission and distribution networks, as

well as other factors such as the legislative Renewable Energy Target and the

impending carbon tax. With grid-sourced power a cost increasing substantially, self-

generated power is likely to become increasingly cost-competitive.

Effective operations management

Adherence to ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) best practices

and adoption of data centre infrastructure management tools can lower operational

costs in a data centre. These tools give real time visibility into usage of IT and

physical infrastructure in a data centre by enabling monitoring and collection of

data. DCIM (Data centre infrastructure management) tools enable organisations to

gain greater visibility of the physical and IT assets in a data centre, plan for capacity

in a streamlined manner and ease day-to-day operations. Driven by convergence of

physical and IT assets, DCIM tools can simplify data centre operations and allow

businesses to increase the efficiency of their assets.

Despite the high level of server virtualisation, the adoption of DCIM tools is low in

Australia. This low usage indicates that many organisations are not yet adopting

best practices in management of the IT and facility operations in their data centre,

and this can significantly impact the availability, performance and energy usage of

their facility. Only about one-fifth of Australian data centre operators are currently

using vendor-neutral DCIM tools in their data centre management. Although this is

on a par with other Asia Pacific data centre hubs, it is much lower than should be

the case in Australia given the high degree of server virtualisation here. While usage

of DCIM tools can be invaluable in gaining real-time visibility, organisations need

qualified manpower to harness the information being generated. Outsourcing of

data centre management to skilled 3rd party service providers can significantly

mitigate this challenge.

F R O S T & S U L L I V A N

Not all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud

www.frost.com14

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Figure 10: Usage of DCIM tools in major Asia Pacific Data Centre hubs

Data Centre Maturity Model

Green Grid, a global consortium of companies, government agencies and

educational institutions, has developed a data centre maturity model (DCMM) ,

which sets out clear goals and directions for improving operational efficiency and

sustainability in a data centre. The DCMM includes the major components of data

centre design and operations such as power, cooling, compute, storage and

network. The different levels of the model outline current best practices and a

roadmap for the future. The model therefore allows data centres to benchmark

themselves against their peers and provides a robust framework for future

developments.

Figure 11 Data Centre Maturity Model (DCMM)

3Source: Green Grid.

A more detailed

version of the model

can be found here:

http://www.thegreengr

id.org/~/media/Tools/

DataCenterMaturityM

odelv1_0.ashx?lang=e

n

F R O S T & S U L L I V A NNot all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud

www.frost.com 15

Source: Frost & Sullivan

FACILITY METRICS

1. Power2. Cooling

3. Resiliency4. Others

Efficiency improvement ( Cost & Carbon Reduction)

Inve

stm

en

t

Source: Frost & Sullivan.

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

IT METRICS

1. Compute2. Storage3. Network

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The DCMM is an invaluable self-evaluation tool for decision makers to plan their

long term strategies on whether to own or lease facilities. Unless captive data

centres are able to constantly improve their design and operations such that they

move up the maturity curve at a competitive cost, there is a likely to be a strong

case to outsource data centre hosting to reputed specialist external service

provider. External data centre providers focus on offering data centre services as

their core business. As a result of this specialisation and greater economies of scale,

external data centre providers will be able to offer facilities significantly further up

the maturity curve than most captive data centres.

Facility Best Practices

LEED Certification

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is an internationally

recognised green building certification system. LEED certification provides building

owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical

and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance

solutions. Therefore it provides third-party verification that a building or

community was designed and built using strategies intended to improve

performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions

reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources

and sensitivity to their impacts.

LEED certification reduces building maintenance costs and environmental impact. It

also creates an efficient environment to host IT infrastructure. Given the high initial

costs for obtaining LEED certification, captive data centres can still achieve the

same benefits by choosing a LEED certified 3rd party facility.

Data Centre Consolidation

There are estimated to be more than 75,000 captive data centres and server rooms

in Australia and 90% of these are small facilities with very basic power, cooling and

connectivity infrastructure . There are number of strong imperatives for these

captive data centre operators to consolidate their infrastructure in more efficient

and scalable facilities to support the needs of virtualisation and other market

trends. Some of the main trends that are driving the need for consolidation of data

centre operations into a smaller number of larger, more advanced facilities are:

• Preference to incur operating expenses (through outsourcing) rather than the

significant capital expenses incurred with captive data centres

• Higher requirements for data security, data recovery and redundancy often

driven by legislative requirements

• The growing trend towards virtualisation and benefits of economies of scale

4Defined as a data

centre occupying less

than 500 sq.ft. Source:

Frost & Sullivan

estimates

F R O S T & S U L L I V A N

Not all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud

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• Greater flexibility in space requirements as outsourcing enables organisations

to quickly increase or reduce their data centre space in response to business

requirements

To achieve the benefits offered by consolidation, customers need to consider larger

data centre facilities with advanced power (often as high as 25-30 kW per rack) and

cooling specifications. These facilities have the scale and degree of speciality

required to offer the highest levels of data centre performance in terms of factors

such as latency, security and uptime at the lowest operating costs. Data centre

consolidation can therefore deliver significant cost savings and enhance operational

efficiency to data centre owners.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT DATA CENTRE PROVIDER

Frost & Sullivan believes that there are twelve main factors to consider when

outsourcing data centre hosting to a third party provider. These factors are

summarised below and are not ranked in any specific order of importance. The

relative importance of each of the factors described below will vary for each

organisation based on its individual situation and priorities.

Figure 12 Twelve Factors to Consider when Selecting a Data Centre

F R O S T & S U L L I V A NNot all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud

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Next Generation Data Centres

To support the growing demand for the outsourcing of data centre hosting,

significant investments are being made in new data centre facilities with the highest

levels of performance (Tier 3 and Tier 4). An example of one of these next

generation data centres is Macquarie Telecom’s Intellicentre2 (IC2) facility currently

being constructed at North Ryde, Sydney, Australia. This facility is due to be

operational by March 2012. This data centre incorporates the latest best practices

in terms of design and operations, as summarised below:

Figure 13 Main Features of Macquarie Telecom’s IC2 Facility

The IC2 facility is an example of the latest generation of data centres being built to

cater for the demand for tier 3 and tier 4 hosted data centres. Such facilities

provide a compelling value proposition for organisations faced with the choice of

maintaining a captive data centre, with the costs and complexity involved, or

F R O S T & S U L L I V A N

Not all data centres are equal –

Understanding the global best practices of data centres that power the cloud

www.frost.com18

Metrics Macquarie Telecom’s Intellicentre2

Security and Industry Standards

• The Intellicentre2 has advanced physical and network security through 20 metre

offsets from boundaries, two secure loading docks, biometric scanning, locked racks

and secure suite. The facility also has ‘Intruder Resistant’ certification from ASIO.

• The facility adheres to ISO 27001 and AS7799 standards and is PCI DSS compliant.

Power Density • Though the average rack power requirement per rack in a data centre is 2-4 KW, the

advent of blade servers has increased the power requirements for certain racks to 10

to 30 kW. The Intellicentre2 aims to address this demand with the ability to provide

up to 30 kW per rack.

Energy Efficiency • The facility adheres to LEED Gold specification and has reduction of carbon

emissions as one of its main objectives. The data centre has an on-site power

generation facility (Tri-generation), which converts low cost natural gas to deliver

power and cooling to the data centre. The facility delivers cooling at little or no cost

by using an ‘absorption chiller’, which enables it to deliver primary cooling as a by-

product of power generation.

• Intellicentre2 aims to achieve better power efficiencies through a targeted PUE rating

of 1.3.

Reliability and Resiliency

• The Intellicentre2 facility is built to qualify as an Uptime Institute Tier 3 data centre. In

terms of redundancy, the facility uses multiple tri-generation engines onsite and

sources power from two separate substation zones. It uses a Multiple Diesel Rotary

UPS (DRUPS) to enable 72 hours of backup power.

Value Added Services

• The facility provides additional customer services such as an IT staging room,

teleconferencing and meeting rooms. Its IT services include managed security,

managed storage cloud, managed backup and access to Macquarie enterprise cloud

and remote onsite engineering.

Operational Experience

• Macquarie Telecom has more than 10 years of experience in providing co-location

and managed hosting services with a stable senior management team

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outsourcing data centre hosting to a specialist provider.

THE LAST WORD

Data centres are increasingly at the heart of today’s IT infrastructure, helping

organisations to achieve aggressive business growth by enabling the delivery of IT

as a service. In today’s highly connected world, where information is critical to

business operations, and the amount of data required is increasing exponentially,

organisations are increasingly becoming dependent on the robustness of their data

centre infrastructure. However unless organisations can improve their data centre

infrastructure to support the increasing range of IT systems, they run the risk of

losing competitiveness.

In response to the growing demand for computing and storage resources, many

enterprises are increasingly considering using a 3rd party facility to supplement or

replace their captive data centres. When deciding to outsource, organisations need

to carefully consider factors such as cost, control, security, availability and

scalability. Organisations should select providers who offer the best value

proposition for the specific requirements of the organisation, and yet who also

provide flexibility in the range of services offered, from co-location to managed

services to cloud computing.

Over the long term, data loads, compliance requirements and energy needs are only

going to increase. More customers are now choosing OPEX based business models

(i.e. outsourcing) due to the greater efficiencies of working capital and improved

asset usage ratios that this model offers. Apart from the ability to pay on a “usage

basis”, outsourcing can also potentially remove and release capital that would

otherwise be used for the initial investment in data centre assets. Frost & Sullivan

believes that this combination of financial and technology advantages will continue

to drive the shift towards the outsourced model for hosting data centres.

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ABOUT FROST & SULLIVAN

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve

best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service

provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to

drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan

leverages over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses

and the investment community from more than 35 offices on six continents. To join our Growth

Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com

ABOUT MACQUARIE TELECOM

Founded in 1992, Macquarie Telecom (ASX:MAQ) is Australia’s only integrated Managed Hosting, Cloud

and Telecommunications company focused solely on mid-size businesses, corporate IT and government.

Working with and supporting some of Australia’s best-known organisations, Macquarie Telecom is a full

service hosting provider offering managed dedicated servers, managed co-location, and managed private,

hybrid and public clouds. Our fully owned, Australian based data centres are the most secure and

accredited data centres in Australia with ISO27001, PCI Compliance, DSD Gateway and ASIO Intruder

Resistant accreditation. Macquarie Telecom’s offerings are underpinned by world-class customer care

which is delivered by our fully owned and managed customer service centre, MacquarieHUB. Combining

Business-Grade Full line (Voice, Data & Mobile) Telecommunications with Hosting services to offer truly

integrated end-to-end communications solutions, Macquarie Telecom is best placed to help transition

businesses to the new online NBN era, enabling greater agility and growth.

DISCLAIMER

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INDEPENDENCE

Although Frost & Sullivan was commissioned by Macquarie Telecom to write the whitepaper, the analysis contained in this report reflects the

views of Frost & Sullivan analysts without any bias or influence from any third party.

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