Data Center Checklist for Infrastructure Best Practices
POSTED BY HADLEY JONES
Jun 25, 2015 4:52:00 PM
inShare93
Expectations of data centers are focused on the five 'pillars' of availability, cost-effectiveness, flexibility, manageability, and security. In turn, these pillars let us make a data center checklist of best practices for the DC infrastructure.
Availability
Data centers have to stay up and running. Outages can be expensive in both financial and reputational terms. Data centers need to be organized to prevent such problems or at least to detect them at the earliest possible moment, including:
Resilient data center design with fire barriers and robust building architectureMultiple connections to power providers,preferably entering the data center at different pointsUninterruptible power supply with battery backup andgenerators in case of power cutsRedundant servers and storage with failover provisions at hardware and software levelsMultiple high-speed network linksentering and exiting at different pointsSufficient air conditioning for all of the equipment being operated in the data centerSmoke, fire, humidity and flood detection, including underneath data center raised floors
Cost-Effectiveness
Data center andcolocation service providers need to be profitable. Customers expect cost-savings. Data center operations, therefore, need to be high-quality, yet also be efficient and avoid unnecessarily high levels of expenditure. What's expected?
Tiered data storageaccording to needs for every day, occasional, or archival useVirtualization to maximize physical server productivity via virtual machines (VMs)Automation of systems administration routinesPower and cooling analysis to prevent excessively hot or cold spots from formingErgonomic shipping and installation facilities, including weather-proof receiving docksProximity to access routes and fuel storage, while avoiding hazards like airports and oil refineries
Flexibility
Even if data center buildings seldom scale physically, their internal organization must facilitate scaling in power and storage capacity with new systems, as well as handling peak user demands. This includes:
Ability of the data center to accommodate new technology with different power and cooling needsEase of switching to new operational procedures or ways to meet new safety requirementsModularity in floor layout, electrical and mechanical design to adapt to market requirementsManagement of requests for very popular information via overflow servers
Manageability
'Lights-out' operations may be possible, but at the very least, data center teams and customers must be kept appraised of performance and possible problems via:
Service level agreements withcustomers, including service response time and escalation pathsOverall and specific (per customer for multi-customer DCs) monitoring of service levelsSpeedy registration and resolution of support requests,trouble tickets, and alarmsCoordinated computing equipment refresh process with roadmap for customersStandards compliance and certification now and into the future (e.g. PCI, TIA-942, SAS 70)
Security
Both in terms of staff and site safety, and customer data confidentiality, security looms large in the data center checklist for infrastructure best practices including:
Full compliance with safety regulations including fire exitsPhysical securitywith protection of power and networking links, and cable vaultsVideo surveillanceand motion detectors, badges, 'mantrap' entrances, data center guardsData encryption, SSL certificates, firewalls and also virtual firewalls (for VMs)Locked cages with ceilings for customer systems, locked cabinets as an optionIntrusion detection and prevention systems, behavioral analysis, and alerts to staffProtected and tested data backupand disaster recovery proceduresReliable and complete data destruction procedures (old hard drives, contract terminations)
This data center checklist is naturally a general one. Do youhave an additional best practice for your own data center? Tell us about it in the Comments section below.
Fanky Christian
Director
PT DAYA CIPTA MANDIRI SOLUSI
mobile: 62-8121057533
www.dayaciptamandiri.com