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June 23, 2006
• Vol.28 Issue 25
Page(s) 31 in print issue
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End-To-End Data Center Life Cycle Management
Collective Technologies Eases The Pain Of Inadequacy
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Pretty much all types of companies and organizations eventually feel the pain of inadequate data center facilities. According to Ed Taylor, chief executive officer at Collective Technologies (www.colltech.com), one of the biggest challenges facing today’s organizations is building data centers that are equipped to meet their near-term IT infrastructure requirements while having the flexibility to grow with evolving business needs.
 Industry Challenges
Taylor says changing business needs, new application developments, and IT infrastructure advances all happen too quickly for yesterday’s data center to accommodate. “In fact, the entire life cycle of the data center, the technology within it, and the business it supports must be brought into synchronization. Overbuilding is cost prohibitive, and building only to meet immediate needs doesn’t account for future growth.”
DCLM (Data Center Life Cycle Management), on the other hand, offers a strategic, tiered approach to create “adaptive data centers” that can quickly change to meet the evolving demands of business and technology. Collective Technologies, a Texas-based enterprise-class IT service and solution provider, offers a DCLM solution that gives customers a single point of contact with the expertise to coordinate all facets of expansion, relocation, or consolidation projects.
 Taylor breaks up the data center management industry into three types of companies: IT infrastructure, design and build, and relocation vendors. He says, “We feel this specialization is inadequate for the challenges associated with supporting and managing today’s complex data center environments. Corporations, universities, and government organizations are looking for vendors that can provide an end-to-end solution to their data center management needs. No organization wants or needs the additional stress of acting as its own contractor to coordinate multiple sets of resources to undertake a complex data center move.”
Taylor notes that recent business trends such as globalization, governance issues, and heightened security concerns along with technology trends such as increasing power requirements due to high density servers, clustering, and virtualization are placing enormous demands on corporate IT infrastructures. At the same time, IT budget expenditures continue to rise. He says, “All of this is causing a growing demand for new data centers. IT and facilities personnel must work in tandem with the business stakeholders they support to ensure the complex tasks of data center planning, design, relocation, and construction have the flexibility to reflect companies’ ongoing and future needs while remaining cost-effective.”
Industry Answers
Taylor says enterprises are interested in Collective Technologies’ approach to DCLM because the company’s approach takes a holistic view of data center change events and ecosystems of various vendors (real estate, OEM, planning, construction, etc.) to coordinate the management of complex IT projects and enable organizations to expand, operate, and evolve their data centers in an adaptable, cost-effective manner.
He says the benefits of Collective Technologies’ DCLM solution are also attractive to IT managers. “Collective has provided more than 5 million consulting hours of complex IT infrastructure services over the past 12 years. The DCLM solution takes advantage of this extensive IT infrastructure expertise to create a set of proven, process-oriented services that help IT managers create adaptive data centers that meet today’s needs but can easily expand as business requirements change.” Taylor says this helps IT managers optimize their infrastructures and facilities in a cost-effective way.
To ensure the best approach for each customer's requirements, Collective Technologies’ DCLM solution is divided into four service modules. Taylor says the first service module, Data Center Analysis and Planning, provides a detailed analysis of an organization’s current and future data center needs, including an accurate inventory of the computing and network infrastructure, application mapping, and a roadmap of projected future computing needs. This information is then compared to the current physical infrastructure and the client’s budget, goals, and objectives to determine the recommended course of action, whether it be retrofitting of current facilities, building new ones, or relocating to a third-party facility.
The next service module, Design, Build, and Commission, executes the design and construction recommendations from the Data Center Analysis and Planning service in a modular approach. Taylor says, “This enables companies to commit only the capital necessary for the short term and grow their facilities as their IT infrastructure needs expand. Also, intense testing and certification ensure that data centers are operating optimally from the outset.”
Relocation, the third service module, plans and executes data center relocations, consolidations, and migrations. Taylor elaborates, “Data center moves are infrequent and specialized events. Collective has more than a decade of experience managing these moves, from the relatively simple to the incredibly complex. The company’s trained and experienced project management teams coordinate all facets of data center moves and offer a single point of contact for the customer.” The final service module, Periodic Data Center Evaluation, updates quarterly to the high level data center strategy. Taylor says this also serves as an early warning for future changes to the data center that will be required.
A Unique Solution
According to Taylor, not much is happening elsewhere in the DCLM space. He says, “Collective has few competitors offering end-to-end data center life cycle management. Some large vendors such as IBM Global Services claim some of the same capabilities, but their main concern is selling IBM hardware. Collective is a vendor-neutral provider that recommends the optimal hardware, software, and configurations to suit each customer’s unique needs.” Taylor says Collective Technologies is the only company that offers IT infrastructure, design and build, and relocation services in one single solution. “By doing so, DCLM facilitates the marriage between IT, facilities, and the business, providing a single vendor responsible for all project and change management.”
Based on its recent success on a project with Columbia University, Collective Technologies has started looking at colleges and universities as key targets for its DCLM solution. Taylor says, “So far, we’ve seen very strong interest in this community, which has unique data storage and privacy needs that necessitate frequent data center upgrades. We feel that demand for our DCLM solution will be strong for years to come.” 
by Chris A. MacKinnon
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