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General Information
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February 26, 2010
• Vol.32 Issue 5
Page(s) 43 in print issue
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Cost-Saving Strategies For Data Center Projects
Consider Your Options When Planning For Improvements
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| Key Points
• A recent Forsythe survey revealed that data center labor and materials costs are at 2007 prices, which is appealing to enterprises considering data center upgrades.
• If possible, purchase energy-efficient servers with the money the enterprise saves on a build. This action will result in lower electricity costs, as well.
• Don’t expect to bargain for a new electrical contractor. When doing a build or an upgrade, it’s smart to stick with the contractor you’ve worked with in the past because he’ll already know much about your setup. | Thinking about expanding your present data center or building a new one? Contrary to what you might think, now is the time small and midsized enterprises should consider forging ahead with these plans rather than putting them on hold.
That’s the advice from Steven Harris, director of data center engineering at technology consultancy Forsythe Technology. Enterprises looking to make data center changes can take advantage of a drop in equipment, labor, and construction costs, he says.
Current economic conditions are driving the cost of labor and materials (for example, generators, cooling units, and the like) down to their lowest levels in years, according to Harris. Recent findings by Forsythe indicate that overall, labor and materials costs are down to 2007 levels. That makes now a great time to consider a major data center project or upgrade, Harris says.
There is one important caveat: Expect costs for data center design and network infrastructure maintenance to remain stable, says Jeff Powers, marketing manager at Emerson Network Power (www.emerson.com), provider of data center power and design services.
Despite the state of the current economy, Harris explains that Forsythe has several projects in the works, with some clients building new data centers from the ground up and others retrofitting or expanding existing data centers.
“We’re seeing pricing on labor and materials that makes it attractive from a capital spend position to want to do some of these projects,” Harris says. “If you can get done today what a year or two ago would cost you 20% more, why would you not take advantage of it?”
 Ramp Up Energy Efficiency
With prices of materials falling to levels of past years, generator, UPS, and air conditioner manufacturers are realizing there is more competition for business. Thus, data center managers may want to take a closer look at energy-efficient models they have deemed too expensive in the past, Harris says. This may be a good time to pay the one-time extra capital costs for a more energy-efficient product so your enterprise can experience longer-term power savings, he adds.
Lowered equipment costs also make it easier to take advantage of more energy-efficient servers to cut the monthly power bill, says Zachary Smith, president of IT infrastructure provider Voxel (www.voxel.net).
Because today’s servers use less energy but include more processing power than servers produced even three years ago, enterprises can realize savings by upgrading, says Smith.
“If you’re running eight servers, you can now take that down to two or three new ones,” says Smith. “Even servers made in 2006 and 2007 were really power-hungry. A few years ago, everyone started caring about energy use, but it took the server and chip makers awhile to gear their products toward that.”
Whether an enterprise expands, retrofits a current facility, or builds new, Smith suggests that enterprises consider investing in virtualized servers to further drive down equipment and power costs.
He explains that throwing out old servers, buying more power-efficient ones, and running virtualization on them is cheaper than adding another rack of servers. Smith also suggests using a managed service provider for backup and storage services to save physical space.
Keep Your Electrical Contractor
Notari Associates (www.notariassociates.com) architect Peter Notari, who designs data centers, doubts whether data center managers looking to expand or retrofit their facilities will have luck negotiating contracts with the electrical contractors charged with maintaining and designing their facilities.
Although it may be tempting to take advantage of competitive pricing, Notari strongly cautions against bidding out electrical contractors for existing sites.
“You don’t want some guy going in without the intimate knowledge of your data center. If your systems go offline and the contractor can’t get back right away because he’s not familiar with them, you’ll lose more money than you saved in a bidding war.”
IT managers are likely already dependent on an electrical contractor who has the intellectual knowledge about your data center, Notari says.
“If you’re building new, you can bid it out, but you’ll likely want to use the same contractor for an expansion,” he says. “You’ll want to use a contractor that knows all the skeletons in your closet, so to speak.”
Notari says electrical contractors have been somewhat isolated from the economic climate and may not be subject to competitive bidding. A good contractor, he adds, can show an enterprise how to cut costs on a new build or an expansion.
Whether expanding, retrofitting, or building new, data center managers might just find a way to make the economic slowdown work in their favor. 
by Jean Thilmany
Go Vertical
If it’s time to build a new data center, Dave Cappuccio, Gartner chief of research for the infrastructures group, suggests building a smaller facility than you would have built in the past—and scale it vertically. “People used to build big and fill it up slowly, but now they’re building it small and making it very dense,” he says.
The method reduces construction costs; however, the actual building itself may only last eight to 10 years instead of 20. “You used to build data centers to last 20 years and put all the mechanical equipment in to support that building. Then you’d have big open space you’d slowly fill up with IT equipment,” Cappuccio explains. “But in the end, you’d have 15-year-old IT equipment running on top of 20-year-old mechanical equipment.”
In the past, data center engineers designed for longevity, but they didn’t quite grasp how quickly IT equipment would change. And they could in no way forecast the shrinking footprint brought about by blade servers and offsite hosting.
The tendency now is to build smaller data centers. Then, within a few years, you can build out another module right next door with newer mechanicals and keep trading up to a space with new mechanicals while you retrofit that old space.
“Then, if you have room, build a third one next to that,” Cappuccio says. “With each module retrofitted on a 10-year cycle, the whole thing will have a life span of 60 to 80 years.” |
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