Compu Dynamics would like to extend an invitation to the local business and government community to visit our Sterling office and see Beam for yourself.  Appointment may be made by calling 703-796-6070 or sending an email to sales@compu-dynamics.com.

Find out more about Suitable Technologies and the Beam Remote Telepresence Device at www.suitabletech.com.

TechESP focuses on helping organizations exceed their business objectives by leveraging technology as a strategic asset and tailoring IT requirements to meet the unique needs of the business and its users. The company delivers a variety of solutions including virtual CIO, IT support, business continuity and disaster recovery, staff augmentation and application and infrastructure management. TechESP is also a certified source of computer products, including servers, storage, wireless, networking, and PCs. With such a diverse offering, TechESP is ideally suited to assist with virtualization and consolidation projects, data center migrations, as well as Citrix implementations.

“TechESP was founded on the principle that every client requires a custom set of services that fit their distinct corporate culture,” says Reynolds. “With the support of a respected company like Compu Dynamics, TechESP can deliver individualized technology solutions that help organizations exceed their business objectives according to the way they work.”

“Our clients want a single point of responsibility to provide planning, design and implementation of data center build-outs, consolidations and relocations,” says Compu Dynamics’ President Steve Altizer. “With the addition of TechESP, Compu Dynamics can deliver seamless end-to-end service and support.”

Learn more about TechESP at www.techesp.com, or contact Stephen Reynolds at sreynolds@techesp.com.

Thursday, May 17, 2012
3:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Compu Dynamics, LLC
22446 Davis Drive, Suite 187
Sterling, VA 20164

We hope to see you there!

Attendees were treated to two very interesting presentations.  The first, given by Tim Lafollette of ATPCO, outlined the process that he and his ATPCO colleagues followed as they worked through the challenges of migrating their data center.  Following this presentation, a panel discussion was conducted with a number of representatives from local colocation providers, including Equinix, Peak 10, Power Loft and Du Pont Fabros.

The new Chapter Treasurer, Steve Altizer (President of Compu Dynamics), and the other newly appointed Board Members, had a chance to introduce themselves to the audience.  Stay tuned for more AFCOM events over the next three quarters.

Unlike with an HVAC system, for example, which makes noise or stops cooling, your electrical system won’t give you much if any warning of a looming breakdown. Without a ‘squeaky wheel’ that’s demanding some grease, preventive maintenance is easy to delay or even overlook.

While you can’t usually hear an electrical problem developing, all that electricity coursing through your system is nonetheless creating wear and tear. The 60Hz ‘buzz’ of U.S. electrical systems eventually loosens what were once tight electrical connections. Left unattended, that looseness can lead to major failures, outages, and serious safety and fire risks.

How do you ‘see’ into your otherwise out-of-sight electrical system to spot weaknesses? The best approach is branch circuit monitoring, which gives you long-term usage information. (We’ll cover that topic in a future post.)

At a bare minimum, though, you should do an annual infrared (IR) scan. IR scanning alone won’t tell you the whole story, but it will show you hot spots (usually poor/loose connections) that you can tighten up.

An IR scan is essentially a snapshot that gives you a ‘picture’ — in the form of a reading — from a single moment in time. When you perform the IR scan you’ll need to measure amperage on any hot circuits.

For best results, go ahead and tighten up all electrical connections in the piece of equipment you had scanned (a panel, for example). The IR scan will only spot loose connections that are under load. You might have connections that are loose but not under load — and thus not ‘hot’ enough for the IR scan to catch — hence the wisdom of tightening them all.

Whenever you’re having work done on electrical equipment, plan to conduct preventive maintenance on it concurrently if at all possible. And of course, make sure the electrician is following all of the equipment manufacturer’s recommendations, particularly for torque when tightening a loose connection.

IT managers used to respond to this problem by over-sizing equipment to allow for lots of growth potential. This led to inefficiencies and sometimes wasted investment.

The best solution? Integrate modularity and scalability into your system design.

In the past, only big data centers were able to implement modular or scalable solutions.

Thanks to new technologies, however, this powerful approach is available for small to medium-sized data centers as well.

Modularity and scalability go hand-in-hand. With scalable/modular power and cooling systems, end users determine what they need today, consider what they might need in the future, and create a platform that will deliver both levels of capacity efficiently.

For example, when selecting a UPS, IT managers should consider a range of capacities. If 15 kW of UPS power is required today, one might consider acquiring a 20 kW UPS system. If the same IT manager foresees that 15 kW load increasing to 25 kW or more within the next five years, however, a modular/scalable UPS can be installed enabling the same data center to expand easily up to 30 kW or 40 kW.

By building modularity and scalability into your data center, adding capacity at a later date can be extremely simple. With a number of the newer UPS products, you might only need to purchase an additional power module. These devices can be installed without an electrician and while the UPS is operating.

Modularity and scalability in equipment design enables uninterrupted growth without requiring excessive day one investment. A qualified specialist can assist you in assessing the best degree of modularity and scalability for your data center’s components.

1. Will you use your colo move as an opportunity to refresh technology, network architecture, server architecture? This could increase the cost of your relocation project, but you might be able to eliminate redundant hardware and underutilized systems.

2. Does your entire team fully understand all the complexities that will be involved? Colo implementation calls on many disciplines, and they must all be carefully coordinated. To ensure that you grasp all interdependencies — at the application level as well as at all seven layers of the OSI model — document every detail. This will enable you to conduct a realistic pre-flight of the migration process and provide your team with a reference for implementation troubleshooting.

3. Are you and your colocation company on the same page? Understanding who will provide each component is vital. For example, will your colo company provide racks/cabinets, cable trays, data cabling, power strips, monitoring services, and other elements — or will you? Get it all in writing.

4. Are you and your colo company working off a clear plan, including a detailed timeline for the move? Have you scoped out all dependencies? Does your timeline allow for schedule slippage? Do you have a ‘plan B’ in the event Murphy’s Law strikes? We encourage the use of checklists so your team and the colocation provider can coordinate closely on every detail.

5. Is your upper management fully read-in on the project? Do they understand the reasons for your colo move, and do you have full management support? Are they up on your latest timeline, contingency plans, and — perhaps most important of all — your colo budget? Silence is not a sign of agreement or understanding. Management feedback and affirmation is essential at every step of the process, from early decision making through implementation and evaluation.

Depending on how you approach important planning activities and decision points, a colo site move can be a minefield of expensive challenges or a well-orchestrated transition to new and improved IT functionality. We invite you to consult with Compu Dynamics at any stage of your colo project. It’s never too early to contact us. If fact, the ideal time is when you are just beginning to examine your options.

Containment originally entailed simply separating hot and cold aisles — in other words, arranging servers so that their cool air intakes faced one aisle while their exhaust vents faced a separate aisle. As rack densities increased, however, standard HVAC distribution systems for cooling air became inadequate. High-density racks require high air flow to enable sufficient server cooling — and containment is often used to control and focus that air flow.

Proper containment enables more equitable air flow sharing among server racks and improves the distribution of air within the cold aisle. Containment isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy, though. It comes in many flavors, most of which are variations on hot or cold aisle containment. Rack containment is another.

Some very simple containment enhancements — for example, using computer room air conditioner (CRAC) plenums, end-of-row doors, aisle curtains, and other solutions — are usually very cost effective. Energy performance improvements can lead to fast payback.

Looking at row-containment, there are two typical approaches. The effectiveness of one approach or another depends on other design attributes. For example, a data center that has a raised floor with under floor cooling may be an ideal environment to utilize cold aisle containment versus a room without a raised floor. A data center that uses in-row cooling may realize some performance improvements when hot aisle containment is  implemented.

Determining which approach is best for your data center requires careful evaluation and a holistic understanding of your system and your needs.

Compu Dynamics’ comprehensive approach to consolidation planning brought all key functional players to the table from day one. This multi-disciplinary team process enabled Compu Dynamics to holistically envision all phases of the work, which not only provided a clear and complete implementation plan, but also showed the client how and where its goals would be achieved.

The client had four existing data centers scattered around various floors of its high-rise office building. Consolidation would move forward within this fully-occupied, secure work environment, bringing the client’s data centers together in one second-floor space. Constant coordination with multiple stakeholders was required to keep systems online and to maintain security protocols.

The process began with an inventory of existing assets, which is an important first step in any migration or consolidation. This enabled Compu Dynamics to determine whether certain assets had been duplicated and whether they could be repurposed or removed.

Compu Dynamics designed power, cooling, and network infrastructure systems to support the client’s current and future IT requirements. The scope of work included building a new space, modifying the fire suppression and fire alarm systems, providing new and upgraded cooling systems, providing a new larger UPS system, organizing the data center assets, and deploying a completely new high-bandwidth internal network.

The result was a 60-percent reduction in the client’s data center footprint. Compu Dynamics’ consolidation plan provided the client with the energy savings, reduced maintenance costs, and related resource optimization it sought. The consolidation process was not only well managed but was completed without significant disruption to the agency’s staff and work.

The new data center, DC-5, will absorb nearly 30,000 SF of space and will serve as a state-of-the-art platform for Latisys to deliver its best in class services.  The new data center expands Latisys’ footprint to over 80,000 SF in northern Virginia.

Latisys has been a Compu Dynamics customer since their initial occupancy at this location.  Compu Dynamics provides 24/7 emergency services and preventive maintenance to Latisys, as well as implementation of other system upgrades on an as-needed basis.