How to minimize server consolidation mistakes!

It's all too easy for even a knowledgeable and experienced IT veteran to make mistakes while managing a complex server-consolidation project. You have to think about everything, It can be a minefield.
Server virtualization projects are usually easy to justify on both financial and operational grounds, but that doesn't make them foolproof to execute. Pitfalls, such as inadequate planning, faulty assumptions or failure to quickly detect post deployment glitches, can entrap consolidation project leaders and team members at almost every stage. Every time or most of the time we felt that we covered every base, that every single thing had been looked at.... that's when the danger started.
Avoiding disaster while keeping a complicated consolidation project on schedule and within budget isn't easy. In fact a few mistakes along the way is inevitable. It will go wrong: Be prepared. On the other hand, planning and learning from others will keep you away from making the big and obvious mistakes.
Plan for success - While even the most thorough, painstaking planning can't completely eliminate project mistakes, building a detailed virtualization design and deployment strategy will help minimize the number of errors. Planning is really key for server consolidation.
Thorough planning creates a road map that helps managers gather the knowledge required to avoid most major problems. I think people aren't spending enough time thinking about the issues of the existing workloads and how you migrate those into a virtual environment, and what does that mean in terms of cost structure, ongoing expense and high availability.consolidation planning also needs to address an organization's future needs. Look at what you're going to do in a year, 3 years and 5 years from today. Servers, software and other system elements need to be planned with an eye toward anticipated growth. You don't want to get yourself in a situation where you do this whole big upgrade and then you find you need more server capacity later on.
I also agree that every consolidation plan needs to address scalability issue. From the standpoint of server virtualization, it's very important to have a system that scales and meets the performance need of the load you're putting on it. We often come to know about many organizations that either didn't allocate enough storage, or simply didn't correctly anticipate the amount of server power that was going to be needed to facilitate their server consolidation project.
It's extremely common to overestimate the physical-to-virtual consolidation ratio: Experts Advise (As per KBC)

DATA MIGRATION OUTLOOK

This is more or less related with DC migration, however it mainly concentrate on Data migration. It came with some more clear understanding about this activity of the lifetime. Following are the 1st requirement in this term. 1.    Clear Definition of requirement for all data
2.    Funding constraints
3.    Required expertise in heterogeneous storage  / Server H/W / Network environment / cooling / HVAC
4.    Detail security & availability requirements
5.    Define migration requirement -- which determines success criteria - includes, SLA, expectation for new storage infrastructure, and objective such as reduced management cost, reduced storage expenditure, greater insight info expenditure, a simplified vendor model or greater technical flexibility or stability The prospect of data migration can be overwhelming. Some of the common conditions we find among our clients are familiar to many IT leaders:

• Lack of clear definition of requirements for all data. Data rules should focus on security, availability and recoverability. It's easy to imagine that documents with temporary data and permanent data could be confusing, making it difficult to determine which data is important and which isn't.
• Distributed islands of data. Often, a business unit will implement a new application and request that the infrastructure for it remain close at hand.
• Funding constraints. Tight budgets may limit technology decisions and options.
• Lack of expertise in heterogeneous storage environments. With each vendor's support limited to its own products, incompatibility between storage technologies becomes the problem of the IT manager.

Data migration has much in common with storage consolidation. However, storage consolidation tends to be a better-organized project because it's usually backed by executive sponsorship with specific goals for cost reduction. Data migration, on the other hand, tends to be departmental in scope and limited to tactical objectives, which minimize project size and potential returns. We should focus on the similarities between storage consolidation and data migration, to ensure that the work that's done has strategic value.

1. Detail security and availability requirements. Sometimes called data classification, this requires the security and infrastructure teams to jointly identify the needs of the IT environment. Data classification describes conditions for data access, retention requirements and security measures such as encryption. Even a very limited set of classifications will have tremendous benefit.
2. Define migration requirements -- which determine success criteria. These may include new service-level agreements, expectations for the new storage infrastructure, and objectives such as reduced management costs, reduced storage expenditures, greater insight into expenditure, a more simple vendor model or greater technical flexibility or stability.
3. Survey the IT environment. IT departments often use tools and scripts to do this. But migration requires a complete understanding of infrastructure technology involved, including the networks and file servers. The location of data is just as important: Without providing sufficient bandwidth capacity to support heavy network access, relocating data to a centralized repository could have wrong effects. A internal survey could provide the following:
   • The location of the data, its capacity and growth requirements.
   • Data usage as a measurement of the I/O load.
   • Data criticality rating, which can reveal potential effect on network load and influence retention and availability requirements.
   • Data classification. IT managers can decide what data requires the most expensive storage and stringent protection and what could be restored easily from an archive (backup). They can then make well-informed, strategic decisions about future systems.
   • Management costs for the current environment. This often-overlooked step offers the best opportunity to define benefits of migration.
4. Design the appropriate consolidation or replacement platform, including technology, management and backup tools and procedures. Data classification and a good survey reduce the chance of an over engineered system and contribute to a platform design that will accommodate and boost growth, availability and performance.
5. As with any IT project, it's important to remember that communication is vital. The actual movement of data from Point A to Point B will affect the organization, and it's crucial to minimize downtime -- especially in situations where data could change even as databases are restored from tape.
   Ideally, standards for data should be defined and communicated in advance of the migration, and personnel are alerted to changes in the way they will access data. However, costs also need to be communicated so that business managers understand how noncompliance will affect the project.

Data Center Relocation Coordination

It is essential to have the IT equipment migration project team assembled and organized early in the design process. As construction drawings are completed and the construction begins, the team should be very hard at work with equipment planning and migration activities.

• Pre-design relocation project cost estimating.
• Identification and cataloging of all equipment within IT spaces.
• Production of project drawings, schedules, meeting documentation and other documentation for distribution to all teams.
• Team Participation in design and construction meetings. 
• Monitoring of the building construction schedule against planned events.
• Coordination of the installation of voice and data circuits from the carriers.
• Supervision of the physical relocation of all equipment.

That’s all from me. Take good care of your valuable data.

Data Center basics - Definition and Solutions

What is a data center?
Known as the server farm or the computer room, the data center is where the majority of an enterprise servers and storage are located, operated, maintained and managed. There are four primary components to a data center:
1. White space: This typically refers to the usable raised floor environment measured in square feet (anywhere from a few hundred to a hundred thousand square feet). For data centers that don't use a raised floor environment, the term "white space" may still be used to show usable square footage.
2. Support infrastructure: This refers to the additional space and equipment required to support data center operations — including power transformers, your UPS, generators, computer room air conditioners (CRACs), remote transmission units (RTUs), chillers, air distribution systems, etc. In a high-density, Tier 3 class data center (i.e. a concurrently maintainable facility), this support infrastructure can consume 4-6 times more space than the white space and must be accounted for in data center planning.
3. IT equipment: This includes the racks, cabling, servers, storage, management systems and network gear required to deliver computing services to the organization.
4. Operations: The operations staff assures that the systems (both IT and infrastructure) are properly operated, maintained, upgraded and repaired when necessary. In most companies, there is a division of responsibility between the Technical Operations group in IT and the staff responsible for the facilities support systems.
How are data centers managed?
Operating a data center at peak efficiency and reliability requires the combined efforts of facilities and IT.
IT systems: Servers, storage and network devices must be properly maintained and upgraded. This includes things like operating systems, security patches, applications and system resources (CPU, memory, and storage).
Facilities infrastructure: All the supporting systems in a data center face heavy loads and must be properly maintained to continue operating satisfactorily. These systems include cooling, humidification, air handling, power distribution, backup power generation and much more.
Monitoring: When a device, connection or application fails, it can takedown mission critical operations. Sometimes, one system's failure will lead to applications on other systems that rely on the data or services from the failed unit. A failure in one will compromise all the others. Additionally, modern applications typically have a high degree of device and connection interdependence. Ensuring maximum uptime requires 24/7 monitoring of the applications, systems and key connections involved in all of an enterprises various workflows.
Building Management System: For larger data centers, the building management system (BMS) will allow for constant and centralized monitoring of the facility, including temperature, humidity, power and cooling.
The management of IT and data center facilities are often outsourced to third party companies that specialize in the monitoring, maintenance and remediation of systems and facilities on a shared services basis.
What are some top concerns about data centers?
While the data center must provide the resources necessary for the end users and the enterprise's applications, the provisioning and operation of a data center is divided uncomfortably between IT, facilities and finance, each with its own unique perspective and responsibilities.
IT: It is the responsibility of the business's IT group to make decisions regarding what systems and applications are required to support the business' operations. IT will directly manage those aspects of the data center that relate directly to the IT systems while relying on facilities to provide for the data center's power, cooling, access and physical space.
Facilities: The facilities group is generally responsible for the physical space — for provisioning, operations and maintenance, along with other building assets owned by the company. The facilities group will generally have a good idea of overall data center efficiency and will have an understanding of and access to IT load information and total power consumption.
Finance: The finance group will be responsible for aligning near term vs. long term CAPEX to acquire or upgrade physical assets and OPEX to run them with overall corporate financial operations (balance sheet and cash flow).
Perhaps the biggest challenge confronting these three groups is that by its very nature a data center rarely will be operating at or even close to its optimally defined range. With a typical life cycle of 10 years or might longer, it is essential that the data center's design remains sufficiently flexible to support increasing power densities and various degrees of occupancy over a not insignificant period of time. This in-built flexibility should apply to power, cooling, space and network connectivity. When a facility is approaching its limits of power, cooling and space, the organization will be confronted by the need to optimize its existing facilities, expand them or establish new ones.
What are some data center measurements and benchmarks and where can I find them?
PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness): Created by members of the Green Grid, PUE is a metric used to determine a data center's energy efficiency. A data center's PUE is arrived at by dividing the amount of power entering it by the power used to run the computer infrastructure within it. Expressed as a ratio, with efficiency improving as the ratio approaches 1, data center PUE typically range from about 1.3 (good) to 3.0 (bad), with an average of 2.5 (not so good).
DCiE (Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency): Created by members of the Green Grid, DCiE is another metric used to determine the energy efficiency of a data center, and it is the reciprocal of PUE. It is expressed as a percentage and is calculated by dividing IT equipment power by total facility power. Efficiency improves as the DCiE approaches 100%. A data center's DCiE typically ranges from about 33% (bad) to 77% (good), with an average DCiE of 40% (not so good).
LEED Certified: Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system. It provides third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most:- energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emission reduction, the quality of the indoor environment, the stewardship of resources and the sensitivity to their impact on the general environment.
The Green Grid: A not-for-profit global consortium of companies, government agencies and educational institutions dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. The Green Grid does not endorse vendor-specific products or solutions, and instead seeks to provide industry-wide recommendations on best practices, metrics and technologies that will improve overall data center energy efficiencies.
Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA): TIA is the leading trade association representing the global information and communications technology (ICT) industries. It helps develop standards, gives ICT a voice in government, provides market intelligence, certification and promotes business opportunities and world-wide environmental regulatory compliance. With support from its 600 members, TIA enhances the business environment for companies involved in telecommunications, broadband, mobile wireless, information technology, networks, cable, satellite, unified communications, emergency communications and the greening of technology. TIA is accredited by ANSI.
TIA-942: Published in 2005, the Telecommunications Infrastructure Standards for Data Centers was the first standard to specifically address data center infrastructure and was intended to be used by data center designers early in the building development process. TIA-942 covers:
• Site space and layout
• Cabling infrastructure
• Tiered reliability
• Environmental considerations
Tiered Reliability — The TIA-942 standard for tiered reliability has been adopted by ANSI based on its usefulness in evaluating the general redundancy and availability of a data center design.
Tier 1 Basic — no redundant components (N): 99.671% availability
• Susceptible to disruptions from planned and unplanned activity
• Single path for power and cooling
• Must be shut down completely to perform preventive maintenance
• Annual downtime of 28.8 hours
Tier 2 — Redundant Components (limited N+1): 99.741% availability
• Less susceptible to disruptions from planned and unplanned activity
• Single path for power and cooling includes redundant components (N+1)
• Includes raised floor, UPS and generator
• Annual downtime of 22.0 hours
Tier 3 — Concurrently Maintainable (N+1): 99.982% availability
• Enables planned activity (such as scheduled preventative maintenance) without disrupting computer hardware operation (unplanned events can still cause disruption)
• Multiple power and cooling paths (one active path), redundant components (N+1)
• Annual downtime of 1.6 hours
Tier 4 — Fault Tolerant (2N+1): 99.995% availability
• Planned activity will not disrupt critical operations and can sustain at least one worst-case unplanned event with no critical load impact
• Multiple active power and cooling paths
• Annual downtime of 0.4 hours
Due to the doubling of infrastructure (and space) over Tier 3 facilities, a Tier 4 facility will cost significantly more to build and operate. Consequently, many organizations prefer to operate at the more economical Tier 3 level as it strikes a reasonable balance between CAPEX, OPEX and availability.
Uptime Institute: This is a for profit organization formed to achieve consistency in the data center industry. The Uptime Institute provides education, publications, consulting, research, and stages conferences for the enterprise data center industry. The Uptime Institute is one example of a company that has adopted the TIA-942 tier rating standard as a framework for formal data center certification. However, it is important to remember that a data center does not need to be certified by the Uptime Institute in order to be compliant with TIA-942.
What should I consider when moving my data center?
When a facility can no longer be optimized to provide sufficient power and cooling — or it can't be modified to meet evolving space and reliability requirements — then you're going to have to move. Successful data center relocation requires careful end-to-end planning.
Site selection: A site suitability analysis should be conducted prior to leasing or building a new data center. There are many factors to consider when choosing a site. For example, the data center should be located far from anyplace where a natural disaster — floods, earthquakes and hurricanes — could occur. As part of risk mitigation, locations near major highways and aircraft flight corridors should be avoided. The site should be on high ground, and it should be protected. It should have multiple, fully diverse fiber connections to network service providers. There should be redundant, ample power for long term needs. The list can go on and on.
Moving: Substantial planning is required at both the old and the new facility before the actual data center relocation can begin. Rack planning, application dependency mapping, service provisioning, asset verification, transition plans, test plans and vendor coordination are just some of the factors that go into data center transition planning.
If you are moving several hundred servers, the relocation may be spread over many days. If this is the case, you will need to define logical move bundles so that interdependent applications and services can be moved together so that you will be able to stay in operation up to the day on which the move is completed.
On move day, everything must go like clockwork to avoid down time. Real time visibility into move execution through a war room or a web-based dashboard will allow you to monitor the progress of the move and be alerted to potential delays that require immediate action or remediation.

Successful IT Governance

There was a time when I was working in a organization where there was no process in place for DC operation, every other manager was setting up there own processes to help and manage Data center operations. In this scenario bottom line was affected & most of the employee's were confused about their own & organization’s growth, which ultimately leads to mismanagement of vendors, suppliers, partners, & most important customers.
Aha, So I Was wondering about how to setup a Successful IT Governance in highly valued organization like mine was.
So, I came across following 5 aspects. After much devoted thought, I think these might help managers to create a Successful IT Governance in the organization.
a.   Alignment of IT objective with respect to business objective.
b.   Value delivery to drive maximum business value from IT investment.
c.   A handy risk management processes should be in  place to ensure that risks have been managed respect to business objective.
d.   Resource management - high level of ethical direction for outsourcing, insourcing and use of IT resource.
e.   Performance measurement, verify strategic compliance. Achievement of strategic IT objective.