* Sample criteria for sizing up and comparing data centers
I was recently asked to judge a data center award for excellence. I thought about this. Now, my experience as an analyst tells me that first impressions are often misleading. The best approach is to methodically look at the facts, develop some kind of methodology for comparison, and let the data do the talking. So how do you define and judge “excellence” in a data center? I developed a simple scorecard to help me evaluate the various candidates.
Of course, each analyst has an angle, and I wanted to look at the data center from the perspective of next-generation technologies and practices. Here are some of the things I looked at:
Agility – the only certainty in business is constant change. I expect a data center to provide a flexible infrastructure that allows the business to innovate and quickly enter new markets. A few things that make an agile data center:
* Horizontal resource pools instead of application-specific silos
* Automatic provisioning to respond to demand peaks
* Rapid provisioning of new applications
Efficiency – the operator-less data center is a fiction, but some data centers can be more efficient than others. A few things that simplify the operations:
* Integrated management as much as possible across applications and across resource types (storage, compute, network and security resources should be managed together, not as silos)
* Event monitoring and alerting for every data-center element
* Automated patch management and compliance auditing
Security – there are many aspects to securing your data center:
* Physical security (doors, locks, biometrics, guards)
* Perimeter security
* Systems and OS security
* Disaster recovery and continuity
* Availability and reliability
Facilities – your data center has to grow, adapt and constantly deliver new services to the business. To achieve this, the building is just as important as the software:
* Location (natural environment), location (network connectivity), location (human threats)
* Resilience in the face of natural threats (hurricanes, power outages, floods)
* Diversity of resources (multiple networks, multiple power and water supplies, multiple roads, etc.)
The list above is by no means a comprehensive one, but it provides a framework for evaluating your current data center or a data center you are about to build. Feel free to add criteria that are more appropriate to your business. Also, each of the criteria listed is not equally important – you should rank them based on your business goals and business culture.
One final thought – score your own data center according to a set of criteria today and then repeat the exercise often to track your progress over time. That’s the best way to judge success.
