Data centres due for overhaul

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Data centres due for overhaul

WITHIN the next 18 months numerous companies face the unpleasant and costly task of overhauling their data centres, as the technology is no longer keeping pace with business demands.
 
The cost of building a new data centre varies according to its size and capacity, Ansett says, but recent research in the US cited a ballpark figure of $25000 a square metre.
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Then stop using those Titanium floor tiles.

We just want to put our data on a hard-drive, not the bloody moon...
 
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Think again... the cost of high end enterprise Cisco network equipment, or Dell blade servers, ... and the hard drives? Probably SAS or SCSI drives in Raid 5 / 6. This all becomes very costly.
 
KillerX said:
Think again... the cost of high end enterprise Cisco network equipment, or Dell blade servers, ... and the hard drives? Probably SAS or SCSI drives in Raid 5 / 6. This all becomes very costly.
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Not in Africa, we just buy the equipment with stolen credit cards and then resell for cheap. Duhr
 
apogeeza said:
That adds to my argument: why is it so expensive when it's just plastic carpet and glue???
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When I say tile I'm actually reffering to those sqaures that make up the false floor. They are made out of metal or aluminium and the inside contains concrete and are frigging heavy. The surface is a highly durable plastic finish of some sort integrated into the tile and not stuck on.

Don't ever drop one of those tiles to close the floor with a finger in the way, been there done that :eek:
 
The cost of the actual server equipment is not the heavy cost of building a Data Centre...

Its the backup equipment and the infrastructure..... You have to have failover power.. decent networking backhaul etc etc etc...
 
Kind gentlemen, please forgive my lack of knowledge, but what exactly is a data center?
 
ponder said:
When I say tile I'm actually reffering to those sqaures that make up the false floor. They are made out of metal or aluminium and the inside contains concrete and are frigging heavy. The surface is a highly durable plastic finish of some sort integrated into the tile and not stuck on.

Don't ever drop one of those tiles to close the floor with a finger in the way, been there done that :eek:
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Ditto.

The floor between the servers that I had to walk over was plastic tiles with carpet covering. The parts of the floor where the servers were resting on: quarter or half meter high concrete blocks raised from the floor with simple metal tubing (from any builder's warehouse) as the underlying framework. Why does it need to be any more complicated or more expensive than that?
 
@ToxicBunny, sure agreed, but to the rip-off tune of USD25,000 per square meter ??? come on ... surely backhaul and generators and stuff is not THAT expensive?

@Shaun108 it's a place where you store a couple of servers (mostly minus a keyboard, monitor and mouse) in a rack and lock it up in a single rack-tower-thingy that stands taller than an average dude. Then throw a couple of hundred (or thousand) of those tower-thingys together in an air-conditioned room(s) and connect the whole lot of them to the internet. That's a data centre because it serves massive amounts of data (theoretically ... but we have Telkom).
 
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apogeeza said:
@ToxicBunny, sure agreed, but to the rip-off tune of USD25,000 per square meter ??? come on ... surely backhaul and generators and stuff is not THAT expensive?
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The cost of building a new data centre varies according to its size and capacity, Ansett says, but recent research in the US cited a ballpark figure of $25000 a square metre.
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Those prices are for the US market.
 
I know it's USD: that's what makes it so incredibly unbelievable. Even a rate of ZAR25,000/m2 is understandable (still steep, but not terribly so for this type of tech, today.)

Live rates at 2009.06.24 16:08:54 UTC
25,000.00 USD = 200,992.94 ZAR
1 USD = 8.03972 ZAR
1 ZAR = 0.124382 USD

Imagine one meter by one meter, now stand in it, now pay R201,000 for that cramped space ... you can't even extend your arm.
 
Instead of each organisation revamping their own, it seems to make a lot of sense that "economies of scale" establish a number of strategically placed well equipped data centers capable of providing an 'outsourced' service at reduced cost to numerous organisations around the country / continent.
 
apogeeza said:
Ditto.

The floor between the servers that I had to walk over was plastic tiles with carpet covering. The parts of the floor where the servers were resting on: quarter or half meter high concrete blocks raised from the floor with simple metal tubing (from any builder's warehouse) as the underlying framework. Why does it need to be any more complicated or more expensive than that?
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It's called doing a proper job to spec/standards.

I would not have such a setup and I would also not host with a company that did if I was a big player.
 
Have had dealings with this over the last few weeks, see link for the industry standard. Take very careful note of the requirements for a Tier 4 data centre. For the power alone, factor in feeds from at least 2 different metro's on different Eskom power grids in the SA context as well as multiple UPS plants (the size of your house, not your briefcase!).

http://www.adc.com/Library/Literature/102264AE.pdf
 
ponder said:
It's called doing a proper job to spec/standards.

I would not have such a setup and I would also not host with a company that did if I was a big player.
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Next time I'm there I'll take a closer look and ask on the specifics. It just looked plastic.
 
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