INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE POWERED BY THE DCA
The increasing deployment of IoT devices will also drive a degree
of migration to the ‘Edge’ but this is by no means the only driver.
(and expect) instant results or low latency
connection to services no matter where
they are located. The ‘Edge’ in this sense is
computing facilitated by smaller satellite
data centres often themselves supported
by one or more larger core data centres
which might aggregate data and perform
the deep analytics that businesses now
expect and increasingly require.
The increasing deployment of IoT devices
will also drive a degree of migration to
the ‘Edge’ but this is by no means the
only driver. The Edge as a concept will
continue to grow, shaped by the demand
for proximal processing and data storage
including data sovereignty and regulatory
compliance as well as latency, etc.
some have predicted. Core data centres
will still be required for core functions
including the storage and processing
of large volumes of data accumulated
from Edge sites. This is being offered
in different ways by hyperscale, large
enterprise, colocation and managed
service providers. Where a data centre is designed and
built with a high degree of site resilience
and correctly maintained it should be
recognised that the risk to uptime is very
low and a permanent team of engineers
based on site is not necessary.
What are the challenges? The typical Edge data centre will be
unstaffed and follow a dark site operating
model typically with a smaller footprint
than traditional core data centres.
Whatever the definition or type of Edge
being deployed, there is one aspect
that is somewhat being overlooked. We
increasingly rely upon, and expect, high
reliability of data centre site operations
and high (24×365), availability of the
services hosted within those sites. This
high level of service is often delivered by
sites with multiple levels of equipment
redundancy, a very comprehensive
preventative maintenance plan and
dedicated data centre engineers based on
site in shifts 24×7.
The high (possibly unreasonable)
expectations around uptime and
availability cannot automatically apply to
smaller, remote dark sites which are the
standard Edge model. How do we achieve
this expected level of reliability without
staff on site running traditional planned
preventative management operations?
Mark Acton – Critical Support Director,
Future-tech SCi Ltd and a member of the
DCA Advisory Board
For many businesses there is an increasing
expectation and need to have processing
power and data held locally to wherever
their customers happen to be. This is
potentially a major consideration in
delivering increased service quality and
ultimately increasing both customer
satisfaction and providing new or
significantly enhanced products. In this
sense we could reference the terms
‘competitive Edge’ or ‘gaining an Edge’.
This does not mean the death of the
traditional core data centre though, as
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Issue 10
engineering teams and maintenance
services. In the UK the typical support
model is to employ a team of onsite
engineers that work shift patterns at a
large cost to the business.
Since Edge sites are typically remote
and unmanned there needs to be a new
industry approach to providing support
for these in order to deliver the levels of
reliability and availability that customers
now expect.
This can be achieved if all applications and
data hosted within a site have multi-site
resilience such as site failover or genuine
synchronous replication, however this is
not the case in all Edge sites. This therefore
raises a challenge. How do we maintain the
continued availability of Edge sites when
they are remote and unmanned?
One of the biggest overheads for data
centre operators is its ‘on premise’
A better way to operate
In this scenario, without full time
engineers on site, new operating models
and predictive maintenance techniques
need to be applied to ensure operational
reliability in addition to the standard
preventative maintenance plans.
Edge sites should be seen as typically ‘dim’
or ‘dark sites’ where engineering support
is performed remotely under contract by
a third-party operator. This also has the
great advantage of significantly reducing
OPEX costs.
Companies like Future-tech, who are
already operating remote services
for data centres on behalf of multiple
customers, are therefore particularly
well suited to those wishing to move to
a ‘dark site’ operating model in order to
reduce the extremely high costs of onsite
personnel, yet maintain site reliability
and availability.
We need to make more use of predictive
maintenance, effective remote
monitoring tools, intelligent management
systems using Machine Learning and
analytics, as well as engineers and
engineering teams with multiple skillsets
including IT related skills.
Routine site visits do need to be
performed, yes, but with greater purpose
and range of planned activities, upgrades
or installations, depth of knowledge and
insight rather than mere adherence to a
rigid PPM Schedule.
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