A 3D modeler of your infrastructure, do you really want to see what your IT systems looks like

GigaOm has a press release on its Structure 2011 LaunchPad finalist.

GigaOM, a leading business media company, today announced the finalists of Structure 2011 LaunchPad, a high-profile competition that recognizes the most promising cloud computing and infrastructure startups. From publicly submitted entries, 11 early-stage companies were
chosen by a panel of expert judges and GigaOM editorial staff based on their product innovation and visionary business models.

One company on the list is Real-Status, a 3D enterprise infrastructure modeling tool.

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I'll get a chance to see more when I am at Structure, but one thing that I see as a problem is their product HyperGlance is at the mercy of what information exists in the enterprise IT systems.

HyperGlance is the world`s first real-time IT modelling and visualisation software in 3D.  It allows you to view your entire IT infrastructure on one pane of glass - bridging the gap between physical and virtual worlds. This enables you to make faster, and better informed decisions to reduce server degradation, improve capacity planning and utilisation, communicate more effectively to non-IT staff, ensure compliance and improve security.

HyperGlance creates a model of your complete infrastructure in 3D showing the relationships between physical and virtual worlds.  It automatically incorporates topology changes using a physics engine, and it can aggregate data from your existing IT management tools to visualise performance metrics and attributes relating to applications, networks, security, virtual machines and more.

If you haven't designed your systems to work with a 3D modeling system, do you think you are going to end up with pretty pictures like this?

Or will you end up with images that are hard to comprehend?

I've had some good friends at Apple and Adobe who worked on 3D systems and getting user interface design to work for 3D systems is really, really hard.

 

Interesting problem how to organize information in Facebook's Open Compute Project

I got a chance to meet some of the Facebook's Open Compute Project team last week, and the meeting went much better than I expected.  One of the great questions Facebook asked was how to organize the Open Compute Project's efforts.  One typical approach would be a taxonomy of the different parts of the system - power, cooling, servers, etc.

taxonomic scheme, is a particular classification ("the taxonomy of ..."), arranged in a hierarchical structure.

A hierarchical approach makes sense for a technical crowd

A hierarchy (Greek: hierarchia (ἱεραρχία), from hierarches, "leader of sacred rites") is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another.

A different way to look at the problem is to use an ontological approach and use knowledge management techniques.

DEFINITION

In the context of computer and information sciences, an ontology defines a set of representational primitives with which to model a domain of knowledge or discourse. The representational primitives are typically classes (or sets), attributes (or properties), and relationships (or relations among class members). The definitions of the representational primitives include information about their meaning and constraints on their logically consistent application. In the context of database systems, ontology can be viewed as a level of abstraction of data models, analogous to hierarchical and relational models, but intended for modeling knowledge about individuals, their attributes, and their relationships to other individuals.

Note the yellow text where ontological vs. hierarchical is compared. 

I think the ontological approach could work for Open Compute Project.  I'll spend more time over the next couple of weeks circulating the idea and getting feedback.

 

Bill Gates says better Software Modeling is key to solve complex problems

About two years ago, I started down the path of studying software modeling methods that work for data centers.  Over the last 6 months I've seen more growth in this area. 

With Bill Gates making the calling for software modeling for complex problems, there is a good chance there will be even more growth over the next 6 months.

CNET's Ina Fried reports on Bill's conversation on software modeling.

 

August 6, 2010 12:35 PM PDT

Bill Gates: Better software modeling is a key

by Ina Fried

LAKE TAHOE, Calif.--A key to many hard problems, from using nuclear power to combating diseases, is better software modeling, Bill Gates said on Friday.

While it's not surprising that he's a fan of using software to help solve hard problems, it is somewhat surprising that there aren't already good models for some diseases.

"There's no disease-modeling software," he said, speaking at the end of the three-day Techonomy conference here. "There is none. Why is flu seasonal? We don't know."

Why model? Bill says.

He conceded that the models never get things right exactly, but he said, "You are a hundred times smarter doing it that way than just going out there (without such models)."

"What you are doing is constantly tweaking them to match the finite data set you have," he said.

Bill has figured out the modeling concept as part of the nuclear power project he has funded Terrapower.

For example, Gates said that it takes a really long time to get a new nuclear power plant technology to market, longer even than the patent that might allow a successful invention to be profitable.

"You are not going to have a lot of people putting down money when the length of the project is longer than the length of the patent," Gates said, speaking at the Techonomy conference here.

It's not even certain that one could do it in their lifetime and he said a lot of people like to focus on projects that will happen in their lifetimes, "particularly if you aren't that religious," a category in which he said he falls.

Although some areas need help, Gates said creating new forms of energy will lead to new wealth. "A few somebodies will get very rich making those breakthroughs."

If we knew a particular solar or nuclear technology were a sure thing, he said, our power issues would be complete. But, he said, "boy are there a lot of problems that need to be solved."

There are some people thinking of data center modeling, but only a very few are looking at the complexity of the total system, including social and environmental in addition to the economics and technical issues.  With time and the growth of modeling in other areas, more people will discover what Bill is talking about.

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HP Butterfly Flexible Data Center, Part 2 - 20 year NPV 37% lower than traditional

I just posted about HP's Butterfly Flexible Data Center.  Now that HP has official announced the solution, there is more on the HP Press Room.

Economical, Efficient, Environmental is a theme for HP's video presentation.

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Here are numbers HP uses to demonstrate a 50% lower CAPex

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And lower OPex.

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And HP discusses yearly water usage. Yippee!!!

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Typically, data centers use 1.90 liters of water
per kWh of total electricity. A one-megawatt data
center with a PUE of 1.50 running at full load for
one year is expected to consume 13 million kWh
and will consume 6.5 million U.S. gallons of water
annually. FlexDC uses no water in some climates and
dramatically reduces the consumption of water in
others. Actual amounts can vary depending on system
selection and local weather patterns.

HP has a white paper that is a must read for anyone designing a data center.

Introduction
If we briefly go back to the late 1960s and the advent
of transistor, efficiencies and cycles of innovation in
the world of electronics have increased according to
Moore’s law. However, data center facilities, which
are an offshoot of this explosion in technology, have
not kept pace with this legacy. With the magnitude of
capital required and costs involved with the physical
day-to-day operations of data centers, this existing
paradigm could impede the growth of data center
expansions, unless a new group of innovative solutions
is introduced in the market place.


With sourcing capital becoming more difficult to
secure, linked with potential reductions in revenue
streams, an environment focused on cost reduction
has been generated. The pressure to reduce capital
expenditure (CAPEX) is one of the most critical issues
faced by data center developers today. This is helping
to finally drive innovation for data centers.


The key contributors which can reduce CAPEX
and operational expenditure (OPEX) are typically
modularity, scalability, flexibility, industrialization,
cloud computing, containerization of mechanical and
electrical solutions, climate control, expanding criteria
for IT space, and supply chain management. All these
factors come into play when planning a cost-effective
approach to data center deployment. Every company
that develops and operates data centers is attempting
to embrace these features. However, businesses
requiring new facilities usually do not explore all the
strategies available. Generally, this is either due to
lack of exposure to their availability or a perceived
risk associated with changes to their existing
paradigm. Emerging trends such as fabric computing
further exacerbate the silo approach to strategy and
design, where “what we know” is the best direction.

The Four Cooling system alternatives are:

This adaptation of an
industrial cooling approach includes the following
cooling technologies: air-to-air heat exchangers with
direct expansion (Dx) refrigeration systems; indirect
evaporation air-to-air heat exchangers with Dx assist;
and direct evaporation and heat transfer wheel with
Dx assist.

Reducing fan power.  Fan power is a hidden inefficiency in the data center whether in the mechanical systems or IT equipment.  HP discusses how it reduces fan power.

To obtain the maximum use of the environment, supply
air temperature set points need to be set at the highest
temperature possible and still remain within the
warranty requirement range of the IT equipment. The
next critical component is to control the temperature
difference between the supply and return air streams
to a minimum range of 25° F. This reduces the amount
of air needed to cool the data center, thus reducing
fan energy. The configuration of the data center in
general must follow certain criteria in order to receive
greater benefits available through the use of this
concept, as follows:
• Server racks are configured in a hot aisle
containment (HAC) configuration.
• There is no raised floor air distribution.
• The air handlers are distributed across a common
header on the exterior of the building for even air
distribution.
• Supply air diffusers are located in the exterior wall,
connected to the distribution duct. These diffusers
line up with the cold aisle rows.
• The room becomes a flooded cold aisle.
• The hot aisle is ducted to a plenum, normally
created through the use of a drop ceiling. The hot
air shall be returned via the drop ceiling plenum
back to the air handlers.
• Server racks are thoroughly sealed to reduce the
recirculation of waste heat back into the inlets of
nearby servers.
• Server layout is such that the rows of racks do not
exceed 18 feet in length.
The control for the air handlers shall maintain
maximum temperature difference between the supply
and return air distribution streams. The supply air
temperature is controlled to a determined set point
while the air amount is altered to maintain the desired
temperature difference by controlling the recirculation
rate in the servers.

Electrical distribution techniques are listed as well.

Traditional data centers have electrical distribution
systems based on double conversion UPS with battery
systems and standby generators. There are several
UPS technologies offered within FlexDC, which
expands the traditional options:
• Rotary UPS—94% to 95% energy efficient
• Flywheel UPS—95% energy efficient
• Delta Conversion UPS—97% energy efficient
• Double Conversion UPS—94.5% to 97% energy
efficient
• Offline UPS—Low-voltage version for the 800 kW
blocks, about 98% energy efficient
FlexDC not only specifies more efficient transformers
as mandated by energy standards, it also uses best
practices for energy efficiency. FlexDC receives power
at medium voltage and transforms it directly to a
server voltage of 415 V/240 V. This reduces losses
through the power distribution unit (PDU) transformer
and requires less electrical distribution equipment,
thus, saving energy as well as saving on construction
costs. An additional benefit is a higher degree of
availability because of fewer components between the
utility and the server.

And HP takes a modeling approach.

HP has developed a state-of-the-art energy evaluation
program, which includes certified software programs
and is staffed with trained engineers to perform a
comprehensive review of the preliminary system
selections made by the customer. This program
provides valuable insight to the potential performance
of the systems and is a valuable tool in final system
selection process. The following illustrations are typical
outputs for the example site located in Charlotte,
North Carolina. This location was chosen due its very
Figure 4: Shows state-of-the-art data center annual electricity consumption
reliable utility infrastructure and its ability to attract
mission critical type businesses. The illustrations
compare a state-of-the-art designed data center using
current approaches and HP FlexDC for the given
location.

Comparing two different scenarios.

Scenario A: Base case state-of-the-art
brick-and-mortar data center.
A state-of-the-art legacy data center’s shell is typically
built with concrete reinforced walls. All of the cooling
and electrical systems are located in the same shell.
Traditional legacy data center cooling systems entail
the use of large central chiller plants and vast piping
networks and pumps to deliver cooling air handlers
located in the IT spaces. Electrical distribution systems
typically are dual-ended static UPS system with good
reliability but low efficiencies due to part-loading
conditions. PUE for a traditional data center with tier
ratings of III and above are between 1.5–1.9.


Scenario B: HP FlexDC
The reliability of the system configuration is equivalent
to an Uptime Institute Tier III, distributed redundant.
The total critical power available to the facility is
3.2 MW. The building is metal, using materials
standard within the metal buildings industry. The
electrical distribution system is a distributed redundant
scheme based on a flywheel UPS system located in
prefabricated self-contained housings. The standby
generators are located on the exterior of the facility
in prefabricated self-contained housing with belly tank
fuel storage.
The mechanical cooling systems are prefabricated
self-contained air handlers with air-to-air heat
exchangers using Dx refrigerant cooling to assist
during periods of the year when local environment is
not capable of providing the total cooling for the data
center IT space.
The IT white space is a non-raised floor environment.
The IT equipment racks are arranged in a hot aisle
containment configuration. The hot return air is
directed into the drop ceiling above and returned to
the air handlers.
The following life-cycle cost analysis matrix quantifies
the CAPEX and OPEX costs and the resultant PV
dollars for the base case and the alternative scenario.

Which feeds this summary.

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And a NPV cost savings of 37%.

Besides HP sharing Flexible Data Center design approach, they have published a set of documents that anyone building their own data center can use.

Kfir thanks for taking a step to share more information in industry and show them a better path to green a data center, being economically, efficietly, and environmentally.

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Near miss science accounts for Human Factors, when will Data Centers do the same?

WSJ reports on the science of studying near misses and human factors that contribute to system failures.

Near Misses Are a Hit in Disaster Science

  • By CARL BIALIK

Columnist's name

While there never has been an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico quite as large as the current disaster, there have been other terrible mishaps and, as in every industry, near misses.

These close calls are what Scott Shappell, professor of industrial engineering at Clemson University, looks for when he works with airlines on quantifying their risk from human errors.

"All you hear about are crashes, but it's the near misses that are telling," Prof. Shappell says. "If you only knew how many near misses there are in aviation, you would never fly again."

Near misses can be studied by statisticians to estimate the probability of an event that hasn't occurred before. Estimating the probability of unlikely disasters has become standard practice for nuclear and space regulators. Such an exercise, experts say, could help companies involved in deep-sea drilling evaluate risks and possibly prevent catastrophes like the Gulf oil spill.

Human Factors science is a common practice in Nuclear Power Plants, Aviation and complex programs like the Space Shuttle.

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The following can just as be easy be stated about the data center industry.

There also is some danger in producing risk assessments that are too precise. "Most laypeople want a single number," says Todd Paulos, chief technology officer for Alejo Engineering Inc. in Huntington Beach, Calif., but "we can't predict anything to that accuracy."

The wild card in all these estimates is human error. Nuclear-power companies for years have sought to calculate and reduce risk by evaluating how people respond to simulations of potentially dangerous situations.

One of these days we'll see a data center consulting company offer Human Factors analysis.  Here is the company that has a bunch of Human Factors people who specialize in the.

Wiegmann, Shappell and Associates (WSA) are an Internationally recognized team of experts in system safety and human performance. As the authors of the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) and the Human Factors Intervention matrix (HFIX), WSA provides a variety of services to help incorporate these tools in to your organization to improve safety, quality and efficiency.

We're confident you'll find that Wiegmann, Shappell and Associates is not your typical safety consulting company. Renowned scientists with real world experience in the field, WSA bridges the gap between theory and practice to effectively integrate human performance and system safety principles and tools into your organization.

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