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Measure twice, cut once

Squash data centre planning uncertainties with reference designs, says George Senzere, Solutions Engineering Manager at Schneider Electric.


Johannesburg, 22 Nov 2017

The craft of carpentry may be one of humanity's oldest endeavours, but it still embodies a fundamental truth about every technical project: cut corners now and it will come back to haunt you later.

This is a truth that grows with the complexity of the project, since complex environments cannot be easily reshaped and rebuilt. Not only that, but they often serve as the bedrock for future enhancements and services. These can find themselves dangerously precarious if the underlying systems were not sufficiently and competently designed.

A data centre is the perfect example of such an arrangement. Thus it is critical that a data centre be designed properly from the start. Yet there is a catch - several, in fact. Tight budgets, staff shortages, high availability demands, and the uncertain and dynamic nature of IT loads all create significant barriers in building a reliable, optimal data centre.

"Designing a data centre is a high-pressure project with a lot of moving parts, so many designers think they have to start entirely from scratch with their thinking," said George Senzere, Solutions Engineering Manager at Schneider Electric. "Nobody wants a generic data centre. This is maybe why so many designers avoid reference designs. But these are actually the secret weapons for great and lasting data centre."

The power of reference

Reference designs are based on best practice, honed through the experiences of many projects. According to the Schneider and APC whitepaper, Data Center Projects: Advantages of Using a Reference Design, reference designs offer guidance and simplify the design stage, reduce the time needed to create buildable designs, and decrease risk through improved reliability and predictable performance.

Yet misunderstandings around the concept persist. Each datacentre is unique, meeting different demands depending on what tenants need. As such it is not ideal to have cookie-cutter data centers, because they will very likely compound problems around availability and unique workloads. Ultimately this will result in the type of inflexible data centre foundation that designers fear.

But reference designs are not blueprints. They are not highly regimented approaches to data centre designs. This is often the misconception, whereas in reality reference designs can be applied to various parts of a project. You can use reference designs purely to focus on electrical infrastructure or to address a specific pod within the data centre. Reference designs are not gospel, but rather just very good advice and insight.

One reference, many choices

Consider reference designs for homes. A standard home plan can simply use a reference design, whereas semi-customised homes rely on reference designs with custom finishing elements. But even a fully custom-built home still uses reference designs to guide its fundamentals. It still has predictable domains - bathrooms, kitchens and such - which in tandem with reference design give a solid and predictable approach for the final structure.

"Reference designs do not do the job of designers," said Senzere. "They are there to save time by enabling what-if scenarios to be carried out quickly in the early stages of data centre project planning, reduce risk and give the project a clear choice of standardised options from which to build."

Using reference designs for data centres, no matter how big or small, is an unparalleled way of managing budget, time and skill constraints while still meeting the requirements of the project. But it is a nuanced approach that requires a bit of upfront understanding. To help with this, the whitepaper Data Center Projects: Advantages of Using a Reference Design details areas such as the documentation and schematics found in reference designs.

Stop wasting your time trying to reinvent the wheel. Diligence is key, but incorporating best practice will spare you and your colleagues a lot of pain and uncertainty. Download a free copy of the whitepaper and discover how reference designs are your best friends when building your next data centre.

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