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Is it worth retrofitting data centres?


Johannesburg, 20 May 2019
George Senzere, Solutions Engineering Manager, Schneider Electric.
George Senzere, Solutions Engineering Manager, Schneider Electric.

Two words keep IT administrators awake more than most: technical debt. This is the demand on a company to maintain ageing IT infrastructure even as the world moves forward. Before you know it, you have to hire rare developer and administrator skills to keep a technology that should have left with the ark.

Such debt is more pervasive than ever. New technology norms such as cloud and virtualisation have raised the bar on what can be accomplished, but demand newer types of data centre architecture. At the same time, data centre hardware has become consolidated and efficient, giving the incentive to upgrade.

But, many businesses have found that adapting to these changes can be expensive and there is no guarantee for success. So most avoid the inevitable, kicking that can down the road until they have no choice but to change. Yet, if they took a more strategic view to their data centre upgrades, organisations might realise there is a way that delivers results while still keeping modernisation projects manageable and within budget.

"Replacing everything is not always the best strategy," says George Senzere, Solutions Engineering Manager at Schneider Electric. "People know this, which is why there is a reluctance to replace anything at all. But that creates an impression that updating a data centre is an all-or-nothing deal. That can be true if you wait too long. But there is much that can be done to bring an ageing data centre into a more modern state."

Infrastructure: a modernisation strategy

The focus of such modernisation usually falls on servers and the technologies they host. That often overlooks the critical role that infrastructure can play. Efficiencies realised at the cooling and power levels of a data centre create significant advantages that don't undermine the existing systems.

Such infrastructure retrofitting has multiple advantages. It safeguards current data centre investments, introduces savings around power and cooling, and readies the data centre for any new additions to the technology stack. This, in particular, is an area that many modernisation projects overlook: modern data centres have higher rack densities, meaning individual racks are consuming more power and cooling than before.

These new overheads are often not visible due to the overall gains made through data centre consolidations, which opened a lot of room, as much as 60% of traditional data centre floor space. But the counter-effect has been individual racks that are more demanding. By addressing the supporting infrastructure first, companies can plan ahead more effectively.

"Ultimately, you will replace everything in a data centre," Senzere explains. "That's just progress, things get old and outdated. But I often see that companies get stuck on the servers and what they run, then add in everything else. Suddenly costs rise sharply for the modernisation project and they are overwhelmed. But those that start with the cooling and power underneath find it's a more manageable transition, because the fundamentals are in place and they get a clear picture of how their data centre will evolve going forward."

No need for a big bang

In other words, even if a data centre is in dire need of an upgrade, the smart money starts with the infrastructure. This is the foundation of the stack and its status gives guidance on what can be done next. Savings from the cooling and power upgrades can be fed into the modernisation budget. In addition, the analytical tools and services that are part and parcel of new infrastructure feed into reporting and insight that create a better planning culture.

Leave everything and eventually a big bang approach, supported by a thick cheque book, is the only option. This is not guaranteed to work; most IT modernisation projects fail due to their costs and complexity. But start with the fundamentals, the infrastructure, and you create a virtuous cycle where every part of the data centre stack gets the attention it deserves without raising the ire of the company's bookkeepers.

"What's typically at the heart of a modernisation project? It's a business application, database or some critical workload. These need time and care to migrate or upgrade. If you tackle those without modern infrastructure in place, you are diluting your resources and focus, not to mention drastically pushing up costs. But, if you focus on the infrastructure first, you can extend the life of the application servers, realise savings quickly and have a steady journey with fewer surprises. We call this strategic upgrading and it works very well to align IT and business priorities concerning the data centre."

Is it worth retrofitting older data centres with new infrastructure? Almost certainly. At some point, all data centres need an upgrade. Before that day becomes day zero, it makes sense to start with the foundation: the power and cooling that keep the data centre going. These can help extend life spans, curb costs, realise savings and galvanise a culture of smart reporting, analytics and strategy.

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