Datacentre woes spur launch of new provider

By CIO New Zealand staff | Friday, October 03 2008

Paddy Hanna, technology practice manager of Cumulus Technology, says some businesses are failing to factor IT accommodation into IT systems growth and adoption strategies, inviting a potential situation similar to the “leaky homes crisis”.

A new ICT infrastructure consultancy is aiming to help businesses close the gap between advances in technology hardware and systems, and their increasingly rundown accommodations.

Paddy Hanna, technology practice manager of Cumulus Technology, says some businesses are failing to factor IT accommodation into IT systems growth and adoption strategies, inviting a potential situation similar to the “leaky homes crisis”.

In a press statement, Hanna says most datacentres are poorly equipped to handle blade computing, with the large volumes of heated air needing to be dispersed from rooms originally built for standard servers. As well, he says on top of new technologies, the drive for sustainability has introduced complexities to electrical systems — for example, dense power — and room architecture.

“Hardware has improved, but its operating environment has been neglected,” he says.

“IT managers today require extremely broad skills that go well beyond IT. Generally, people have got IT covered. But the data centre is a confluence of so many elements and, realistically, it is almost impossible for IT managers to possess all the skills required to plan for growth that doesn’t expose the business to big risks.”

He says current demand is coming from customers under pressure to do more with less and balance sustainability with availability. “It’s all very well coming down on IT and asking for sustainable practices, but you don’t want to mandate these practices if they influence operational performance. "

Hanna says a good place for customers to start is an audit. “Data centres are some of the most expensive real estate they own and the risks of getting it wrong are huge.”