| The good news is that China has a competent labor | | | | companies struggle to build new data centers or |
| pool from which to draw the necessary skills to build | | | | extend existing ones." |
| and support data center operation. The bad news is | | | | Although virtualization is reducing the number of new |
| that China's data center managers face the same | | | | servers being purchased, the compact design of |
| problems as their counterparts in developed countries | | | | blade servers means that cooling and ventilation will |
| like the US and Europe. | | | | become significant factors in data center design and |
| While salaries, which comprise a significant portion of | | | | operation. |
| IT budgets, remain low relative to those in the US, | | | | "Companies need to look at advances in dynamic |
| Europe, Japan or Australia, other costs are not too | | | | smart cooling technologies to cooling-over-provisioning |
| far off. | | | | and higher operational cost issues," adds Yi. |
| "Mature industries like banking are heavily dependent | | | | Mei recommends sticking to standards when selecting |
| on technology to thrive. In these markets, data | | | | the core components of a data center. "It is a |
| centers are built based on similar standards as those | | | | mistake to assume that buying cheaper cables and |
| in more market markets like the US and Europe," said | | | | connectors will save you money. On the contrary, |
| Jerry Yi, Senior Solutions Consultant, China | | | | such a practice often leads to higher costs as |
| Hewlett-Packard. | | | | companies eventually realize that they sacrifice |
| One significant advantage that China has over | | | | reliability and scalability to save a few dollars. There |
| markets like Singapore and Hong Kong is the limited | | | | are hard dollars lost when a data center goes down |
| amount of legacy infrastructure in place. Chinese | | | | because of faulty cabling," argues Mei. |
| businesses that are expanding to meet domestic and | | | | Another challenge facing IT managers is the issue of |
| international business opportunities can take | | | | budgets. China's economy is booming and businesses |
| advantage of new technology and not be held down | | | | are expanding. But IT budgets are not keeping up |
| by legacy applications and business processes. | | | | with the growth beyond the technology. To add |
| China's economic boom is significantly impacting the | | | | pressure to the kettle, focus has remained on the |
| way data centers are designed, built and operated. | | | | cost of acquisition rather than the total cost of |
| BUt many of these centers are still located in major | | | | ownership. Unfortunately, initial purchase price is |
| business cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In | | | | clearly visible to finance and senior management. |
| these locations, real estate costs are rapidly rising and | | | | Two other costs often ignored in the planning stages |
| data center managers need to carefully plan for | | | | are operational costs and implementation costs. The |
| space if they are to ensure effective use of prime | | | | former includes system management, power and |
| resources. | | | | cooling, and the impact of system failure. These |
| Richard Y. Mei, Technical Manager, Systems | | | | costs are difficult to quantify in detail. The latter |
| Engineering at Commscope, notes that China's data | | | | carries a variability clause meaning additional costs will |
| center designers and managers can leverage best | | | | be incurred subject to delays that are cannot be |
| practices learned in structured cabling, cooling/heating | | | | accurately predicted. |
| ventilation and lighting to enhance operational | | | | Troy Syn, Managing principal APJ TSG Presales |
| efficiency. | | | | SWAT, Technology Solutions Group at HP notes that |
| "The inhibitor towards successful data center design | | | | given today’s constrained IT budgets, there is a |
| is not price but growth. Companies need to carefully | | | | reluctance to invest capital on IT. "This has lead to a |
| plan for growth. Otherwise they will discover that the | | | | "Band Aid" approach to IT investment. However this |
| data center facility they built today will not able to | | | | approach has also lead to a (slowly) increasing run |
| meet business demands in a year's time," he said. | | | | rate of IT costs. Given that IT is now a critical |
| Raju Chellam, Asia-Pacific Vice President for AMI | | | | component of a company's operations, perhaps the |
| Partners, an international research firm, agrees. "The | | | | biggest misconception that needs to be changed is |
| biggest and most common mistake among data | | | | that investments in IT need to be made for long |
| center designers in Asia is poor planning. Lack of | | | | term transformations," adds Syn. |
| proper foresight and failure to pay attention to the | | | | Indeed, good planning, attention to detail and |
| potential of business growth is resulting in some data | | | | foresight are attributes that come with some of the |
| centers reaching capacity within a matter of 18 | | | | best built data centers in the world. Listening to the |
| months. This is a waste of company resource and will | | | | experience of others will pay dividends very quickly. |
| definitely result in lost business opportunities as | | | | |