mdecesare – BRUNS-PAK Data Center Solutions

Republic Bank Limited Statement of Requirements, Design, Engineering, Construction Management

Republic Bank Limited

Port of Spain, Trinidad

Statement of Requirements, Design, Engineering, Construction Management

IBM/BRUNS-PAK were selected by Republic Bank Ltd. to develop a statement of requirements, architectural design and engineering, construction management consulting and commissioning services for a new data center and support infrastructure building to be developed on a Greenfield site outside Port of Spain, Trinidad. Upon completion the facility has become the new primary data center for the Bank.

The project scope included the infrastructure development of the undeveloped site; providing communications and utility services. The single story structure, which is approximately 26,000 square feet in area, is raised roughly five feet above the surrounding grade to enhance security and provide protection from flooding. The new facility provides the Bank with over 10,000 square feet of raised access floor space; including approximately 5,000 square feet of “white space”, 2,500 square feet of future expansion “white space”, a Command Center, a War Room, a Staging area and other raise floor support functions. The structure, designed to withstand category ‘3’ hurricane winds, is a concrete frame with an insulated exterior metal wall panel system over concrete block exterior walls and covered by a ‘double roof’ system. The receiving area / loading dock supports both the IT technical functions and the mechanical / electrical infrastructure areas.

The mission critical facility incorporates a ‘2N’ segregated independent redundant electrical systems to provide concurrent maintainability in an “A/B” configuration, with the potential of a future “A/B/C” configuration. The mechanical system provides ‘N+1’ redundant configuration and utilizes a ‘hot aisle’ containment system in the Data Center. A ‘double interlock’ pre-action sprinkler system provides protection of the entire facility while a full flooding gaseous suppression system provides primary protection for the Data Centre and other critical areas. An Aspirating Smoke Detection (ASD) system provides for early detection in critical areas.

The World Is Changing. Is Your Data Center Strategy Keeping Up?

Big Data. Hybrid Cloud. Edge Computing. Just a few years ago these concepts were being explored in the ivory-tower conversations of academics and bleeding-edge startups. Today, each technology has become a foundational building block for IT strategies designed to address the accelerated pace and scale of global business. Cloud computing has redefined the standards for cost-effectiveness, scalability and speed to market. Managed effectively, it can help IT departments ensure the enterprise achieves strategic value from the use of technology, regardless of where that technology resides and who owns it.However, integrating cloud technology with an existing on-premise and hosted services architecture requires different strategies and management practices to address unique governance, risk, compliance, security and reliability challenges.

About BRUNS-PAK

Data Center Services

Cloud integration strategy and planning is just one part of a portfolio of services we offer to help customers plan and implement data center facilities that are energy efficient, flexible, resilient, scalable and recoverable.

What are the main reasons for adopting DCIM in your Data Center?

RECENT ENTERPRISE DATA CENTER SURVEY RESULTS

In a recent survey by BRUNS-PAK, more than one hundred (100) Enterprise Data Center CIO’s, Directors & Managers answered ten (10) industry dominating questions. Following are the results of that survey.

Q. What are the main reasons for adopting DCIM in your data center?
(multiple selections permitted)

112 Surveyed, and percent of responses listed below:

ASSET MANAGEMENT – 53%

POWER MANAGEMENT – 47%

CAPACITY MANAGEMENT – 46%

COOLING MANAGEMENT – 37%

REAL TIME ALARM MONITORING – 31%

LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT – 31%

CHANGE MANAGEMENT – 25%

CABLE MANAGEMENT – 21%

WORKFLOW PROCESSES – 19%

DO NOT HAVE A DCIM TOOL – 18%

2D / 3D FLOOR LAYOUT – 17%

CFD MODELING – 6%

WHATS DCIM? – 4%

How concerned is your enterprise and Data Center regarding cyber attacks & the impact on your brand?

Q. How concerned is your enterprise regarding cyber attacks & the impact on your brand?

MORE THAN 75% OF RESPONDANTS SAY THEIR ENTERPRISE IS VERY CONCERNED – See breakdown below:

Level of Concern – 108 Data Center subjects

1-3 people said very low or less concern

1-4 people had low concern

1- 10 people had Medium concern or less

22 people had high concern

76 people had Very High concern

Regarding your data center investments strategy, which structure is more favorable, CAPEX or OPEX?

Q. Regarding your data center investments strategy, which structure is more favorable, CAPEX or OPEX?

34% Said OPEX

33% Said CAPEX

33% Said Ask the CFO

Data Center Survey Results…On which assets do you have life cycle replacement / maintenance program with MOP’s?

Q. On which assets do you have life cycle replacement/ maintenance program with MOP’s? (multiple selections permitted)

N-112 – Percentages of those individuals surveyed said….

FACILITY INFRASTRUCTURE – 73%

DISASTER RECOVERY – 46%

ENERGY EFFICIENCY – 45%

CYBERSECURITY – 42%

NETWORK / CONNECTIVITY – 41%

MODULARITY / SCALABILITY / RELIABILITY – 40%

CLOUD INTERNAL / EXTERNAL – 37%

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE – 25%

SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS – 24%

PERSONNEL – 23%

COMPUTER HARDWARE – 19%

COLOCATION – 17%

MIGRATION/RELOCATION – 17%

INDUSTRY BEST PRACTICES – 14%

CAPEX VS. LEASE / OPEX – 14%

COMPUTER SOFTWARE / APPS – 13%

LEGAL REPERCUSSIONS – 0

MODULAR DATA CENTER – 0

Understanding Data Center Enterprise Transformation

Mark Evanko, co-founder of BRUNS-PAK, will moderate a panel on data center enterprise transformation at Data Center World Local, Washington D.C.

by Danny Bradbury, Data Center Knowledge, April 10th 2018

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/data-center-world/understanding-data-center-enterprise-transformation

Here is the text from the article below, great read!

When you want to know what trends should be on your radar as a data center professional, Mark Evanko is a good source of knowledge. With nearly four decades of experience in the data center space, the co-founder and principal engineer at data center consulting firm BRUNS-PAK understands where today’s trends came from – and where they’re going.

He has his ear close to the ground, getting feedback directly from BRUNS-PAK’s target market. He hears what issues are top of mind for board executives and senior management when planning their data center developments and uses this to help maintain a multi-point strategic planning model.

In the past, that model has featured 18 elements that impact enterprise data center solutions. They have included cloud computing, colocation and disaster recovery.

Evanko will be moderating a panel about trends in the data center space at Data Center World Local, Washington D.C. on May 15. Attendees at this Data Center Enterprise Transformation presentation will learn the “elements” and fundamental concepts associated with the continued transformation. The panel will also explain what board of directors, senior management, stock holders, trustees, and taxpayers are looking for in their data center solution and provide a vendor-neutral overview of total cost of ownership vs. risk.

Security and the Cloud

One of the most significant factors associated with data center transformation is cybersecurity, especially as it pertains to cloud computing, Evanko warns.

“If data is ever taken, stolen or corrupted at a third-party venue, there is no recovery for the enterprise. They can’t sue the third-party provider because they absolve themselves of any liability,” he says. He adds that large third-party cloud and colocation service providers will generally not take liability for security breaches in client contracts because it would be prohibitively expensive for them.

“Some of these large enterprises are weighing that risk,” he explains. This manifests itself in decisions about which applications to take off-site and which to retain on a company’s premises. He has a process called ‘candidacy’, in which BRUNS-PAK reviews products and services against several tiers of mission-criticality. The cloud has a role in less critical applications, he says.

Evanko warns that there is still much educating to be done as companies struggle to keep track of a rapidly-changing data center landscape. “Many of the customers that we have come across have not necessarily understood what the impacts are,” he says.

Therein lies his fundamental message. When it comes to managing transformational data center trends like edge and cloud computing while keeping your information safe, data center professionals must understand how to balance risk, total cost of ownership, and functionality.

That can be a difficult path to walk, which is why understanding the impacts of these new technologies is so critical.

Data Center Survey Results, What is your organization’s plan to leverage Edge Computing?

RECENT ENTERPRISE DATA CENTER SURVEY RESULTS

Q. What is your organization’s plan to leverage edge computing?

(number of surveyed individuals – 110)

CLOUD – 39%

WHAT’S EDGE COMPUTING? – 23%

MICRO DATA CENTERS (I.E. IDF/MDF ROOMS) – 20%

MODULAR DATA CENTERS – 7%

COLOCATION – 11%

FIND OUT WHERE ENTERPRISE’S APPLICATIONS ARE CURRENTLY BEING HOSTED

ENTERPRISE DATA CENTER SURVEY RESULTS

Q. What is the current ratio of applications hosted within the following?

ENTERPRISE – 65%

COLOCATION – 15%

CLOUD – 20%

Data Center Hybrid Solutions

If you were lucky enough to see Mark Evanko’s recent presentation at AFCOM Data Center World in Washington DC, you are likely fully aware that Cloud vs. Onsite discussions are put to rest with the idea of a Hybrid Solution as the only way to move ahead.

For Enterprises to success in their Data Center Space they must consider a multitude of elements which leads them to their own custom Hybrid Solution. We would like to link over to a version of Mark’s presentation from earlier this year. Please don’t hesitate to complete our RFI form to connect to BRUNS-PAKs team immediately!

Fire Detection and Suppression Technology

Sometimes the unimaginable happens. A fire can threaten to destroy a data center. To protect the valuable equipment and information housed in the facility, it is critical to install a fire suppression system adequate to the size, type and operational responsibilities of the complex. By definition, a fire suppression system is a combination of fire detection and extinguishing devices designed to circumvent catastrophic business loss as a result of a fire. This loss includes not only the cost of equipment replacement, but also the cost of recovering lost data or business-specific applications.

Detection Systems: The First Line of Defense

A critical component of any suppression system is smoke detectors. Depending on the application, they can be of the photoelectric or ionization type. Detectors perform several vital functions:

Warn facility occupants of possible fire.
Shut down all electrical service to the equipment so as not to “fuel the fire.”
Activate the suppression medium.

If it is properly designed, the detection system can also be used to limit business loss due to power-off interfaces by detecting a system failure rather than an actual smoke condition.

A highly effective detection system is one we call an “intelligent” system. It uses a software-based early warning system to provide an accurate means of detection and verification at the ceiling plane and underfloor plenum.

Water and Clean Agent Gas: Common Suppression Media

Suppression medium is activated if a true emergency is detected. The two most commonly used media to put out a fire are water and clean agent gas such as FM200, Inergen, and NAFS-III.

Determining which type of suppression medium to use depends in large part on the requirements of local code enforcement authorities, building and/or landlord stipulations, and input from insurance underwriters. It also depends on user preference, which is influenced by such factors as cost, business risk relative to data recovery, existing systems, and so forth.

Water sprinkler systems

Water sprinkler systems are found in most buildings regardless of the presence of a data center. As a general rule, where sprinkler systems exist, it is less expensive to convert to a pre-action sprinkler system than to install a clean agent system. Pre-action sprinklers are the water-based choice for data centers and refer to systems that control the flow of water to pipes in the ceiling plane. Smoke and heat activate a valve that advances the water to the ceiling plane. That way, inadvertent damage to equipment from leakage or accidental discharge is prevented. (By comparison, with an ordinary sprinkler system, water is contained in pipes in the ceiling plane at all times.)

Water is highly effective at putting out fires and is well suited for areas like printer rooms that contain combustible materials like paper and toner. The downside of water-based systems is the messy and lengthy clean up and recovery time after a water discharge.

Clean agents

There are primarily three clean agents presently vying for acceptance in the marketplace, FM200, NAF S-III, and Inergen. These agents were developed in response to the phase-out of Halon and the development of NFPA 2001, which was adopted in the Fall of 1994.

Consideration of these agents as alternatives to CO2 in under floor applications is viable. The costs of these systems has dropped in recent years due to more competition in the market place with competing vendors offering these various gas options.

FM-200 (Heptafluoropropane – HFC-227EA) is a colorless, liquefied compressed gas. It is stored as a liquid and dispensed into the hazard as a colorless, electrically non-conductive vapor. It leaves no residue. It has acceptable toxicity for use in occupied spaces when used as specified in the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program rules. FM-200 extinguishes a fire by a combination of chemical and physical mechanisms.
FM-200 is an effective fire-extinguishing agent that can be used on many types of fires. It is effective for use on Class A Surface-Burning Fires, Class B Flammable Liquid, and Class C Electrical Fires.

On a weight of agent basis, FM-200 is a very effective gaseous extinguishing agent. The minimum design concentration for total flood applications in accordance with NFPA 2001 shall be 7.0%.
NAF S-III is a clean, non-conductive media used for the protection of a variety of potential fire hazards, including electrical and electronic equipment. NAF S-III is a clean gaseous agent at atmospheric pressure and does not leave a residue. It is colorless and non-corrosive.
NAF S-III acts as a fire-extinguishing agent by breaking the free radical chain reaction that occurs in the flame during combustion and pyrolysis. Like Halon 1301, NAF S-III has a better efficiency with flaming liquids than with deep-seated Class A fires.

NAF S-III fire extinguishing systems have the capability to rapidly suppress surface-burning fires within enclosures. The extinguishing agent is a specially developed chemical that is a gas at atmospheric pressure and is effective in an enclosed risk area. NAF S-III extinguishes most normal fires at the design concentration by volume of 8.60% at 20° C.

NAF S-III is stored in high-pressure containers and super-pressurized by dry nitrogen to provide additional energy to ensure rapid discharge. At the normal operating pressure of 360 psi (24.8 bar) or 600 psi (42 bar), NAF is in liquid form in the container.

Once the system is activated, the container valves are opened and the nitrogen propels the liquid under pressure through the pipe work to the nozzles, where it vaporizes. The high rate of the discharge through the nozzles ensures a homogeneous mixture with the air. Sufficient quantities of NAF S-III should be discharged to meet the concentration required and the pressure at each nozzle must be located to achieve uniform mixing.
Inergen is composed of naturally occurring gases already found in Earth’s atmosphere (nitrogen, argon, and CO2). Inergen suppresses fire by displacing the oxygen in the environment. Inergen, however, is not toxic to the occupants because of the way it interacts with the human body. The level of CO2 in Inergen stimulates the rate of respiration and increases the body’s use of oxygen. This compensates for the lower oxygen levels that are present when Inergen is discharged.
Inergen is stored as a dry, compressed gas and is released through piping systems similar to those utilized in other gaseous suppression systems.
FE-25 fire suppression agent is environmentally acceptable replacement for Halon 1301. FE-25 is an odorless, colorless, liquefied compressed gas. It is stored as a liquid and dispensed into the hazard as a colorless, electrically non-conductive vapor that is clear and does not obscure vision. It leaves no residue and has acceptable toxicity for use in occupied spaces at design concentrations. FE-25 extinguishes a fire by a combination of chemical and physical mechanisms. FE-25 does not displace oxygen and therefore is safe for use in occupied spaces without fear of oxygen deprivation.
FE-25 has zero ozone depleting potential, a low global warming potential, and a short atmospheric lifetime.

FE-25 closely matches Halon 1301 in terms of physical properties such as flow characteristics and vapor pressure. The pressure traces, vaporization, and spray patterns for FE-25 nearly duplicate that of Halon 1301. The minimum design concentration for FE-25 systems is 8.0% meaning that about 25% more of FE-25 agent will be required. Fe-25 requires about 1.3 times the storage area of Halon.

When retrofitting existing Halon 1301 system, the nozzles and cylinder assembly will need to be upgraded, however, the piping system likely will not need to be changed, which is cost-effective retrofit that minimizes business interruption.
FE-13 is a clean, high-pressure agent that leaves no residue when discharged. FE-13 efficiently suppresses fire by the process of physiochemical thermal transfer. The presence of FE-13 absorbs heat from the fire as a sponge absorbs liquid. FE-13 is safe for use in occupied spaces up to a 24% concentration. Design concentration for total flood application is 16%.
Novec 1230 is the newest clean-agent gas available on the market. It is marketed as a long-term sustainable alternative to FM-200 and Halon. Novec 1230 has a 0.0 ozone depletion potential (equivalent to FM-200), but has an atmospheric lifetime of only five days, compared to FM-200’s half life of over 20 years. Novec 1230 has a zero global warming potential. Novec 1230 is designed to a concentration level of 4-6%, which will require less gas than other clean agent. Novec 1230 extinguishes the fire by heat absorption, and is heavier than air, so the gas will sink in the room. Novec 1230 is also safe for electronic equipment, so the data center may not have to be shut down in the event of a gas discharge.
Novec 1230 will require the same amount of tanks as FM-200, and is stored as a liquid under pressure. Under normal atmospheric conditions, it will exist as a gas. The system is approximately 5-7% more expensive than FM-200.

Table – Relative Cost Comparison of Extinguishing Methods
Scenario Characteristics: Occupied Room Housing electrical equipment 10,000 cu-ft room volume Room fully enclosed and building is fully sprinklered			Design Basis: (1) Total flooding. (2) Does not include the cost of fire alarm and detection system. Probable cost < $4,000. (3) Assume a fully sprinklered building and (4) Includes the cost of the extinguishing agent.
Extinguishing Agent	Design Concentration, Density	Agent Quantity	Installation Cost (4)	Recharge Cost	Design Basis
FM-200	7.44 % by volume	364 lbs	20% more than Inergen	Almost twice the cost of Inergen	(1) + (2)
FE-25	96% by volume	335 lbs	Parallel to FM-200 less gas	20%-25% less than FM-200	(1) + (2)
Inergen	37.5 % by volume	4780-cu-ft			(1) + (2)
NAF S-III	8.60 % by volume	___	___	___	(1) + (2)
Pre-Action Sprinklers	0.1 gpm/s.f water	N/A	1/4 the cost of Halon or Inergen	N/A	(2) + (3)

Note: NAF S-III does not appear to have the market presence to be a viable alternative.

Mobile Computing and Driving Cloud Applications

How Cloud Computing is Driving Mobile Data Growth and a Next Generation of Data Center Strategies.

At the 2010 Techonomy Conference in Lake Tahoe, Eric Schmidt quoted a figure that most data professionals can relate to:

Every two days, there is as much ‘data’ produced globally as was produced from the dawn of civilization up to 2003 — approximately five exabytes every 48 hours.

Certainly, the rapid growth in user-generated content is a major driver of the expansion. But, user-generated content is really a reflection of a bigger shift in the IT landscape that is being driven by changes in the way business interacts with customers in both B2B and B2C markets, and an attendant revolution in the tools that consumers and businesses use to interact with applications and data.

According to Gartner, data growth remains on the top of list of IT’s biggest challenges for 2011, with 47% of respondents to a summer 2010 survey of over 1,000 large enterprises citing data growth in their top three challenges. (i) (N.B. 37% of listed system performance and scalability and 36% cited network congestion and connectivity issues.) Gartner’s research uncovered data growth rate between 40% and 60% y/y. For enterprise IT professionals this includes rapid expansion in unstructured data, such as e-mail and regulatory and compliance documents. But that is just part of the story.

In November 2009, technology writer Robert Cringely wrote:

“We’re in the middle of a huge platform shift in computing and most of us don’t even know it. The transition is from desktop to mobile and is as real as earlier transitions from mainframes to minicomputers to personal computers to networked computers with graphical interfaces.” (ii)

According to ABI Research, quoted in IEEE Spectrum, monthly data transmission by mobile computing devices, including cellphones, tablets and portable computers, will increase 1400% by 2014, with the number of people subscribing to cloud-based applications increasing from 71 million to just under 1 billion in the same timeframe. (iii) Cloud applications, in this case, are defined as applications that are delivered with data storage or processing power not primarily resident on the mobile device. The leading applications in this shift include consumer-friendly utility software (such as maps), but also business productivity tools (especially for sales, data sharing, and collaboration), rapidly growing social networking applications, and now-ubiquitous search functionality.

From consumers to business professionals, we are rapidly becoming addicted to real-time access of all forms of data. Rich-media (audio, video) garners the headlines, but today, we expect to log on to find order status, place new orders, make stock trades or bank deposits, explore real-time inventory, or review engineering designs — all through a growing array of mobile devices.

What does all this mean to data center professionals?

Mobile applications carry new demands on data types, access control and traffic management, especially in cloud architectures. In the cloud, network resources are consumed by virtual machines, and network management and monitoring must intelligently correlate virtual machine traffic with physical network components and resources. Rapidly increasing demand on transactional resources dictates completely new QoS approaches to bandwidth allocation and traffic shaping. And data resources must be dynamically provisioned and carefully mirrored to ensure durable performance under widely varying loads.

BRUNS-PAK Cloud Computing Programs

BRUNS-PAK engineers are acutely aware this dramatic evolution in the IT market. Our cloud computing team helps clients:

Organize and document objectives
Understand data center implications for both private cloud deployment or public cloud integration
Plan for long-term optimized data center performance though load modeling for high-utilization, virtualized deployment architectures
Develop a data center deployment model that is adaptive to rapid growth in both network access and data volume and can respond to the need for capacity expansion on a rapid basis through either increased site utilization or modular expansion

For more information on our Cloud Computing capabilities and offerings, click here to access our Contact Us page and call or request information.

(i) “Data Growth Remains IT’s Biggest Challenge, Gartner Says.” Computerworld Online. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9194283/Data_growth_remains_IT_s_biggest_challenge_Gartner_says. November 2, 2010.

(ii) Cringely, Robert X, “Pictures In Our Heads.” I, Cringely. 11/17/2009.

(iii) “Cloud Computing Drives Mobile Data Growth”. IEEE Spectrum Online. http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/wireless/cloud-computing-drives-mobile-data-growth. October 2009

The Importance of Being Agile

IT/Line of Business IT Spending In a Nov 2012 survey by IDG Research Services¹, CIOs got yet another wakeup call regarding the price for being non-responsive to increasingly demanding line-of-business owners in the enterprise. In the study, the majority of respondents indicated that line-of-business teams control over 20% of the IT budget. Further, 20% of respondents indicated that these teams now dictate the majority of IT spending. For CIO’s used to having rigid control of their IT infrastructure, this is a discomforting reminder of the changes being wrought on IT by rapidly growing demand for agility that supports greater alignment with business operations.

The accessibility of software as a service solutions, growing acceptance of mobile applications running on personally or company owned devices, and shortening time to market for new services-oriented applications are combining to make it easier than ever for non-IT professionals to identify lightweight solutions to business problems that can be deployed without IT assistance and charged to company credit cards. The trend may have started in the shadows, but it is a mainstream approach, with applications like Salesforce.com, Workday and Evernote now mainstays in enterprise operations. The upside? Speed, reduced capital costs and flexible deployment options. The downside? Greater enterprise risk, compliance concerns, and barriers to sharing data across application environments.

How can IT adapt? In today’s market, CIOs must eschew old strategies favoring tight management of infrastructure and services, in favor of a new services-driven orchestration model in which the IT department focuses on the delivery of strategic value from IT assets, independent of where those assets reside and who owns them. This model makes concepts like just-in-time IT a focus, and forces the integration of new strategies for enterprise IT delivery, including:

cloud computing
containers/PODS/ultramicro data centers
advanced networking techniques for minimal latency
SDN (software defined networking)
OPEX/CAPEX rebalancing

Making sense of these trends and technologies can be confusing. BRUNS-PAK Consulting Services is an integral part of BRUNS-PAK’s comprehensive data center services offerings. Our consulting services team is expert at helping customers to plan and implement complex strategies for alternative infrastructures and dynamic IT deployment. By helping IT management understand and optimize the following critical infrastructure considerations, we can make it easier to align IT strategy with business needs, and reduce the rise of shadow IT initiatives:

Value of current facilities renovation/expansion (CAPEX vs. OPEX)
New data center build options (CAPEX)
Alternative financing options/leaseback (OPEX)
Co-location design and optimization
Cloud integration
Containers/Pods
Network/WiFi design and management
Migration/relocation options
Hybrid computing environment design and deployment

To learn more about how BRUNS-PAK Consulting Services can help you address emerging challenges in your data center strategy, contact Paul Evanko, Vice President at 732-248-4455, or via e-mail at pdevanko@bruns-pak.com.

[1] IDG Research Services, “Clouds, business issues and time management dominate the CIO’s world in 2013”, Nov. 2012 http://www.enterprisecioforum.com/en/whitepaper/it-and-cios-2013-will-look-awful-lot-201

Why CFD for Energy Efficiency?

While winter temperatures make it a little easier to distract yourself from the costs of data center cooling, the realities are that for many companies, data center cooling remains a topic of high importance. At BRUNS-PAK, we have long championed design options that can make significant difference in your data center HVAC costs, including:

Airside Economization: the use of “free” outside air in your cooling plan
Heat Wheel Integration: integration of heat wheel exchange systems for optimizing energy efficiency
Higher Data Center Ambient Temperature: following the guidelines in ASHRAE 9.9 means real savings
Hot Aisle/Cold Aisle Configuration: reducing hot/cold mixing can produce measurable improvements in cooling efficiency

However, one item that companies do not take regular advantage of is CFD Modeling. Computational Flow Dynamics is often used in data center design projects, but its use in understanding airflow and cooling efficiency in existing data centers can yield measurable improvements in the optimized configuration of your data center assets, along with recommendations for HVAC improvements.

As leaders in the use of CFD modeling, BRUNS-PAK can provide expert consultation on ways to leverage this technique to support both short-term energy efficiency optimization modifications, and long-term strategic options for improving your data center sustainability profile.

For more information, contact Paul Evanko, Vice President at 732-248-4455, or via e-mail at pdevanko@bruns-pak.com.

Alternative Financing Strategies for Data Center Expansion

The rising reliance on real-time, data-informed decision making in the enterprise, is placing new demands on the CIO to increase capacity and quality of service to knowledge workers throughout the enterprise. The CIO challenge in many organizations, however, is how to deliver that increased capability, capacity and quality of service while dealing with rising pressure to cut costs or forego major capital expenditures.

Traditionally, this has meant a strategic decision between:

Renovation of existing data center facilities (dominantly OPEX)
Expansion of existing data center facilities (balance of OPEX and CAPEX)
Building new data center facilities (CAPEX program)

BRUNS-PAK Data Center Design/Build Leaseback Programs offer a secure way to finance new data center capacity through allocation of operating dollars instead of capital dollars. Backed by one of the nation’s leading financial services institutions, BRUNS-PAK leaseback options are integrated with the BRUNS-PAK design/build methodology which offers both the data center owner and the financing organization, a clear, well-documented, fixed price plan for data center construction projects. Financing options are available for both large-scale and moderate-scale programs.

If you are looking to evaluate OPEX options for an upcoming data center project, contact Paul Evanko, Vice President at 732-248-4455, or via e-mail at pdevanko@bruns-pak.com.