Event Recap
RECAP | ROUNDTABLE | Managing Refreshes and Major Equipment Upgrades
Attendees at Uptime Institute’s February 26th roundtable, Managing Refreshes and Major Equipment Upgrades, shared approaches to managing new loads, capacity and equipment additions in operating data centers.
Fred Dickerman, Uptime Institute, Senior Vice President Facilities Management, and Scott Killian, Uptime Institute’s VP Efficient IT Programs, joined the roundtable, with both outlining the risks that organizations face when making major changes to data center infrastructure. They were joined by a large retailer and a telecommunications provider, who both had developed detailed approaches to the challenge.
During the session, moderator Kevin Heslin reported that many of the roundtable participants felt at risk when performing system upgrades. At least a few were looking for specific suggestions that could be implemented for upcoming—or even ongoing—projects.
The telecommunications provider outlined a multi-step process for planning major equipment upgrades. Interestingly, his overview suggested that operators of critical facilities would benefit from having a concurrently constructible perspective, intended to ensure that operations could continue operations during extensive work projects. He also described the important role of commissioning after the project was complete.
Uptime Institute personnel and two of the participants also discussed the strategies that organizations follow when deciding when upgrades should be performed. Dickerman noted that facilities and operations teams should keep informed about changes in capacity forecasts. Doing so, he suggested, would make planning additional white space easier.
However, the group focused on the tendency to postpone equipment replacement until its end of life, which, according to Killian, could possibly limit an organization’s ability to deploy more energy-efficient equipment. He and Fred Dickerman both cited opportunities that could be achieved by maintaining industry-average server refresh times of 3-5 years, such as those outlined by Rabih Bashrousch in the paper Beyond PUE: Tackling IT's wasted terawatts.
Participants noted that moving from the end-of-life strategy could increase IT risk, especially if a facility did not have comprehensive procedures.
Fred Dickerman, Uptime Institute, Senior Vice President Facilities Management, and Scott Killian, Uptime Institute’s VP Efficient IT Programs, joined the roundtable, with both outlining the risks that organizations face when making major changes to data center infrastructure. They were joined by a large retailer and a telecommunications provider, who both had developed detailed approaches to the challenge.
During the session, moderator Kevin Heslin reported that many of the roundtable participants felt at risk when performing system upgrades. At least a few were looking for specific suggestions that could be implemented for upcoming—or even ongoing—projects.
The telecommunications provider outlined a multi-step process for planning major equipment upgrades. Interestingly, his overview suggested that operators of critical facilities would benefit from having a concurrently constructible perspective, intended to ensure that operations could continue operations during extensive work projects. He also described the important role of commissioning after the project was complete.
Uptime Institute personnel and two of the participants also discussed the strategies that organizations follow when deciding when upgrades should be performed. Dickerman noted that facilities and operations teams should keep informed about changes in capacity forecasts. Doing so, he suggested, would make planning additional white space easier.
However, the group focused on the tendency to postpone equipment replacement until its end of life, which, according to Killian, could possibly limit an organization’s ability to deploy more energy-efficient equipment. He and Fred Dickerman both cited opportunities that could be achieved by maintaining industry-average server refresh times of 3-5 years, such as those outlined by Rabih Bashrousch in the paper Beyond PUE: Tackling IT's wasted terawatts.
Participants noted that moving from the end-of-life strategy could increase IT risk, especially if a facility did not have comprehensive procedures.
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