Tag: data center

Zero downtime has been a common buzzword among data centers, with many data center operators striving to achieve it. Having a reliable data center with little to no downtime in this fast-paced digital world has become crucial, but achieving it is easier said than done.

The consequences of failures or outages at data centers can be significant for a business. Damage to reputation, lost revenue, added costs, and loss of employee productivity are some of the ways a business can be hit as a result of a data center downtime. Uptime Institute’s 2022 Data Center Resiliency Survey found that over the past three years, 80% of data center managers and operators witnessed some kind of outage.

Uptime, within the context of a data center, is the assured annual availability of the IT infrastructure, expressed in increasing degrees of 99%. The difference between 99.671% and 99.999% may not seem significant. However, the former translates to downtime of up to 28.8 hours a year, while the latter means being down for up to 5.3 minutes annually. This holds great significance for businesses and end-consumer experience.

Downtime can be expensive and hinder the bottom line. Enter 2023, maintaining a solid digital infrastructure is more critical than ever, and 100% uptime is the top priority for IT leaders. Round-the-clock access to data and unwillingness to tolerate downtime is their new priority and a need.

What to look in a data center operator for Zero Downtime
It’s critical that enterprises ask the right questions to data center operators while evaluating them. Best practices and simple processes can significantly impact your business continuity.

Automation & Predictive Analytics: According to data shared by Uptime Institute, human error is responsible for about 70% of all data center failures. Automating administrative tasks can bring down errors and reduce downtime. Adding more AI to automation will provide administrators with predictive insights that can help mitigate downtimes. According to Gartner, half of cloud data centers shall use advanced robots with AI and machine learning capabilities by 2025, which can lead to 30% higher operating efficiency.

Over the past few years, predictive analytics has made tremendous progress. This has been made possible due to the increasing adoption of Artificial Intelligence in data center operations. It offers real-time data analytics and actionable intelligence, enabling the data center operations team to identify and predict failure points and immediately respond to them. For instance, the AI-infused Building Management System (BMS) at Yotta data centers monitors various systems in the facility to detect and respond to any point of failure in real-time, thus ensuring optimal operating conditions for uninterrupted operations. Similarly, predictive maintenance warns operators if a system or component is likely to fail. Real-time thermal monitoring through predictive analytics can prevent incidents like overheating of equipment, which can cause a failure at a data center, leading to downtime.

Also Read: How will Artificial Intelligence Drive the Growth of Future Data Centers?

Action Plan for Outages: In order to make their customers’ businesses resilient, data center operators must make their facilities resilient to any unforeseen incident. They must have a disaster recovery plan in place that details the steps to be taken in the event of a power outage. The plan must be tested regularly to verify that it is functional. This would include powering down systems, ensuring that generators are operational, checking the redundant systems, and monitoring temperatures. Upon spotting failure points, if any, necessary actions must be undertaken to fix them. It is crucial for data centers to maintain a comprehensive backup infrastructure to guard against data loss and ensure continuity of operations in the event of an outage.

Data Center Connectivity: The lifeblood of enterprises, data center connectivity plays a vital role in ensuring zero downtime. A redundant network and connectivity infrastructure is integral to ensure that businesses are assured of reliable global connectivity. Additionally, best practices like load balancing and failover mechanism can help data center operators prevent downtime as traffic gets redirected in case of an outage. Implementing several network solutions provides backup in the event of a network failure. Carrier-neutral data center connectivity helps improve security by offering protection against the risk of DDoS and other cybersecurity threats.

Also Read: The IX Factor in Data Centers – How do Enterprises Benefit?

Fire Prevention & Responsiveness: One of the most dreaded incidents, fire can wreak havoc in any data center facility. Not just it poses threat to workforce, but can also bring down a data center’s operations, while resulting huge damage to infrastructure which could take month to restore. Thus, a highly effective fire detection, prevention and mitigation system becomes an uncompromisable element of a data center. As a regulatory mandate, data center – like all commercial buildings – must have fire safety mechanisms in place. However, the bare minimum doesn’t suffice when Zero Downtime is the goal. Enterprises must look for data centers that are equipped with state-of-the-art modern fire detection and response systems which can assure that the heat of any incident doesn’t affect their business. Intelligent systems like Very Early Smoke Detection Apparatus (VESDA) help proactively thwart fire and ensure resilient operations. Similarly, Novec 1230 fluid-based fire suppression system removes heat and prevents fire before it starts. Its sensors automatically detect fire and initiate response within seconds.

Certified Capabilities: Uptime Institute has created globally-recognised Tier Standards for data center uptime and overall performance. The Tier Standards comprise four grades: Tier I (basic capacity level), Tier II (redundant capacity components), Tier III (concurrently maintainable with redundant components), and Tier IV (fault tolerant). Each tier builds upon the earlier tier. Yotta NM1 holds a Gold Tier IV Certification of Operational Sustainability (TCOS), which is the highest certification from Uptime Institute. Data center operators at Yotta hold Accredited Tier Designer (ATD) certification. They provide expert guidance in meeting the Tier Standards and ensure the data center is designed to be reliable and efficient, with the latest technologies.

High Uptime: Tier III Data Center Vs Tier IV Data Center

Also Read: How To Spot Expired Data Center Certificates

Zero Downtime – The New Norm
As digital economy booms at a rapid pace, there will be an increased dependency on reliable data centers in India. The digital shift and adoption of digital tools during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the wide usage of internet services. A near-zero uptime or an uptime of at least 99.995% annually should be the objective to ensure minimal to no impact on business. As the cost of downtime is increasing, it is critical for data centers in India to ensure minimal to zero downtime.

Realising this, our data centers prioritise the highest levels of uptime that can be possibly achieved. In the event of a power failure, the facility can operate for 48 hours straight on backup. This, coupled with our state-of-the-art systems and operational expertise, help us deliver Zero Downtime to organisations hosted with us.

Today, as the world is becoming increasingly data-driven, it has become essential for businesses to have the right strategies in place, particularly in terms of connectivity. To compete in a dynamic marketplace and provide customers with quality services across regions, they must make the best use of available technologies. And to make the most of the hyperconnected world, it is necessary to take a closer look at the connectivity infrastructure and redefine it with today’s needs.

Data Centers – Gateway to the Digital World
Serving as storage and compute site for massive volumes of data, data centers have become a critical part of the modern data-driven economy. One can measure the value of data centers in terms of their ability to provide storage space, processing power and networking infrastructure. But the hyperconnected world is a new reality and it’s time data centers are harnessed as connectivity hubs, helping businesses reach global markets.

Data centers are often called the ‘gateway to the digital world’ because they provide connectivity to virtually everything, helping enterprises connect with customers and partners across the globe. But not all data centers do that!

What equips specific data centers to serve as one-stop connectivity hubs?

The answer lies in the ‘IX’ Factor.

An Internet Exchange, also referred to as ‘IX’, serves as a single point of connectivity to the global digital ecosystem, including Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). Amidst the need to deliver services to global masses, Internet Exchange points help enterprises take their services across regions without the need to set up dedicated infrastructure or establish cluttered connectivity that’s difficult to manage.

Major Internet Exchange companies are increasingly tapping data centers for setting up their points of presence due to data centers’ proximity to enterprises’ data infrastructure, which helps them reduce the transit path and offer low-latency connectivity solutions. As a result, a data center that houses Internet Exchanges is placed in a unique position to not just deliver reliable extended connectivity to worldwide networks but most notably in a streamlined, cost-effective manner.

Connectivity Simplified
Internet Exchange points are present in most metropolitan areas with a high population. These exchanges are maintained either by an association of members or a commercial enterprise. One of the major advantages of an Internet Exchange is that it reduces the requirement for a third-party network, which further leads to a lesser possibility of traffic bottleneck that could protract the response time. Thus, being in close proximity to an Internet Exchange has numerous advantages, including streamlined connectivity, lower costs, low latency, high bandwidth and simplicity.

And speaking of proximity, the presence of Internet Exchange points in the data center facility offers the best possible scenario. Here’s what enterprises gain with it.

Multi-cloud Connectivity: Organisations are increasingly adopting the hybrid multi-cloud approach as their businesses demand agility for diverse workloads. However, the key to reaping full benefits of multi-cloud is defined by connectivity between the core data center infrastructure and cloud platforms. Internet Exchange points at data centers address this need with access to a host of cloud platforms through single-hop, hassle-free connectivity.

Service Delivery to the Last Mile: When expansion becomes a priority, ensuring seamless service delivery across regions becomes crucial. Further, connectivity to Edge networks defines an enterprise’s ability to meet the growing demands from distributed geographies. Internet Exchanges help connect your core infrastructure to distributed Edge sites, allowing your business to reach a wider consumer base.

Streamlined Management: Consider a scenario without an Internet Exchange, where enterprise IT teams are required to set up and manage multiple individual connections with their cloud and digital setups – eventually leading to complex management and lack of visibility. By providing a single point of connectivity to the entire cloud, CDN and ISP ecosystem, Internet Exchanges eliminate hassles and allow your teams to focus on business-critical tasks.

Accelerated Performance: Connectivity is only as good as its performance. Inconsistent connectivity is one of the major qualms of enterprises, especially when multiple connections are at play. With a single high-bandwidth, dedicated path to a gamut of networks, enterprises get uniform performance across their digital footprint.

Cost Optimisation: Phasing out multiple individual connections leads to shedding of redundant expenditure. By providing seamless access to a range of cloud platforms and networks through a single channel, Internet Exchange points in data centers offer significant cost-efficiency along with simplicity.

Today, enterprises need unified connectivity, particularly those with operations across the globe and those on the expansion path. Moreover, they must deliver services over an interconnected ecosystem. Checking all of the above criteria, Yotta combines the quality assurance of its world-class data center offerings with robust connectivity solutions by leading Internet Exchanges having their point of presence at Yotta. Enterprises, whether residing at Yotta or in their captive data centers, gain immensely from simplified global connectivity solutions, including internet peering, CDN, Global Cloud Konnect, Edge Connectivity and more.

The availability and security of your applications and data boil down to the performance of your data center. And performance is achieved when the data center meets a range of different parameters – power redundancy, network infrastructure, cooling…the list is long, and can be exhaustive for your IT teams to evaluate.

Simplifying the process of evaluating a data center and to gauge its performance, certifications help enterprises understand the reliability of a data center for their business operations and its ability to withstand the impact of any unforeseen situation, without your business having to break a sweat for continuity and resilience.

Tier Certifications to the Rescue

Uptime Institute, USA is the leading, coveted and trusted authorised body that analyses a data center facility’s performance and issues them certifications. If you have been part of evaluating data center operators for your business, you have likely read or heard about Uptime Institute Tier certified data centers.

What Tier certifications mean?

Do you recall the last time you booked a hotel for your much-needed holiday? You probably found yourself choosing between 3-star, 4-star or 5-star hotels based on the services offered. Data centers are certified on similar metrics that determine the operational efficiency and uptime SLAs delivered to customers. The Tier certification system of Uptime Institute grades data centers on a spectrum of I to IV, with the latter denoting the highest level of performance, fault-tolerance and availability.

Design Certification – Only on Paper
When a data center operator prepares its facility’s design and submits the same to Uptime Institute, it undergoes extensive examination by Uptime Institute’s teams and upon its successful adherence to Uptime standards, the data center receives Tier Certification for Design Documents (TCDD). This validates that the data center’s design document meets Uptime Institute’s defined guidelines.

The Proof is in the Constructed Facility

But TCDD certificates come with a validity of only two years and is mentioned in the certificate foil, as shown above. Within the 2 years, the data center operators have to construct the data center facility, invite the Uptime Institute to validate the constructed facility and then secure the award for Tier Certification for Constructed Facility (TCCF) – which is valid for lifetime and is the final proof that the datacenter is indeed built as per the design.

Beware of Expired Design Certificates
Owing to discrepancies between design and the actual constructed facility, operational inefficiencies, exhaustive process and high costs involved in construction, many data center operators fail or choose not to apply for TCCF certification and try to pass off the design certification as their ultimate certificate. Do not take their word for it and insist on the Constructed Facility certificate. A design certificate is invalid post its expiry, and that leaves the data center practically with no Uptime Institute certification, and their customers’ infrastructure at risk.

When customers entrust a data center with their critical infrastructure basis TCDD, it becomes paramount for data center operators to deliver what was committed. Any compromise in the design and operational efficiencies can have adverse impact on customers’ businesses.

How to Verify Expired Tier Certificates?

Before selecting the right data center for your business, remember to validate their Uptime Institute certifications on: https://uptimeinstitute.com/uptime-institute-awards/list

Browse the list and search for your desired data center service provider to validate their Tier certification.