Vikas Deolaliker Feb 26, 2007

Datacenter is where applications with SLA are hosted. This SLA is the main driver for any differentiation for datacenter infrastructure vis-a-vis LOB infrastructure.

As the underlying infrastructure is increasingly becoming distributed, the applications themselves are being refactored into invokable services a.k.a SOA.

If an application does not have an SLA, it mostly is not found in the datacenter.

Rolf Wiklund Mar 5, 2007

Sounds like server hall to me. Just a new buzz-word. Even though we build them more sophisticated these days.
rw

Doug Gourlay Mar 5, 2007

Rolf- 
I think you raise a fair point with, “Sounds like a server hall to me.” In many ways that certainly is the evolution to what people are branding as ‘Data Centers’ nowadays.

I think the genesis started with the mainframe and the DC was really a building or almost a fortress we built to protect the mainframe since it was/is quite a critical asset. 

Client Server and Dirstributed Computing architectures emerged and new things started appearing in the data center - funny 1RU and now blade-chassis servers. 

Structurally though the ‘server hall’ before had to deal with 2000-3000 watts per rack.  Data Centers today are being asked to deal with 10-30kwh per rack.  So physical engineering and HVAC and power become major problems.

Storage has decoupled from the host- the good ol’ days when I used to rack up Compaq ProLiant 7000s and try to get 3-4 in a rack at 1.5kwh per rack are gone - I put 40-42 servers per rack and remote boot them off the SAN.  So I have to figure out where I can house tera to peta bytes of online storage.

The network itself also evolved to having multiple transport types each optimized on differing vectors- FibreChannel for storage, Infiniband for low-latency cluster computing, and Ethernet for general purpose data networking.

I think the taxonomy more than anything indicates and pays homage to the increased complexities that we are all dealing with in this environment. 

To the points made earlier on SLAs they are the metric by which we are measured.  I’ll have to write another note on those… had a fun trip and many meetings with large financial customers in New York last week where I learned a lot about SLAs in the Data Center that I never new…

dg

Matt Apr 2, 2007

I think the definitions is missing two comoponents: Size and supporting infrastructure.

A closet with an iSeries sitting in it does not qualify as a data center, even if it is running “Bob’s Auto Parts” mission critical systems.

Also, you don’t have mission critical applications without power, cooling, networking and phsyical infrastructure.  These are not by-products, they are supporting components.