Similar software is available from APC, CoolSim Software, Optimum Path, ManageEngine, and other vendors. The software takes into account available floor space, power and cooling, cable routing, and a host of other factors to predict performance and gauge costs. Future Facilities 6SigmaDC provides a software modeling tool to design and test an entire virtual facility down to the last piece of hardware. There are a number of virtual data center modeling packages available. The best place to start is by modeling the data center. All these elements are interdependent, and miscalculating one will affect performance and costs for the entire data center. Power is typically more than half the cost (57 percent), followed by power distribution and cooling (18 percent), networking equipment (13 percent), servers (4 percent), and other factors. Let’s consider the hardware costs and infrastructure amortization in a typical data center. When assessing data center design tools, remember that you need to consider all the factors that keep the data center running.
Power and cooling in a typical 100 kW data center is $8.70 per watt or $870,000, and if you are wasting capacity, then at least 40 percent of overhead is wasted-that’s $348,000. APC notes that there are added costs when you oversize your data center. You need to perform capacity planning to make sure you don’t overdesign or underdesign the infrastructure.įor example, designing a data center with a 100 kW power capacity is impractical if you use only 10 percent, unless you plan to grow quickly.
Anyone who operates a data center knows that the primary costs are in facilities operation and management, server technology, hardware, software, network bandwidth, and staffing. Having the right tools can simplify data center design and eliminate mistakes in advance.Īs with most things, effective data center design is about balancing cost of ownership with return on investment. What may seem like a trivial design change or hardware addition can have a ripple effect that influences hardware, software, network capacity, and even power and cooling. Data center design is complicated because any change to the infrastructure can affect those checks and balances. Data centers are complex and require a variety of checks and balances to make them affordable and efficient.
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