Pricing, power and cooling in the data center

A consulting firm we work with recently brought 4 CIOs in to talk about the issues that they were facing with regards to external data centers.

There were two overriding issues that ALL FOUR CIOs expressed:

They never knew from month to month what the billing would be. Pricing was convoluted, confusing and variable.

All four were running up against power and cooling constraints in their existing data centers. Either they were promised densities that could not be delivered, or the facility was out of power and unwilling or unable to add more.

Moral: be wary if your provider's pricing is confusing. Get firm commitments on power densities and make sure you have alternative strategies in place with regards to power and cooling.

Here's Gartner's recent take on the power and cooling issues we face today.

STAMFORD, Conn., October 2, 2007 — By 2011, more than 70 percent of U.S. enterprise data centers will face tangible disruptions related to energy consumption, floor space, and/or costs, according to Gartner, Inc. In fact, during the next five years, most U.S. enterprise data centers will spend as much on energy (power and cooling) as they will on hardware infrastructure.

“CIOs of large U.S. organizations must prepare for a period of rapid changes in their data centers,” said Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner. “This disruption will be accompanied by a significant increase in capital and operational expenditures. Failure to respond quickly and appropriately to the changing market conditions and technologies will result in needlessly high energy bills, expensive service contracts and delays in implementing new technologies.”

Gartner article