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Also known as the “integration phase”, Level 5 commissioning is the most important component of the commissioning process. In this phase, every aspect of the data center is tested while it is running at its maximum capacity. In other words, every component and system of the facility must prove its ability to perform when the data center is operating in its most stressful environment. During Level 5 commissioning, all failure modes are tested and resiliency is validated, including scenarios such as:

• How do the back-up systems perform in the event of a dropped utility line?
• How do the redundant units respond when a CRAC fails?
• Does the facility’s power architecture switch over upon the failure of a UPS?

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Building a data center is a non-trivial exercise with a great deal of inherent risk if each of the elements that are associated with its development are not fully understood and administered by experienced personnel. The basic components that characterize any data center development timeline fall into five (5) specific areas:

Site Selection and Acquisition
In this portion of the timeline companies must determine their requirements, and identify and procure the physical site.

Design
During the design phase of the timeline, firms must quantify their level of risk tolerance and determine if they want to build the required resiliency into the site. This period also focuses on developing the master plan, schedules, budgets, hiring consultants, contractors and obtaining necessary permits.

Construction
The construction portion of the timeline is the longest of the entire development process. It is also the area most prone to cost overruns and contingency payments due to equipment delays and use of non-standard components and processes.

Commissioning
Throughout the five (5) levels of commissioning all of the systems components are tested at their maximum load volumes and the inter-operability between systems must also be verified.

Close-Out
During close-out all punch list items must be identified and corrected. All operational procedures and processes must be documented and in place, and all support personnel trained and certified.

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Although any large expenditure has always received a good deal of financial scrutiny within organizations, the current economy can be expected to elevate this review process to even higher levels within the corporate hierarchy. This may manifest itself in different ways such as added levels of sign-off required before project approval. What is undeniable is that more diligence will be required in developing the business case for a new data center than ever before. This is understandable for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that the cost of the data center is typically only about a third of the total project cost with migration and infrastructure costs making up the other two-thirds. In order to surmount the added financial hurdles that will face data center executives in gaining project approval, business cases will require an intense focus on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

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Chargeback Systems—A Brief Definition
Although they vary between companies and departments, at their core, Chargeback Systems, as their name implies, are the collection of applications, algorithms and processes that are used by CIO’s and their organizations to recharge the lines of business or departments that they support for their portion of IT’s operational costs. More succinctly, a chargeback system is the internal billing system of the IT organization. The challenge that IT has traditionally faced in implementing these systems, either through internal development or the use of “off the shelf” packages” is crafting them to reflect the unique needs of their clients. This has traditionally been true in the area defining the systems’ basic “chargeable” unit.

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Balancing the Special Forces: A Practical Example
Achieving a balance between the four “special forces” begins with determining the customer’s level of risk adversity and then identifying the most cost efficient solution to be incorporated into its data center. The sum of this process is typically based on the customer’s answers to five essential questions:

• What risk am I concerned with and what is its likelihood?
• How can I design my facility to mitigate these risks?
• How can facility operations mitigate that risk?
• What are the capital and operating costs of the various approaches?
• Which investment is the business prepared to make to mitigate that risk?

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The Industrialization of the Datacenter—Components
As the name implies, the concept of the Industrialization of the Data Center hearkens back to the historical constructs of efficiencies derived through the division of component production into smaller, discrete units that maximize the efficiency of delivery of the finished product. The use of a partner allows the customer to focus their efforts on the skill sets that are most closely aligned with the success of their business (applications, for example) with clearly projected costs defined over an extended period of data center operations.

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The “Green” movement has overwhelmed the national consciousness. No matter what the product or industry, companies are increasingly centering their messages on the societal benefit of being “green”. The data center industry has also embraced this emerging paradigm. The overarching issue, however, is to what depth will this new eco-friendly movement actually influence both the industry and its consumers. The marketplace is fraught with issues and technology that have turned out to be far more sizzle than steak. Digital Realty Trust’s goal in conducting the survey documented herein was to gain insight into the degree that the green movement has permeated the data center community and identify any associated emerging trends and requirements.

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In order to develop more energy efficient data centers a standard of comparative measurement must be adopted. Through the development of this “standard unit”, data center efficiency goals can be clearly articulated and, more importantly, competing facilities can be compared on an “apples to apples” basis. This standard would be analogous to the “Miles Per Gallon” figure used within the auto industry to allow consumers to evaluate fuel efficiency between varying models and providers. In the data center industry, two metrics have emerged that effectively incorporate the key evaluative elements of data center energy usage to deliver a meaningful efficiency calculation:

• Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)
• Datacenter Efficiency (DCE).