Since I started on the topic of consolidation and virtualization, here’s my take on server virtualization and the 8 things you should be aware of: (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Operations’
8 things you should know about Server Virtualization
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010Sensors
Thursday, October 8th, 2009Since I’m on the subject of facility, I might as well cover a few more points on data center facility, measurement and sensors. When I think about sensors, it reminded me of my first job. I used to be with a Systems Integrator, working on Plant Information Management Systems (PIMS) for refineries, gas plants, utilities, etc. I remember once, I was 120km west of Doha, Qatar, and was commissioning the PIMS system together with my customer and main contractor. It was August, in the mid-90’s. We were going through the screens and data points / tags with values collected from field instruments in the plant via their Distributed Control System (DCS).
As we review the data points, we came across a few thermocouples out in the plant indicating measurements of 54′C to 60′C. Although it was a hot summer day, a reasonable reading for those tags should be in the range of 45′C to 50′C. It was an interesting anomaly…
For a gas plant, it is very critical that the plant data collected are accurate as the data are used for planning purposes, production controls, yield accounting, and many other forms of analysis.
For a data center, data accuracy is also equally important.
How do Dolphins sleep?
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
Marine mammals like dolphins breathe just like us. But while humans can breathe even when our conscious mind is asleep, dolphins are equipped with a voluntary respiratory system and therefore must keep part of their brain alert to trigger each breath. To avoid drowning, it is crucial that marine mammals retain control of their blowhole, which is a flap of skin that opens and closes under the dolphin’s voluntary control. Although still a matter of discussion, most researchers feel that in order to breathe, a dolphin must be conscious and alert to recognize that its blowhole is at the surface. So, how does a dolphin sleep?
The bottlenose dolphin sleeps by shutting down only half of its brain, along with the opposite eye. The other half of the brain stays awake at a low level of alertness. This attentive side is used to watch for predators, obstacles and other animals. It also signals when to rise to the surface for a fresh breath of air. After approximately two hours, the animal will reverse this process, resting the active side of the brain and awaking the rested half. This pattern is often called cat-napping.
So, applying the same concept on data center facilities, how do we maintain and service the critical infrastructure components in our data centers without reducing the number of capacity units required to support the data center?
