Building Your Data Center CASTLES – Systems

This is Part Eight (and the last) in a series about selecting the right data center for your needs

One of my favorite stories to share when I present at conferences is how data centers are 130 years old.

It’s a fact that few people know or realize. However, the same technology that we use in data centers today has been around since the end of the 19th Century. The tale goes like this.

The systems, switches, and storage that go into most data center cabinets today are 19” wide and some multiple of about 1.75” tall. Weird numbers, but these were the same dimensions as the reel-to-reel media equipment found in recording studios in the 1950s and 1960s. The first engineers working in data centers simply ported over what was already working for reel-to-reel machines in use elsewhere.

Okay, so why did the recording studios pick such strange sizes? Their technology was built upon the switching signal relays that controlled train traffic at the beginning of the 20th Century. The systems running inside these 19” racks ensured that the locomotives and their freight were just far enough apart so no one hit each other.

Naturally, those switching relay cabinets came from somewhere else, too.  Those cabinets were the same size as the ones that were designed for the earliest telephone switchboard systems. The massive Main Distribution Frames (MDFs) inside of 19th Century offices consolidated the wires from throughout buildings into cabinets that were 19” wide. The odd size comes from the earliest days of the Information Age with the advent of the telephone.

The Next Generation

Now, what happens when the next generation of technology comes along and forces a drastic change in your data centers?  Will you be looking to 130-year-old standards for how to handle 21st Century needs?

Flash back about 20 years ago and consider the radical transformation that occurred. In a short span of time, virtualized hardware, Storage Area Networks, and software-defined technologies all redefined how systems looked and behaved. Gone were the days of single-instance operating systems on dedicated, hardwired disk drives that required manual movement or intervention. The purpose of fiber optic cables applied to more than high-speed IP-based communication.

As you plan your data centers, you must be prepared for disruptive technology intake along the way. On a small scale, this means being able to rack, stack, and cable new types of systems within your cabinets. At the data center level, high-kW densities, adaptive cooling, and smart networks will be needed to keep up with shifts. Looking at the enterprise holistically and broadly, evolving data center concepts for the edge, cloud, containers, and hyperconverged deployments will transform your facilities on a global scale. If your data centers cannot keep up with the different types of systems, they will age quickly and resemble something like the WOPR in War Games.

Science Fiction or Fact?

When I envision the data center of the future, there are some concepts that border on something Tony Stark would be doing. I believe automation will take hold and some of the last bastions of manual intervention in data centers will be replaced with robots or self-healing AI. I foresee integration of diverse systems in new and unique ways, traversing silos and technology disciplines from real estate to the app level. And if concepts like quantum computing grow and develop to a consumable level in the next decade or two, it is possible that laser grids and supercooling systems will become as commonplace as blade servers or firewalls in computer rooms.

Yet, I do not believe that people will be quick to abandon standards such as the 2ft x 2ft (60cm x 60cm) floor tile or arranging racks in rows. While a hexagonal grid may be more efficient in terms of cooling and space consumption (think of beehives), or designing a universal form factor for the backend of any vendor equipment would simplify facilities, those concepts are more like the geodesic domes of the 1960s.  They make for great cutscenes on Hollywood movies and wow audiences, but have little viability.

However the future unfolds, there is just one question that has to be asked: 

Are you ready?

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below; when ideas are spread, great things happen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Christian Pruett helps executives and senior leadership make sense of new data center technologies and maximize their returns in cloud, converged, and content spaces. His ebooks have been downloaded over 300,000 times and he speaks at IT conferences about the latest trends that are shaping the Internet of Things and Digital Utility space.