Data Centre Insight: Achieve greater certainty of returns
Businesses can achieve greater certainty
of returns from establishing IT needs, delivering and running the
built asset, to disposal of consolidated space which is surplus to
strategic requirements.
Planning for the future and making the right decisions for both
short and long term IT requirements in the current climate marks a
challenging era. Organisations are reviewing investment options of
large scale capital expenditure projects with understandable
caution. However, a protracted decision making process (albeit
important), can have major implications later in the project,
emphasising the need to constantly review capacity requirements and
have contingency plans in place.
Recognising an increasing focus on power usage effectiveness
(PUE), disposing of surplus space and the pressure to minimise
carbon footprint, EC Harris' Data Centre Insight addresses the
market challenges over the next six months.
Increased certainty of delivery on time and on budget through
optimisation of procurement and team integration
Procurement is key - Determining a capital or revenue approach
to expenditure on mission critical assets is central to achieving a
balanced decision that will accurately meet business requirements.
In the current climate, the temptation is for suppliers to procure
at a commercially low cost, but businesses need strategies in place
in order to minimise a significant increase in outturn cost. EC
Harris explores how this can be achieved through looking at a
variety of procurement models.
Driving value whilst managing risk from accurate flexible
capacity planning in data centres
Organisations need to explore solutions which will optimise data
centre space, rationalising systems to allow for realistic
contingency planning and alternative investment models which
require thorough planning to suit business needs. EC Harris looks
at ways to optimise existing data centre space, and ways to ensure
new facilities are the right size to allow for flexibility in
short, medium and long term planning; including models around a
collaborative approach between IT and real estate divisions to
certify that projections are accurate and change is minimal.
Selecting location by balancing
regulatory requirements with cost and security of power supply
EC Harris has assessed the build and running cost of mission
critical facilities in many countries across the globe to enable
decision making that will balance location against build cost,
power cost and carbon footprint. By far the largest operational
cost is the use of power, and further costs will now be incurred
through carbon taxes on the generation of that power by traditional
means. The ideal would be to have the availability of relatively
cheap low carbon or renewable power sources. However, this needs to
be balanced against the optimum operational data centre
location.
Achieving the environmental agenda without costing the
earth
IT carbon emissions are currently at the same level as the
aviation sector. As the appetite for white space capacity
increases, the environmental consequences of the increasing carbon
footprint of data centres continue to hit the headlines.
Governmental pressure to reduce emissions from data centres will
increase, demonstrated by countries signing up to new emission
targets and the introduction of carbon tax legislation. With these
compelling incentives for change, EC Harris explores ways in which
this can be achieved without costing the earth.
Fundamental to the success of addressing these
market challenges, is having a highly experienced critical
systems team to provide strategic advice and develop and monitor
the project plans from inception. Planning for the future in terms
of predicted demand is now essential to operating efficiencies.
Making the right decisions at the right time revolves around having
the foresight to maximise assets and reshape an IT infrastructure
for tomorrow’s world.
To subscribe to the EC Harris Data Centre
Insights, please contact property@echarris.com
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