eauc john milner programme manager jisc 31 st march 2011
TRANSCRIPT
EAUC
John MilnerProgramme Manager JISC
31st March 2011
Who needs a Data Centre?
Answer
YOU DO!
– But you don’t need to own all of it
– You need on site capability to be minimised and extremely efficient (PUE 1.2 is doable in a small DC as Hertfordshire showed)
– You need to deploy virtualised servers and storage wherever you can
– You need to be “Cloud Ready”
The Universities Modernisation Fund
Intended to drive the shared services agenda
Focus on Research and Admin, but will have implications for Learning and Teaching too
Seeking savings and efficiencies both short and long term
Recognises the need for a coherent approach to the issues from the sector because piecemeal isn’t working
The Modernisation Strategy
Establish a brokerage at JANET(UK)and JISC to develop framework agreements with major operators and application suppliers
Define and market trusted services into the sector (Can’t just use Amazon, Google and Dropbox without risk management)
Institutions to rent services (short or long term through proper framework deals) not build DC and buy kit
SaaS PaaS IaaS all are relevant and depend on that move to virtualisation and on persuading some application suppliers to change their business models
The approach can have benefits in research, learning and teaching and administration
Realise industrial economies of scale - 50000 server environment 7 times better than 1000 server environment
Local Provision
Hertfordshire showed that using similar attention to detail as the “big boys” returns similar efficiency levels
The key is to minimise redundant cycles and bits in an environment that is economical by design
Cloud technology and virtualisation offers efficiency in deployment and redeployment of resources
The idea that you need control of the equipment to control the service is nonsense
There is no escape from local desktop and server provision because some applications won’t work properly in a cloud or virtual environment, so local and/or CoLo won’t go away
Green is not the point
Just getting your energy from a windmill doesn’t cut it
Reducing resource consumption is what’s needed and it can be arranged at relatively modest investment cost
It’s all about efficiency and money is the measuring stick we should use.
Acting in a coherent fashion the Sector has massive opportunities for savings as well as added value from research data management for example.
The Hertfordshire Example
Energy Consumed Per Hour Before: After:
Total IT Load 120kW 120kW
Total Facility Load 264kW 146kW
Electricity used per Year 2,312,640KWh 1,282,464kWh
Annual Carbon Footprint 1,394 Tons 773 Tons
Reduction in CO2 Emissions Equivalent to
1 Year 621 Tons 117 Fewer Cars
5 Years 3,106 Tons 586 Fewer Cars
10 Years 6,212 Tons 1,172 Fewer Cars
