Designing a Data Center
Technical Considerations for Planning Your Computer Machine Room
By Justin Newton
Through my involvement in data-center design and construction at several major Internet service providers, I've learned a few things about the special needs and requirements of high-availability machine-room design in the Internet space. At Erols Internet (now owned by RCN-see "
Online") I learned the basics and got a good grounding in what needed to be done, as well as some things to avoid. At AboveNet I participated in designing some of the premier shared Internet data centers in the world. Now, at NetZero, we're just completing construction on our own data center, starting small, but allowing for lots of expansion to deal with our future growth. I recently gave an eight-hour tutorial on building data centers at the Internet Service Providers' Forum, where I had the chance to share my experiences and interact with others in the field to find out theirs.
Whether you're an ISP, content provider, Web developer or designer, or a business trying to get into e-commerce or other Internet-based applications, downtime is becoming less and less of an option. Your image and reputation, as well as your bottom line, are all affected if a visitor is unable to get to your site. Putting your server inside a quality data center is becoming a requirement to do business today, and in the future, on the Internet. There are enough complexities in building a reliable Web site without having to worry about going offline because the lights went out, or a crazed backhoe operator cut the fiber in to your facility.
