Tour the EDS Doxford Data Center
24 Sep 2007
EDS Data Centers Commit to Zero Outages, Support 'Green' Effort
EDS Doxford Park Data Center Video
EDS delivers world-class services from more than 100 data centers around the world. Take a virtual tour of EDS' service delivery excellence at the EDS Doxford Park Data Center located in northern England.
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Whether getting cash from an ATM, using frequent flyer miles to purchase a flight, refilling a prescription online, or purchasing a Coca-Cola at 7-Eleven, chances are successfully completing that transaction involves a data center.
EDS clients like American Airlines, a global leader in transportation; Express Scripts International, a leading pharmaceutical company; and Bank of America, one of the largest financial institutions in the world, all have one thing in common: They have tons of data. That data must be stored and easily accessed from remote locations around the globe.
EDS has more than 100 data centers around the world, and continues to enhance its resources with developments like the Doxford data center in the United Kingdom (UK) and the recent expansion at EDS' data center in Tulsa.
“The investments EDS is making today enable us to make an even stronger commitment to zero outages and energy efficiency, two areas that are critical for success in this arena,” said Stewart Hair, director of EDS data center services product marketing.
EDS is putting together a plan for long-term investment in its data centers and is expanding and building out new capacities globally.
“The expansion in Tulsa is just the first step to what we will build in the future,” said David Hester, director of EDS' data center facility strategies.
And, as EDS invests to meet the growing demand for data center services, the company is looking for ways to make its facilities more “green” by cutting excess material and designing the data center to maximize power and cooling solutions.
In addition to increasing power efficiency, at the heart of EDS' updated approach to designing and building its data centers is reliability and business continuity for clients. It's another example of how EDS is making its 2007 Enterprise Goals of efficiency and quality and customer satisfaction a reality for clients.
Zero Outage Mentality in EDS Data Centers
The most important issues for data center clients are reliability and leverage. “That's what gets clients through the door to talk to us,” Hair said.
The Doxford data center located in Northeast England is the “vanguard of this sort of activity,” said Dave Middleton, the data center's manager.
The Doxford data center, which completed its second phase of development in July 2006, applies EDS' zero outage mentality throughout; the idea being that the clients EDS currently serves out of the location won't be impacted due to an outage.
“Minutes are a long time in our business,” Hair said.
Indeed, most airlines process an average of 5,000 transactions per second and each of those transactions – whether handled on the Web, via the phone or at the ticket counter – require data stored in a data center.
Doxford's commitment to zero outages comes down to processes that prevent an outage from occurring.
The Doxford center is linked to another EDS data center in the UK and data continuously goes back and forth between the two facilities. Because the centers are connected, if one were to completely fail, all data and activity would be automatically switched over to the other.
The model in place at Doxford and other centers in Europe is being developed into a standard design for all of EDS' data centers to add resilience.
“EDS learns globally from what happens all over the world,” Middleton said. “The global capability ensures that we follow best practice.”
Furthermore, because both data centers are compliant with industry standards such as the ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) and ISO 9000, processes are the same throughout, making the transition even more seamless.
Realizing Efficiencies from Virtualization
That seamless transition happens over EDS' Global Services Network (GSN), part of EDS' next generation Global Delivery System.
The GSN connects EDS' Service Management Centers (SMCs) and data centers around the world in order to deliver uninterrupted service to clients and, ultimately, enable virtualization of data.
“We are continuing to realize the efficiencies that virtualization brings,” Middleton said.
The GSN creates a mesh of data centers making it possible to move a single application that EDS delivers for a client anywhere in the world while sitting at a computer screen. Eventually, computers will have intelligence built into the system so they'll run independently.
With the possibilities virtualization creates, data centers in the future will only house servers and mainframes that are not assigned to a specific client or particular applications. The hardware will be available to take on any load.
The 'Green' Effort in EDS Data Centers
If the potential for disaster recovery isn't enough of a reason to invest in virtualization, the technology largely contributes to the “green” effort and makes data centers more efficient.
As more and more data becomes virtualized, fewer physical servers are required. The opportunities to reduce power consumption and make facilities more efficient are huge.
On average, a server only uses 10 percent to 15 percent of its processing capability; the rest is just wasted space. On top of that, the air conditioning required to keep the equipment from overheating doubles a data center's electric bill.
With virtualization, the total number of servers inside a data center can be reduced, the amount of work done on each server is maximized, and the monthly electric bill cut.
Doxford is moving in that direction and “every application is being examined to see if it can be virtualized,” Middleton said. “Currently, 50 percent of the data exists virtually.”
High power wattage is necessary for today's data center to operate, but EDS is making a conscious effort to ensure its facilities are more energy efficient.
The expanded data center in Tulsa and the Doxford facility were designed and built with the “green” effort in mind. They're engineered for efficiency; streamlined to cut excess materials like copper, which is the most expensive element inside a data center. Properly sized pumps and motors and precise amounts of wiring also help to make the centers more efficient.
One example of efficient engineering is in the cabling at the Doxford site. In most data centers, cables and wires run beneath the raised floor; but this design blocks air flow.
Doxford was built with the cabling in trays above the racks of servers, rather than below the floor. This simple change in design cuts down on the amount of air conditioning needed and saves energy.
While it may seem like a minor change, it's one piece of the data center puzzle. Simple design changes and thinking ahead to save materials adds up and there's potential for more benefits for EDS and its clients.
“This is just the beginning,” Hester said. “We expect these investments will help EDS to maintain its leadership position.”