By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
Data centers are the foundation of cloud computing. As more organizations leverage cloud capabilities, it is essential that data centers are smart, efficient and secure. At our Public Sector CIO Summit last week, Christian Belady of Microsoft’s Global Foundation Services (GFS) team shared insights from managing our own global data footprint. GFS supports over 200 Microsoft Online, Live and Cloud services, including applications like Bing, Hotmail, Office, SharePoint Online and Xbox Live.
Today, data center managers are under pressure to provide the support their organizations require despite a tough economic climate and tightening budgets. It is important to remember that power is expensive and the goal of energy efficiency is key to saving money. One way to improve data center efficiency is to provide internal incentives that align with the goal of energy conservation. Data center managers are often compensated based on uptime statistics rather than on efficiency, and using metrics like Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) can make an enormous impact. GFS has also had success saving energy by adjusting how data center costs are charged to internal users. Outdated models charge by percentage of floor-space used within data centers, but models based on energy consumption are a more accurate reflection of true cost. For example, the financial incentive inherent in energy consumption models has driven internal Microsoft product groups to seek power saving strategies.
It is also important to choose the right servers and deploy them properly. Underutilized servers are a major drain on resources. GFS starts an evaluation of server efficiency by collecting performance data on actual workloads. An interesting fact is that it typically makes more sense to use fewer and less expensive processors because the bottleneck in performance is at the disk I/O level, not the CPU. Processor speed has grown faster than we can take advantage of, and when memory or disk bandwidth is underutilized, the CPU remains idle, wasting power. The key is deploying balanced servers so that CPU, memory, disk and network are all sized correctly in comparison with each other. Why buy a Ferrari when the speed limit is 20mph in your city? Another key component is virtualization. Moving applications from physical to virtual machines and consolidating them onto shared physical hardware enables better allocation of CPU, memory, and disk I/O resources. Virtualization also reduces power and cooling costs limits time lost during outages or maintenance periods.
And while efficiency is extremely important, it’s a moot point if the data isn’t protected. I previously blogged about how data center security is the backbone of any secure cloud approach. It’s also why Microsoft has built its datacenters to comply with the strictest international security and privacy standards, including International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, SAS 70 Type 1 and Type II and Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). Organizations will only move to the cloud when they feel confident that their data is secure, and these security standards help data centers to be transparent about the processes they’re using to protect that data.
There is so much innovation in the world of data centers and much more to say regarding the incredible environmental benefits and initiatives that are helping us all become greener. For more detail on how your data center can be more efficient, more secure, and more environmentally friendly, please take a look at the resources the GFS team has provided below.