The name of Extreme Networks hardly needs any introduction especially in the world of converted Ethernet infrastructure for enterprise and service providers. The company operates in nearly 50 countries and provides excellent scalable solutions for communication problems of enterprises. To continue the excellent track record of providing network infrastructure, Extreme Networks recently had another feather in their cap when they announced the release of highly scalable 40 Gigabyte Ethernet (GbE) network solutions at Interop Las Vegas.

The VIM3-40G4X adds four 40 GbE connections to the award-winning Summit(R) X650 Top-of-Rack stack able switches for $3,995, or less than $1,000 per port. The new module is fully compatible with the existing Summit X650 and Summit X480 stack able switches, preserving customers' investments while providing a smooth upgrade to greatly increased scalability of both virtualized and non-virtualized data centers.

Q. How long have you been involved in the datacenter environment?

A. 10 years

Q. What major changes have you seen in the data center environment since you have worked in it?

A. Advances in HVAC, UPS efficiencies, huge increase in virtualization and blade chassis.  

Q. How important are standards or guidelines like the Uptime Institute's Tier system to you and your company?

A. The company I am with now, it doesn't come in to play. When working at collocation providers, its huge.

Q. How important are green initiatives at your data center and if you have an initiative in place can you provide an example?

A. Green and data center don't go together. We did our best during construction to use the most efficient equipment available, and took extra steps to use efficient lighting along with insulating where possible. Green for us is a byproduct of trying to reduce data center cost.

Q. How important is cost reductive policies and initiatives at your data center?

A. What types of cost reductive initiatives have you set into place if applicable? Cost reduction is always a hot topic. We have raised the temps in the data center a few degrees.

Q. How has your data center budget been impacted over the last 3 years and how do you see it changing in the future?

Spend when necessary, and revaluate those projects that aren't really critical.

Q. What technology do you feel will impact your data center in the future?

A. Higher density servers.

Q. What professional training and knowledge should a data center manager have today?

A. First and foremost, several years of hands on experience. This should come with experience, but knowing how to handle / understand / control your vendors or service providers.

Q. How has physical and logical security impacted your data center today and how will it in the future?

A. Physical security has not really changed for us. IT has always been a multi step process to gain access, we just keep up with the latest advances.

Q. What policy or program were you responsible for that has impacted your data center for the better and describe it in detail.

A. We did the interior design space of our raised floor space, along with installation of the racks, cabinets, dc power, cat6, fiber, environmental,

Q. What is the greatest challenge you face in maintaining and improving your datacenter?

A. Rising costs of service.

Q. What is the most under rated or not thought of part of your job that should be given a greater focus?

A. UPTIME! When its up and running, no one knows who we are, but when it goes down….

Q. How will the data center evolve in the next 10 years?

A. Smaller foot prints, higher density.

Imagine your family has grown and you can't find a bigger, more modern house that meets your needs.  So you decide to build one.  Where would you start? You face countless questions to get that house built to your specifications on time and on budget. For instance, how do you find a good architect to draw up plans?  What permits do you need? How do you determine who is a reputable electrician or plumber? It's fair to say that you need a lot of knowledge and up-to-date information to answer those questions.  Moreover, what are the most strategic questions to ask and answer and in what sequence?  One of the first decisions you need to make is do you hire a general contractor or do you 'DIY'? If you are planning to build a new data center, you'll have considerations similar to building a family home.  Many companies outgrow their existing data centers as their businesses grow and data proliferates.   There are many options available today to address out-growing a datacenter - consolidation/virtualization, co-location, cloud, and build or expand. If you opt to build, you'll have to make many decisions in order to get the data center built to your specifications, on time, and on budget.  Just as in the house building scenario, you need a lot of knowledge and up-to-date information to answer your questions.  Again, should you hire an expert to help you through the process or do you act on your own?  Regardless of your choice, your starting point is to understand your present and future business needs.

Rackspace Hosting, the world's leader in the hosting and cloud computing industry, today announced plans to expand in its current data center facility in the Chicago area. Rackspace will lease approximately 28,200 additional square feet of raised floor space, consisting of 4.33 megawatts of available critical load, from a subsidiary of DuPont Fabros Technology, Inc. a leading owner, developer, operator and manager of wholesale data centers. This expansion will bring Rackspace to a total of approximately 65,000 square feet and 9.9 megawatts of power in the current Elk Grove Village, IL data center.

Driving the Rackspace data center expansion is its continued growth across both its Cloud and Managed hosting businesses. DuPont Fabros' Chicago facility maximizes operating efficiency through an enhanced power capacity and flexible design with N+ 2 redundancies on all major systems including heat rejection systems, generators and UPS systems.

SunGard Availability Services will showcase its new managed services data center with an Open House on Thursday, May 20, 2010, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  The 69,000 square foot Sacramento Data Center is the latest facility to be added to SunGard's more than 35 managed services data centers in North America and Europe.

The facility offers high-density, raised floor space and a full suite of managed services including virtualization for primary and replicated customer applications, data storage and backups, security, monitoring and cloud computing infrastructure.

Located within a two-hour drive of the Bay Area in one of its most stable geologic areas, the facility also offers replication services, allowing customers to retrieve and restore vital information following a natural disaster or technology failure.

Fire is one of the deadliest elements of nature and perhaps one of the most savage enemies of mankind when it comes to destruction. Talking in terms of commercial buildings what else could be more exposed to the danger from fire than a full fledged data center processing unlimited amounts of information on which the lifeline of many businesses and companies depends.

Just imagine the situation when such a data center catches fire, and how much loss it could mean if the operations get disrupted, even for a relatively short period of time, given the critical processes these centers handle. Yet, it was really a miracle of sorts when there was a major fire breakout at the Terremark data center in Culpepper just about a week ago. The company claimed that not even a single customer was affected due to this fire incident and for all practical purposes from outside, it was as good as having no fire at all.