Data Center Relocation: Guidelines and Solutions

This report provides guidelines and technical solutions for relocating a data center, including floor plan, key components, fire suppression, access control, power distribution, and cooling systems.

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Data Center Relocation:
Name
Course:
Date:

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Introduction
A data center is a special structure that has been specially designed to house large group of
computer servers that are typically used by governments, businesses, and organizations to
data storage, processing, and distribution. It is designed to provide dedicated data handling
and processing 24/7 to support the daily operation of the institution. However, even with the
emergence of cloud computing, many organizations still prefer to have their data center
within their premises.
When one wants to move or relocate the data center, there is an unparalleled chance that one
will have to build new infrastructure from the ground up and maintain it. For the users who
have had an opportunity to migrate, consolidate, or construct their data center understand the
various challenges associated with it. One of the biggest stumbling blocks is a situation where
the electrical contractor fails to complete electrical installation as this may stall the progress.
Data center are supposed to operate around the clock, prioritizing uninterrupted and secure
services including backup power systems, redundant data communication connections,
several security devices, fire suppression systems, and environmental controls.
This report seeks to give a guideline of the steps that will be taken in redesigning and
providing technical solution to NSBM management after deciding to relocate their server
room to a new location in the basement area. The new location is expected to house the core
equipment such as UPS, servers, house IT support staff, and critical infrastructure. It will also
provide a detailed floor plan with justifications, a sample set of specifications for the key
components, fire suppression and protection, and provide the plan and approach for the
following areas: access control and physical security, power distribution and supply, and
cooling and environmental management.

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Data Center Floor Plan
Figure 1: Floor Plan (Source: Banta, 2019)
Justification
This design has been implemented since it offers high level of service availability. When
designing a data center, it is important that the organization decides the level of availability
needed for its services. In the NSBM case, the institution requires high level of availability
since it will be used to manage the different functions. One of the reasons why high level of
availability is required is because the institutions provides critical data services and have the
ability to quickly failover (Banta, 2019). Failover is the situation where data center services
are transferred to another center when need arises. This will ensure that the services are made
available to the users at all time. To meet this requirement, a parallel data center was setup in
the cloud to act as a backup center (Datacenterresources.com, 2019). This was to ensure that
incase of any disaster, an event will be triggered to shift all the primary data to the second
data center.
Key Components of a Data Center
While designing a data center, there are quite a number of crucial components that should be
factored in. The following are some of the key components of a data center.

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Racks and servers: the main function of the data center is to house the computer servers
required to support the users’ applications and infrastructure management. For the case of
NSBM, the servers will be organized in ranks which are placed in specific configuration
within the managed hosting to optimize cooling.
Power: power is very crucial in a data center and that’s why necessary steps should be taken
to ensure there is continuous power supply to the data center. This includes having standby
generators to ensure that incase of electrical failure it can provided the needed power.
Additionally, there is need to install uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to make sure that the
quality of power remains constant even after power blackouts. It is also used to regulate
voltage and frequency fluctuations to protect the devices and other sensitive electronic system
within the data center.
Network connectivity: the components within the data center needs to be interconnected and
connected to the internet to facilitate access to IT services. Network switches are used to
distribute data to and from the servers. There will be three racks within the NSBM new data
center.
Security system: security systems are very essential to any data center to ensure that the
components, and the most critical resource within the data center, data, is protected from
unauthorized access and modification. Additionally, the data center will be protected by
different technologies to mitigate the impact from threats and reduce seismic movements as a
result of earthquakes.
Monitoring systems: NSBM data center will be implemented with a number of monitoring
systems to help the administrators manage and control the data center. Some of the
monitoring systems that will be implemented include security monitors, power monitors, and
environmental monitors.
Cooling systems: it is necessary to install cooling systems within NSBM data center to
control the temperature inside since the computer components emits considerable amount of
heat. The cooling systems are used to prevent overheating. The cooling system implemented
for NSBM used glycol to cool the room.
Fire Suppression and Protection
Data center are extremely critical in sustaining the daily operation of NSBM. This also
applies to any other organization with a data center. Data center are expensive both to set up
and maintain and therefore, there is need to protect your data. One of the ways is to
implement a fire suppression and protection system to protect the data and other equipment in

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when there is a fire breakout (Chapman, Graziano and Thorpe, 2010). Many organizations
have employed the use of traditional fire protection techniques but this may not be effective
in data center as it needs an extra layer of protection. This includes having in place a fire
suppression mechanism that not only protects the lives of the users in the server room but
also the equipment. Sprinkler systems are not recommended in a data center as they ca do
more damage than good.
For NSBM data center, a special hazard fire suppression system will be used to ensure that
the room is kempt safe and dry from moisture and fire damage. Gas suppressants are the most
ideal in guarding the NSBM data center from fire. The choice made for NSBM is Novec
1230 which extinguished the fire without damaging the equipment. It is safe both to human
life and environment and are highly effective if installed correctly. It is attached to fire
detection system and has the ability to remove heat from the fire and put it out without
causing damage to the components (Gollner, 2016). With Novec 1230, clean-up is not
required as the system will continue running preventing downtime problems.
Access Control and Physical Security
The security of a data center is very vital in in protecting the data from any unauthorize
access and modification. Access control should be implemented using the onion strategy
making it difficult for attackers to break the inner layer as they try to get access to the
system (Du, 2013). Both physical and logical access controls should be implemented.
Additionally, the security strategies should provide multiple security layers. For instance, in
the NSBM data center, video surveillance, biometric scanning, and badges are some of the
security mechanisms implemented.
Physical security alone will not guarantee security as the components are connected to the
internet opening up more vulnerabilities (Talib, 2015). Controlling access to the severs both
virtually and within the data center is very critical. Some of the access control mechanisms
considered for NSBM data center includes (Kang, 2015):
 User-wise rack access: this is a mechanism where users are required to show
biometric credentials to access the data center. Biometric authentication is used to
allow the users to access only their respective zones. Upon verification, the user will
only see the racks accessible to him/her on the computer screen and other racks
outside her level are not shown.

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 Biometric Authentication: this is one of the most effective security controls as
compared to RFID as it ensures complete security of the data center (Muppavarapu
and Chung, 2014). Some of the mechanism implemented at the NSBM data center is
the use of fingerprint authentication.
The following are some of the best practices for data center physical security (Talib, 2015).
 It is important to know where the users are. Management of physical access to the
server room is essential to overall security of the environment. It is important to
monitor and understand movements in and out of the data center.
 Installed several security layers. This include the use of traditional lock and key, use
of biometric authentication, double door strategy among others.
 It is also important to train the users to adhere to policies and procedures in data
center and understand the importance of data center security.
 Test the installed physical control. This is very to validate access grants, verify that
video surveillance is working well, and confirm that anti-tailgate strategies are
working as expected. Constant testing should be done.
Power Distribution and Supply
It is vital to have a stable and continuous power supply within the data center. This goes a
long way to ensure that electrical failure that may lead to adverse impacts are controlled and
prevented (Cai, Wang and Yang, 2016). To ensure reliability and high-quality power supply
within the new NSBM data center the following components were installed (Zhang, Jiang and
Wu, 2018):
 NETYS RT which is a single-phase UPS and
 Green Power 2.0 MASTERYS GP which is a three-phase UPS
It is important to look for ways to enhance energy efficiency while keeping and IT
environment that is highly adaptable to support service-oriented architectures. Some of the
challenges that the team could encounter while setting up the power supply and distribution
system include (Ferreira, Callou and Maciel, 2013):
 IT equipment is changing constantly that the typical data center life expectancy.
 Powerful systems my result in under-sizing of power supply system
 Regulatory and institutions’ requirements for energy usage
 Uptime requirements

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The following requirements were put into considerations while designing the power supply
system.
Item
No
Description Current
/projected
Quantity Power requirement
per unit
01 42 U Server rack C 3 500W
02 KVM C 1 350w
03 2U 2 socket servers c 3 750WX2
04 2U Single Socket Server C 1 450WX2
05 2U 2 socket servers p 1 750WX2
06 NVR Primary c 1 650WX2
07 NVR secondary P 1 650WX2
08 L2 Switchers C 3 100w
09 Sever aggregation Switch p 2 400w
10 Core Switch c 2 1600WX2
11 firewall c 2 1000W
12 WLAN controller C 2 600WX2
13 Infrastructure Manager C 2 600WX2
14 Firewall manager C 1 600WX2
15 Server aggregation switch c 2 400W
16 SAN switch p 2 400W
17 SAN storage P 1 1200WX2
18 Storage Expand box P 2 1000WX2
19 ISP switchers c 2 300WX2
20 Voice gateway c 1 450WX2
The impact that this trends or challenges may have on data center electrical design is notable,
as such the design need to be flexible and adaptable to support the current and future
electrical power distribution and supply systems.
Cooling and Environmental Management
Cooling is very crucial in the data center. As mentioned earlier, the equipment within the data
center emit considerable amount of heat and as such there is need to have a cooling system to
prevent overheating. The humidity within the data center can be controlled by use of indirect
evaporating cooling (IDEC) units, air conditioning, or indirect cooling such as outside air

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(Cho and Kim, 2011). Continuous airflow is necessary within the data center and that is why
enough ventilation vanes need to be installed in the data center. Managing airflow within the
data center solves the need to enhance the cooling efficiency of the computer equipment
within the room. This can be achieved by installing in-row cooling units or hot/cold aisle
containment (Dong et al., 2017).
Conclusion
In conclusion, when designing a data center or a server room, it is important to ensure that all
the identified factors have been considered. This will go a long way in ensuring high
availability, high-level of security, and reliability of the data center. Additionally, security is
a major concern to any data center or institution. This is the reason why several access
control and physical control mechanisms have been considered for NSBM data center.
Moreover, when one wants to relocate the data center, there is an unparalleled chance that
one will have to build new infrastructure from the ground up and maintain it. For the users
who have had an opportunity to migrate, consolidate, or construct their data centers
understand the various challenges associated with it. One of the biggest stumbling blocks is a
situation where the electrical contractor fails to complete electrical installation as this may
stall the progress.

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List of References
Banta, R. (2019). 6 Considerations for Choosing the Right Data Center | Lifeline Data
Centers. [online] Lifeline Data Centers. Available at: https://lifelinedatacenters.com/data-
center/6-considerations-for-choosing-the-right-data-center/ [Accessed 11 Apr. 2019].
Cai, Z., Wang, X. and Yang, Y. (2016). Research on Influence Factor of System Efficiency
and Power Loss Factor for DC Power Supply System of Data Center. DEStech Transactions
on Environment, Energy and Earth Science, (peee).
Chapman, J., Graziano, K. and Thorpe, B. (2010). Data centers: Common environmental,
safety, and fire protection challenges-and a look at emerging energy issues. Environmental
Quality Management, 19(3), pp.23-34.
Cho, J. and Kim, B. (2011). Evaluation of air management system's thermal performance for
superior cooling efficiency in high-density data centers. Energy and Buildings, 43(9),
pp.2145-2155.
Datacenterresources.com, D. (2019). 5 Aspects To Consider For Your Data Center Layout.
[online] Datacenterresources.com. Available at: https://datacenterresources.com/articles/5-
aspects-consider-data-center-layout/ [Accessed 11 Apr. 2019].
Dong, K., Li, P., Huang, Z., Su, L. and Sun, Q. (2017). Research on Free Cooling of Data
Centers by Using Indirect Cooling of Open Cooling Tower. Procedia Engineering, 205,
pp.2831-2838.
Du, W. (2013). Design and Implementation of Data Center Network Security. Advanced
Materials Research, 694-697, pp.2308-2312.
Ferreira, J., Callou, G. and Maciel, P. (2013). A Power Load Distribution Algorithm to
Optimize Data Center Electrical Flow. Energies, 6(7), pp.3422-3443.
Gollner, M. (2016). Detection and Suppression of Fires: A Cornerstone of Fire Protection
Engineering. Fire Technology, 52(5), pp.1193-1196.
Kang, H. (2015). An Efficient and Secure Physical Security Method of Data Center. Journal
of Security Engineering, 12(6), pp.609-620.

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Muppavarapu, V. and Chung, S. (2014). Semantic-Based Access Control for Data Resources
in Open Grid Services Architecture. International Journal of Grid and High Performance
Computing, 6(2), pp.1-23.
Talib, A. (2015). Ensuring Security, Confidentiality and Fine-Grained Data Access Control
of Cloud Data Storage Implementation Environment. Journal of Information Security,
06(02), pp.118-130.
Zhang, Q., Jiang, Q. and Wu, J. (2018). Uninterrupted Power Supply System Design of Data
Center. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 381, p.012189.